DIY Four-Season Sun Rooms
A sun room in your home will become one of your favorite areas to spend time. With excellent planning to heat and cool the room properly, you can use the room during snowy and rainly days, for example. It's important to utilize high-quality materials that will look appealing over time. But it's also crucial to utilize a design that will insulate the room well. It's virtually impossible to enjoy a sun room year-round if it is not insulated correctly. Do a lot of research before devising a DIY plan. Refer to home design books and magazines. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Home design books
- Home magazines
- Gravel
- Concrete
- PVC pipe
- 2-by-6-inch boards
- Windows
- Double-panel glass
- Metal framing
- French doors
- Sun room kit
- Insulated panels
- Roll insulation
- Caulking
- Drywall
- Cedar tongue-and-groove boards
- Bead board paneling
- Tile flooring
Instructions
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Sketch your home exterior to devise an exterior plan. Plan to purchase a sun room kit, as one option, to install over a concrete base. Sketch a sun room to build from scratch, using wood framing, pre-hung windows and French doors as another option. Create a sun room shape that blends well with your home's architecture.
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Use the sun to harbor heat for the room. Build a foundation with 2 feet of gravel overlaid with two feet of concrete to create thermal mass. Bury PVC pipe in this foundation to vent warm air into the room from solar heat stored in the foundation. Plan this type of room after consulting with experts on passive solar energy. Build a sun room with a concrete wall opposite the room's largest exterior glass wall to store the sun's heat as well. Talk with a local builder about the wall thickness you will need for your room's size.
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Design the framework of the room from metal, wood or a sun room kit. Construct framing from 2-by-6-inch boards, for example, to hold a row of windows on three sides. Devise a plan to install sections of double-panel glass into metal framework as another option. Plan a room with walls of French doors to give the room a very elegant look. Check out sun room kits to assemble onsite after checking consumer guides for highly rated products.
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Make sure you fully understand the insulation process. Use hard foam insulation sheets, fiberglass roll insulation or insulated building panels. Keep in mind that unless you heat and cool the room with your home's heat pump, using overhead glass will really heat up the room. Use insulated panels in the ceiling or an R-33 value of roll insulation you install. Purchase insulated French doors that fit tightly into a framing system recommended by the manufacturer. Build the framework and caulk well to seal the doors from the elements.
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Plan the interior design and tile flooring. Use drywall for a stick-built room over studs. Add fiberglass insulation between studs before nailing on the drywall sheets. Install insulated panels covered with cedar tongue-and-groove or bead board paneling as other choices. Lay a tile floor that is a medium color of brown, for example. Avoid using white floor tiles, because light tile will reflect too much light in a sun room -- which can be almost blinding.
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Tips & Warnings
Create a sun room with crank-out windows installed along upper walls. Use fixed glass panels or solid wood in the bottom sections. Install a vaulted ceiling over the room, if you have room and a sufficient budget, so that hot air will rise on summer days.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit ULTRA F/Photodisc/Getty Images
