How to Design Sun Porches
Every family will have its own ideas for utilizing a sun porch. If you build it correctly, you can use it as living area on most days of the year. If you heat and cool it properly, you can make the sun porch part of your living-dining space or use it as a family room. Sufficient insulation and quality materials are important. If the room is comfortable, your family will gravitate to that area vs. abandoning it. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Needed
- Graph paper---six inches
- Measuring tape
- Yard stick
- Concrete slab
- Salt-treated lumber
- Double-paned tinted windows
- Caulking
- Tile or indoor/outdoor carpet
- Concrete drill
- Cinder blocks
- Stucco material
- Ceiling fan
- Exterior door
- Asphalt shingles
- Exterior grade plywood
Instructions
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1
Calculate the size of your sun porch. Budget will play a role, but you can obtain recycled materials to stretch your budget further. Start with the space and square footage available and plan how to create it. Most sun spaces should be at least 10 feet by 12 feet. Sketch how you want the finished room to accommodate furnishings. Use sofas, chairs and accessories that are not excessively expensive. Sun is hard on both furniture and electronics under the best of circumstances.
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2
Evaluate the side of the house where you will place the sun porch. You want the porch roof to guard from too much direct sunlight during the day. The south side of the home works well for many regions since the sun moves east to west. But, every locale is different. Build a concrete slab for the porch or create one. It's less expensive to use an existing slab. Make the slab at least 18 inches thick if you build it from scrach to protect the room from too much ground moisture.
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3
Draw framework to build a sun porch or have a factory design a pre-built one. Ideally, you will have a solid roof with glass walls on three sides. If windows and framework are caulked properly, the room will stay relatively cool in summer and warm in winter. But windows must be double-paned and designed for a sun porch. It's too expensive to recycle single-paned windows and add more glass.
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Design a well-insulated roof for the sun porch. This will keep warmth in the room on colder days and maintain coolness when the sun is extremely hot. Both hot and cold air tend to dissipate through the roof area in any enclosed space. Include an overhead ceiling fan on the sun porch. Make sure windows will open for venting on extremely hot days.
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Enclose the lower walls of the sun porch to create stucco walls if you want to save money on glass or windows. You can make the room bright enough by using glass on the top half on three sides. Building in the bottom half of the sun porch creates room for storage. The lower area built in makes a good place for wall cabinets. Store lawn equipment and garden materials there.
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Tips & Warnings
Check with local authorities to see if a buildiing permit is required. Some locales will have restrictions on how the sun porch must be built, so understand building codes and specifcs required.
An oil-filled electric heater works well in a sun porch area. These heaters resemble hot-water radiator heaters of the last century. Indoor-outdoor carpet works in a sun porch area if family members guard against tracking in mud. If your budget permits, install exterior ceramic porcelain tile on the floor. This adds to the beauty of the room, and it makes the room almost maintenance-free.
Always use safety glass if you buy large sheets of glass to install in the room. Having the glass tinted is a good idea as well. Using the room a lot will expose your family to ultraviolet rays. At certain times of day, a sun porch intensifies the sun's rays coming through the glass.
