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For pollen season (roughly 3 weeks). I'll take in certain items, but mainly leave all the furniture/tables on the porch and cover with a giant cover (you can also use a tarp). I wouldn't be sitting outside on those pollen filled days anyway, so we just cover everything up and don't use the porch during that time. Once I'm confident the visible pollen has stopped I then hose down the entire porch, take off the cover and put everything back into place. Good to go!
I had a screened in porch on my house. It would get dirty out there, especially pollen season. I have since changed it over to an eze-breeze. I added lvp for the flooring and put tongue and groove pine for the ceiling. Thinking about adding a small pioneer mini-split now. Neighbor just did the same and it is a nice setup. Keeps it warm out there. I like that the windows can go up or down and cheaper than a full window setup.
Electrical is a pretty big thing as others have mentioned. Think about where you might want to plug things in and if you want outlets near the ceiling or eaves. Stand in your yard and try to visualize a screened in porch in your mind and see where it might add dark spots if you have any existing lighting. Basically do you need to add/move any floodlights, etc. Some people also add bistro lights on an outdoor portion of their porch that isn't screened as well. While you're at it, what about lighting in the treads of the stairs leading to the yard too?
I think a lot about this topic and do probably too much pinteresting because I'm about to be in your shoes as well.
We had a screened porch added when we bought our new home almost 14 years ago. Nothing special, just a standard porch with a ceiling fan. We loved it except it was too cold in winter, had too much pollen in spring, and got too wet after bad storms.
We had it redone 1.5 years ago and added a gas fireplace with a blower, Eze Breeze windows, a TV, and had all the decking replaced with the nicest Trex available. I couldn't be happier. The windows were the best investment possible. They keep things dry when heavy rain/wind rolls through, keep the pollen off when spring rolls around, and keep the worst of the cold out. With the fireplace, we can be comfortably warm even on all but the coldest of nights and with the ceiling fan all but the most oppresive nights will work. The decking is also super nice and requires zero maintenance. It's hard to beat a nice fall night on the porch with the fireplace burning, football on TV, and cool fresh air...but when it gets too cool, I just raise the windows and am warm within minutes!
In 2020, we added a porch to an existing 12x14 concrete pad. My husband built the roof himself, creating a vaulted ceiling with 2 skylights. The skylights offer that extra light since my porch sits directly in back of my family room. I was worried that the addition would cause the room to feel dark but the skylights allow for great light. The ceiling is shiplap, which we painted a very pale light blue. The floor was tiled with porcelain tile which looks like wood. I’ve had screened porches in both of my previous homes in the Triangle and I hated the mess created by spring pollen as well as the dirt at the base of the screens and edges of the floor with a hard rain. For these reasons, we opted to have this porch enclosed with EZE breeze windows, vertical ones, floor to ceiling without any knee wall. We love our porch. We get morning sun so it isn’t too hot in the afternoon. Wish it was a little larger…maybe 14x16.
Have your builder make a ledge at the top of the walls. Put rope lights on that ledge, controlled by a wall switch. This provides a low-intensity light everywhere in the screened porch. Lovely mood lighting for evening drinks or a candle-light dinner.
My husband built the roof himself, creating a vaulted ceiling with 2 skylights. The skylights offer that extra light since my porch sits directly in back of my family room. I was worried that the addition would cause the room to feel dark but the skylights allow for great light.
One of the skylights over our screened porch had an intermittent leak. I got tired of fighting the problem and had them both replaced with ones that can be opened. It is surprising how much cooler it is in the summer (even with ceiling fans), letting the heat that is trapped at the ceiling go out the top.
The vendor made a mistake and sent solar powered skylights (instead of the manual opening ones I had wanted). The installers didn't know which ones were supposed to go in, and already had them installed by the time they realized the error, so we got to keep them. I was even more surprised at how much we like them. They automatically close at the first drop of rain, so you don't have to remember to close them. If I had it to do over, I would definitely do the solar powered ones again.
One of the skylights over our screened porch had an intermittent leak. I got tired of fighting the problem and had them both replaced with ones that can be opened. It is surprising how much cooler it is in the summer (even with ceiling fans), letting the heat that is trapped at the ceiling go out the top.
The vendor made a mistake and sent solar powered skylights (instead of the manual opening ones I had wanted). The installers didn't know which ones were supposed to go in, and already had them installed by the time they realized the error, so we got to keep them. I was even more surprised at how much we like them. They automatically close at the first drop of rain, so you don't have to remember to close them. If I had it to do over, I would definitely do the solar powered ones again.
Your skylights sound awesome! Ours are Velux brand, fixed and do not open. Because the porch faces East, we don’t get that hot afternoon sun and the porch is pretty well shaded after 12 noon. Wish I could post a pic…I’ve tried to no avail.
We added one in 2010. Size about 20'x12' which is a bit too narrow but we make it work.
Likes:
- Electric heaters built into ceiling
- Fans built into ceiling with remote
- Nice wood on ceiling
- Excellent bug blocking
- Plenty of space for furniture including a square table that seats 8 if we have guests
- 3 entries/exits (two screen doors, one leads to uncovered deck, one to stairs to get to ground floor; one double glass door leading into dining room)
- Tile floor
Dislikes:
- Electric heaters cost a TON to run and sort of ruin the "solar panel" savings if we turn them on too much or too hot
- Wish our engineering supported adding windows, but the wind load is too great if there's a storm so we can't close it in at all
- Wish we had the ability/funds/space to make it deeper than 12' but we worked with what we had
- Should have added more lighting for night time entertaining/sitting/meals
On my last house, a screened-in porch was an option I could've added in, but I decided not to, and regretted it the whole time. With my new house, it was already spec'd by the builder to have one, but I would've done it anyway. Most of the houses here appear to have opted to have one. One option I didn't take was having an access directly from the Master BR.
It's nice to sit outside in nice weather and have a breeze and listen to nature without worrying about sunburn during the day or being eaten alive at night. In the past I've used a porch for outdoor dining.
I have plans to possibly set it up so I can work from home outside instead of always being upstairs in the office.
Wish for the future - a screened porch overlooking a pond or some sort of body of water.
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