(no subject)

[42itous]

What is the difference among* a porch, a deck, and a patio?

*The difference between "among" and "between" is that "among" is for comparing three or more things, while "between" is for comparing exactly two things.

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

If it's entirely flat on the ground, it's a "patio."

If one edge is against the house, and another edge is above the ground and held up by cantilevers or diagonal supports or posts, it's a "balcony" if it's small and way above the ground, or a "deck" if it's big and not very far up. (If there are steps from the ground to the edge away from the house, that points towards "deck.") Wooden flooring is more likely to go on decks than on patios or porches.

If one edge is against the house, and another edge is above the ground and held up by solid brickwork or concrete, it's a "porch."

Of course, a lot of people SAY, "Let's sit on the porch" if they grew up sitting on the porch behind their parents' house. Even if they currently live in a house with a patio or deck. Just like they say "I left my umbrella in my car," when they drive an SUV.

[lifecollage]

I'll agree with everything except the quibble on what can hold up a porch vs. deck. Ours is large (12' x 10') and 3 floors up, made entirely of wood with nothing but posts/diagonal supports. We've got a Somerville porch. :)

My parent's flat brick patio in the back and concrete front porch (or stoop, because they both grew up in Queens), in contrast, fit those descriptors perfectly.

[adrian_turtle]

Ours is large (12' x 10') and 3 floors up, made entirely of wood with nothing but posts/diagonal supports. We've got a Somerville porch. :)

Interesting! I wonder where else those are called porches. They were always balconies in Michigan and upstate NY. In Troy, we lived on the 2nd floor of a very Somerville-looking building (2 identical apartments on top of each other). Our "balcony" there was directly above our landlord's "porch." Just to complicate things by way of Coraline's definition, both living rooms had sliding doors to the [outside thingee.]

[42itous]

I agree with lifecollage: I would use "porch" for what she has -- although I might not think it strange if I heard someone else call it a balcony. I use "balcony" for a structure with a smaller area and no roof. In my mind, a porch has a roof, and the differences between balconies, decks, and patios are in the height above ground and the square footage. Actually, I think a large-area outdoor living area with no roof would be a deck even if it were multiple stories up, or I might call that a porch as an umbrella term. I think a patio must be at ground level and have a tile or flagstone surface and no permanent roof.

I asked this one because my mother-in-law calls her back porch "the patio" and I wondered whether that's a regionalism. But maybe I don't have any eastern-midwest natives here to query. The funny thing is, she has a flagstone-paved area on the ground near "the patio" but I don't think she calls that a patio.

[coraline]

withoutmuch thought off the otp of my head:
a porch has a roof, a deck is larger and does not. They're both attached to a house, and are not at ground level, they're at least a few steps up. A patio is on ground level, has stone or brick, and probably has a sliding door from a house out to it.

[drwex]

This aligns with my intuitive responses as well.

[ceo]

What coraline said. A deck is also generally made of unpainted wood or composite and is open underneath, while a porch is painted or trimmed similar to the house and the underside is closed off by latticework or similar.