PHOTOS BY CHRIS VENDETTA
Envision a bright sunroom that feels toasty on the coldest winter days, catches every summer breeze and stays dry during rainstorms. It’s a place where you can entertain friends, steep in a hot tub, exercise or get an early start on next year’s garden.
Now imagine building the room for less than $8,000. Unlike conventional room additions, a sunroom doesn’t have to cost $150 a square foot or require months of planning and site preparation. If you’re willing to invest some time in assembly, costs can run as low as $60 a square foot.
Types of sunrooms
Sunrooms — also called sun porches, patio rooms, patio enclosures and garden rooms — are usually framed with aluminum or wood and glazed with glass, acrylic or polycarbonate. They are often anchored to existing decks or patios, but they can be built on a newly constructed foundation as well.
There are two types of sunrooms, according to the National Sunroom Association. The first type, primary indoor living spaces, become part of the existing living space and are open to adjacent rooms. They must conform to building codes, including HVAC standards. Recreational outdoor living spaces, on the other hand, have walls that separate them from existing living space. Access from the house is typically through a patio door. These sunrooms are not heated or cooled and are considered the same as a screened porch or deck. They typically don’t require a building permit or affect property taxes. However, you should always check with your local building authority before beginning any construction project.
Recreational-type sunrooms have some limitations — primarily that they are cold on cool, cloudy days and at night during cool weather. But even an unheated sunroom will be warm and comfortable on sunny winter days if it has a southern exposure. Another drawback is that you have to provide shading and ventilation on sunny days during warm weather; otherwise the sunroom will overheat.
All sunrooms offer several benefits. They can generate enough warmth to help heat a home during winter, especially if the heated air is circulated with a thermostatically controlled blower. Even if the room isn’t used for solar heat gain, it acts as an insulator. Unlike conventionally built rooms with solid roofs, a manufactured sunroom with a glazed roof does not block the light to adjacent living spaces — at least not when the shades are open. A sunroom can also be used to propagate flower and vegetable seedlings in the spring and is a great home for plants year-round. In addition, many sunrooms can perform double-duty as mudrooms.
Primary-space sunrooms can cost nearly as much as a conventional room addition. One maker of year-roundsunrooms charges more than $24,000 to install a 220-sq.-ft. room. Sunrooms framed conventionally in wood and fitted with off-the-shelf insulated doors, windows and roof windows can cost even more. But a do-it-yourselfer can enclose space to provide many of the same benefits for far less.
Building a sunroom
To provide an example of a cost-effective DIY sunroom project, we recently documented the installation of a 9 x 15-ft. unit from SunPorch Structures, which cost $7,500 including shipping. It came with SunPorch’s new pleated reflective roof shades. Made of triple-layer woven polyester, the shades help to retain heat during cool weather and block excessive heat gain on hot, sunny days. We found the shades easy to install, open and close — a big improvement over the company’s previous heat-shielding roof details.
The ready-to-assemble product is made of extruded aluminum and comes with stainless steel hardware. The wall windows are clear, shatter-resistant double-pane acrylic (with an R-value of 2.00). The roof is made with four-layer Lexan polycarbonate. (Its R-value is 2.12, or 5.00 with the shades closed.) The windows are easily removed to convert the sunroom to a screened porch.
Construction is fairly straightforward. A cordless drill/driver speeds up the work. Keep a spare battery charged — there are lots of fasteners to install. A circular saw is handy for cutting ledgers and nailers. In addition, you’ll need a long measuring tape, a 4-ft. level, a framing square, a caulking gun, an 8-ft. stepladder, a pair of sawhorses, an awl, pliers, scissors, a hacksaw, a socket set and a utility knife and tin snips if you need to remove sections of vinyl or aluminum siding.
The process begins with site preparation, which includes removing the siding where the header and vertical cleats fall. First you’ll assemble the base pieces and then square and level them (with shims or a 2x4 baseplate if necessary). Next, you’ll screw them to a deck, patio or kneewall, depending upon your situation.
Working on a flat surface, join the rafters to the sidewall columns and assemble the end walls. Erect the end walls first, followed by the rafter/sidewall members. Then install the ridge, horizontal roof supports (mullions) and front eave mullions.
Before installing the roof panels, cut openings for the roof vents and install them. Then install the roof panels and secure them with battens. Finally, install the combo window/screen wall panels and door, followed by the shade system.
Besides providing assembly instructions, the installation manual includes information about foundations and attaching the room to the house. In the installation shown here, the sunroom was built on an existing concrete patio. It was attached to a header that was fastened to the fascia board at the eave. The gap between the house and the end wall was filled with an under-eave kit, which is available from the manufacturer. The sunroom can also be installed below the eave, eliminating the need for the fillers, or attached directly to an exterior wall where there is no eave.
Club member Joe Provey is a free-lance writer from Bridgeport, Connecticut.
SOURCES
SunPorch Structures Inc., 800-221-2550
National SunroomAssociation, (785) 271-0208