Getting Some Sun
So you’re thinking of adding a sunroom to your house. Great choice! Elite Gutters and Sunrooms will be happy to help. But first you need to know what a sunroom can be, and what you’re looking to add to begin with. One important note before we begin: “sunroom” is both a blanket term for a related set of spaces and a term for a specific type of space.
Why Do I Want One?
There are multiple reasons for adding a sunroom, none of which are ironclad absolutes; and all vary from person to person. It’s possible you may already have decided you are most certainly going to be adding a sunroom; if so, go ahead and skip the rest of this section. If you aren’t sure whether you actually want a sunroom:
Sunrooms are transitional spaces connecting the inside of your house and the outdoors, while still being relatively accessible and protected from the elements. A screen porch is a common sunroom type, for instance. As a result, if you like the outdoors but don’t like getting rained on, a sunroom is good for you.
What’s What: Sunroom Edition
The classic “sunroom” is a living space with glass walls most often attached to the house, accessible from indoors. It provides protection from the elements during mild weather, and the ability to view the outdoors without too much trouble. Such a space is usually not connected to your heating and cooling systems, making it an unattractive option in climates without much middle-of-the-spectrum weather (or climates with unusually harsh weather to begin with).
A four-season room is near-identical to an ordinary sunroom, but is hooked into your heating and cooling systems, allowing it to be enjoyed throughout the year. Four-season rooms are a good choice in climates lacking mild weather and/or climates with harsh weather all around.
Another option is an attached greenhouse. Such spaces are made in a similar fashion to an ordinary sunroom or four-season room, but provide temperature, light, humidity, and similar levels intended for plants.
Screen porches are yet another option. These work just like ordinary sunrooms but feature screens instead of glass walls.
Where To?
Where you decide to put your sunroom is up to you. However, the local climate and the hemisphere you live in also factor into where an optimal sunroom placement will be: generally, in northern areas, your sunroom should be on the south side of the house, where it will receive the most sun and generally need less cooling. Similarly, in southern climates, your sunroom would likely be best placed on the northern side of the house.
Sunroom Materials
There are three common materials used in sunrooms: vinyl, aluminum, and wood. Vinyl is the most often used of the three (and usually the cheapest), but is often available only in white, and typically features metal reinforcements as well. Aluminum isn’t quite as good as vinyl in the insulation department and typically costs more, but shows up fairly often anyway – many sunrooms that use vinyl have aluminum as the roof structure for added strength. Wood is the most expensive of the three and requires periodic maintenance, but can be good for screened sunrooms, since you can attach the screen directly to the wood itself.
Pricing
Sunroom pricing varies greatly across regions, and also with how much of the work you plan to do yourself. Nonetheless, a sunroom of wood and standard materials might start around $15,000 or so and higher-end sunrooms with glass and aluminum might top out at $22,000.
A four-season room could end up somewhere around $20,000 by the time it’s finished.Screen porches have a substantially lower pricing than the other options discussed here: they could range anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000.
Elite Gutters and Sunrooms is committed to quality and good workmanship. Give us a call today.