A sunroom is a great addition to your home that can not only increase your home’s value but also give you a place to sit that almost feels outside, without actually being it. If you’re living in a place in the country that doesn’t get good weather most of the year, a sunroom’s a great opportunity to be spending more time almost-outside.
Besides that, it also adds more square footage to your home and some of the things that you were previously doing inside, you may now be doing in your new home addition instead. So what are you waiting for? Use our site to start talking with sunroom contractors near you today.
What is the Function of this New Home Addition?
Whenever you’re making a big addition to your home, like a sunroom for example, it’s important that you first determine what specific function you want the new space to serve as there are a lot of different functions that will be determined as a consequence.
The sunroom can be built in a lot of different ways to better accommodate the purpose you want it to serve. For instance, you can either have a glass roof installed, or you can have it with a normal ceiling. Naturally, the glass ceiling adds more light to the whole experience. The space is also where some people choose to install a hot tub for several reasons. With the glass roof, it will almost be as good as if you were actually outside, and by opening up the windows, you can let in a breeze also. Yet, other people choose to use it to do a kitchen remodel and extend it, which allows them to stand and make food in bright sunlight.
Before setting out to have sunroom builders build the ideal space for you, you must first know how you plan on using it.
Making Sure You Catch Those Sunrays
There’s nothing that would be more annoying than if you spent a lot of money simply to find out that the sun isn’t where you would want it to be relative to your sunroom. Most people will traditionally want it so that it faces south, although if your goal is to be making food in the kitchen in the morning, you might want to not be traditional and build the sunroom correspondingly instead.
Once again, it becomes important to note what its intended purpose is and following the sun over the course of a day and imagining how you wish to build the sunroom correspondingly.
First when you have decided on the location is it time to work out the details, which will require that you work with local sunroom addition contractors in coming up with the plans for the project. With their vast expertise, they’ll be able to best guide you in the direction of your dreams.
Choosing the Right Roofing Material
The material you choose for the roof is important and will help in ensuring that you achieve what it is you want to achieve. The same way you would consider roofing materials when installing a new roof on other parts of your home, it’s also important here.
Is the place a space that you will be using when the sun is at its highest? If so, you may not want to install it entirely with glass or you might simply end up finding yourself getting sunburned. However, if the intention is that you plan on growing a lot of plants in it, you may want to go for a bigger glass surface to give your plants some of that much loved sun.
If the sunroom will naturally be built in a spot that is partially covered anyway, you may just want to make the whole thing glass. Traditionally, when you’re trying to increase the value of your home, what you will want to do to increase the value the most is to make it a natural addition to the space, which includes using the same materials to create consistency, which would mean that if you otherwise have a metal roof, that is also what you would install on an addition. However, with a sunroom, you’re not necessarily just trying to add space but also to create a space with a different purpose.
Give it the Feel of a More Traditional Room, With a Lot of Light
If you don’t like the normal feel of traditional sunrooms for whatever reason, a lot of people choose to use knee walls. Instead of being a full wall, they’re partly a wall, and the upper part is still glass. Using this option makes it easier for you to add the electrical wiring in the structure without having it become an eyesore, which helps in making it feel more like an outside room too
If you wanted your sunroom to look more like an actual room, then consider adding a knee wall. This is basically just a short wall that is about knee height, which can be used for the lower part of your external wall. You may also need to consider running electrical lines to the knee wall, something that you cannot possibly do with glass.
Creating a Well-Ventilated Space
The same way you want to make sure that you’re installing the right amount of roof vents in your roof, you also want to make sure that all the excess heat has some way of leaving the sunroom. One solution that a lot of homeowners choose to go with is installing operable windows in the top of the sunroom which mot just is good for letting out heat and moisture but also letting in a sometimes much needed breeze in the summer.
Creating a big glass box isn’t something you do when you are truly wishing to add insulation, which is why good ventilation’s also so very important. For the very reason of making sure that a lot of heat doesn’t get attracted by the big window panels and then enters the whole house, which would force the HVAC to need to work even harder, it is common to also have the ability to shut close a door to the sunroom, thereby making it more of its own individual unit.
To make sure that it doesn’t simply turn into a big box that attracts as much heat as possible, you can opt to go with types of glass that are better at rejecting a lot of the heat transfer, since they’re either insulated or dual-glazed. Yes, your energy bill will thank you for the additional investment, even if it will initially cost you a bit more money.
For areas with especially strong sun, there are types of window that are better at rejecting the sun’s rays, which include those that are gray tinted. Some of these have the additional benefits that they won’t seem dirty quite as easily as traditional glass will, lowering the need for window cleaning. If you’re like most other people, window cleaning isn’t your preferred activity during the weekend either.
Electrical Outlets
While you may not currently think that you’re needing electrical outlets in the space, they’re cheaper to have installed during the initial installation rather than doing it when you later find out that they were in fact necessary after all.
Vents
Ventilation is important in all rooms in your home, and the sunroom’s no exception. While operable windows can get rid of excess moisture when they’re open, they might not always be when the need is there, since you also don’t want the rain to enter through an open window. This is why a lot of contractors will recommend using an exhaust fan to make sure that the space always has the ideal humidity and no more.
Lighting
While the space will have enough light during the day, it’s important to think about the lighting needs in case you want to be using it at night too, which could require that you mount lights either on the walls or ceiling. The more permanent the solution is that you want to install, the more important it is that you will get the lighting fixtures drawn into the drawings rather than having to mount them when the sunroom’s already been built.
Sliding Doors to Access the Space
Sliding doors can be fantastic in making sure that excess heat stays out of your home. They still make it a rather seamless transition going from one part of the home to the other, although still helping in insulating the main part of your home and it also doesn’t block the sunlight from entering. As you can see, as the name suggests, the sunroom really does have a lot of sun in it given that they often tend out to be mostly built out of glass, even with the part separating it from the main part of the house.
Working With Professionals
Building a sunroom is not a DIY project. Handling so much glass is a recipe for disaster which is why it’s a lot better to have it done by pros. If you drop one of the sun panels, you’re the one footing the bill, whereas that would be done by a contractor if you choose to work with one.
Free Estimates and Quotes for Your Sunroom Project
The easiest way for you to get the space you’ve always wanted is to go to the top of this page and fill out the form with the information about your project. Our system will then match your project with the most relevant contractors in your area and let them contact you. They will reach out in order to hear more about the project you wish to undertake, and when they’ve understood all the requirements, they’ll provide you with quotes for the project.
If you like what they’ve quoted you, you’re free to sign with one of them, however if you don’t feel like they truly understand your vision or you simply do not wish to sign with them, that’s entirely fine too.
The service is free to you and there’s no obligation. What are you waiting for?