Adding a three season porch to your home may be one of many good and satisfying home improvement projects that you, as the homeowner, can undertake. Imagine adding another room, but at half the cost of a full room addition, and imagine that that room is so versatile that it can be customized to be comfortable and useful in spring, summer, and fall. Those are just a few of the perks to adding a three season porch to your home.
When most people think of a porch they think of a few posts holding up a roof over their front doorway, just enough shelter to keep the rain off and just enough flooring to keep the mud out. A three season porch, as the name suggests, is designed to be integrated into the whole form and function of the home so that it is actually useful and not just an expensive bit of decoration.
The first step, before adding a three season porch or any other structure to your home is to check the local building codes. In many places there are permits that must be acquired before construction begins and many times there will be periodic inspections made while the work is in progress.
Adding a three season porch may seem simple, but building codes must be followed in order to make sure that the porch complies with local standards. This is in order to assure that there are no shoddy building practices being practiced in your area.
When planning on adding a three season porch one of the things that need to be addressed is location. If you live in an area with a cool climate in most seasons you should, if possible, orient your porch so that it receives the maximum amount of southern exposure. If you live in a hotter climate you may want to consider placing your porch in a more northerly direction. A bit of creative placement can assure that your porch remains at a comfortable temperature for most of the year.
When adding a three season porch the actual design and materials are up to you. Wood is the most common building material used when adding a three season porch, but some concrete, steel, and composites are also used.
One common nuisance to be remembered when adding a three season porch is insect life. No matter where you live, you can rest assured that there is a plethora of crawling, buzzing, biting, pests which will happily turn your moment of relaxation on your porch into a rapid retreat back into the house. The market is full of bug zappers, chemical repellents, and other items to keep the bugs away.
When adding a three season porch to your home, the best way to keep the bugs away is to simply screen it in. Fine mesh screen can be purchased at practically any home improvement store and it is a simple matter to construct a frame to fasten the screen to your woodwork creating a bug-proof barrier which will defeat even the most rabid of pests.
Remember, the whole purpose of adding a three season porch is to create a space that you can use in at least spring, summer, and fall. In many areas, it is not uncommon to have cold snaps far into the spring and early in the fall. Just like screen panels can be made to keep out the bugs, glass of Plexiglas panels can be used to keep out the cold.
With a bit of skill and creativity, it is even possible to construct screen and glass panels in such a way as to be interchangeable, making your three season porch adaptable to any circumstance.
Imagine a comfortable hammock, a warm summer afternoon, the breeze wafts in from the screened windows and the lazily whirling ceiling fan overhead. Relaxation is complete; every care in the world melts away as you doze in supreme comfort. This would not have been possible if you hadn’t gotten busy with adding a three season porch.