Lake Home Sun Room Addition, Step One - Decision and Planning

I've talked before about some home improvement projects, mainly the window replacement at our home.  Most of the projects I do these days are pretty minor - even the windows weren't a big deal - but I have recently tackled a larger project.  Enclosing our porch at the lake wasn't a weekend job - it took a lot of planning, and a significant amount of construction time.  Since it was a big project, I'll break my post into several sections - Making the Decision and Planning, Demo and Framing, and Finish Work.  I'll put a few photos in to illustrate my points, but you can view the whole project, more or less in chronological order, on Picasa.  This won't be a step-by-step instruction that will enable someone with no experience to do the project, but it will give you a good idea of the process I followed.

Before we begin, let's make a couple of things clear.  Always follow all applicable building codes.  If you don't know how to do something, consider getting help - either a professional or a friend with plenty of skills and experience.  Don't guess about how to do something - it's a lot cheaper to hire someone to do it right the first time than it is to have them fix it after you've messed it all up.  Does that all make sense?  OK, now we can start the discussion.

We bought our home on Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri in 2005.  One of the features we loved when we picked it out was the screened porch on the "lake side" of the house.  The porch is long and narrow - approximately 32'X 7'.  The floor of the second floor deck is waterproof, so I didn't need to worry about a roof, and each end had a metal storm door.  The deck above is supported by 6"X6" posts, adequate for the weight, and the foundation is an extension of the house slab, so there were no issues structurally. 

We spent a lot of time in the summer enjoying the open air and great view from the porch, but were unable to use it except during temperate conditions - extreme heat or even moderately cold weather chased us inside.  In the summer of 2010, we started to think about our options to enclose the porch.

The porch, before any modifications.

The porch overlooks our dock - we also have a great view of the main lake!

Here's the house from the lake, as it was when we bought it.

The previous owners had put plastic on the porch screens in the winter.  Although this helped to keep it more comfortable in the winter, it was unacceptable to us - the plastic distorted the view, made noise in the wind, and looked tacky.  We decided that just wouldn't do.

The next thing we thought of was to install storm windows in the winter.  This would have the advantage of eliminating the distortion from the plastic, while providing a reasonably effective seal.  The down side of this would be the need to install and remove the windows in the spring and fall.  In addition, while evaluating windows, I discovered the cost, while not excessive, seemed too high for the benefits realized.

When I looked at storm windows, I stumbled on a web site selling vinyl windows.  Looking at these, it became apparent to me that these were only a little more expensive than the storms, and would result in a better finish.  For the first time, we started talking about really enclosing the porch, instead of just a temporary or partial job.

Before we got too far down the path, we contacted a local sun room company.  They had a unique window product that at first glance seemed to have some merit.  The window was a 4-section, collapsible design, that seemed very well-suited to our needs.  When completely open, it would maximize the open area, resulting in a room that was nearly as open to the air as the existing, 100% screened porch.  I was concerned that the window frames were very thin and flexible, and they used a plastic film in lieu of glass.  Despite the misgivings, we decided to get a quote on a complete enclosure.

Lake Sun Rooms was easy to work with for the estimate.  Their representative came out and discussed some options with us - we decided on wall panels with each section including windows of the maximum practical size for each opening.  They'd install all the panels, including doors in each end, cover the existing ceiling with aluminum soffit material, and wrap the support beams with aluminum.  Their quote included no electrical work, heat or air conditioning, or flooring.  The price for this was approximately $15,000.  To add the other things we'd need, I was sure we'd be looking at $20,000 minimum for the total project cost.  I decided to do some estimating on the cost of tackling the project myself.

After a lot of talking (arguing), Theresa and I decided on the following basic layout:

• We'd use vinyl sliding windows, extending from about 20" above the floor to about 6" from the ceiling, along the lake side.
• One end would have a sliding glass patio door (also white vinyl).
• The other end would have a 32" walk-in door, along with a small window.  This end would also contain a small, through-the-wall heat pump, providing heat and air conditioning for the room.
• The walls wold be drywall finished.
• The ceiling would be vinyl or aluminum soffit material.
• Outside, we'd use vinyl siding.
• The floor would be ceramic tile.

We both agreed we should use quality products, but didn't need high-end materials, so we'd use "builder grade" windows and doors.  These products are reasonably energy-efficient, and should provide good service life in this application.  Likewise, we'd choose reasonably priced ceramic tile, avoiding the exotic styles that double (or more) the price without adding utility or durability.  When possible, we'd buy locally - unless there was a substantial savings from a different source.

To finish our plan, I'd need to select materials and gather approximate costs to assure us we could complete the work without breaking the bank.  I decided to get a rough cost estimate based on prices at the local Home Depot.  This made sense, mainly because they have virtually every component needed.  I developed a rough material list, then spent an afternoon wandering the store and writing down prices.  Since it was a only a rough number, I estimated - badly as it turned out - things like hardware, lighting, trim, paint, adhesives, etc.  Because my windows were all custom sizes, I got a formal quote - I used standard stock door prices.  When complete, my estimate was for around $6,000, excluding the heat pump.  Adding about $600 for that, we were well within our budget.  I assumed my estimate was 10% low, and we'd need to buy some furniture, so we were probably looking at about $8,000 or so for the whole job.  I'll report on how we did, budget wise, in the final summary post, but we were in the ballpark.

We had originally planned on starting the project right after the first of the year - we generally spend the week between Christmas and New Years at the lake, and I planned on doing the initial demo at that time.  Instead, mainly due to the slow real estate market that fall, we decided to start right after Labor Day, with the goal of having it ready by Spring.  Since the work wouldn't disturb the inside of the house (at least not much), we'd still be able to go to the lake over the winter.  I figured I'd do all of the work myself, but I actually ended up with some great help on a lot of the work - more about that in the next post.

In any case, I was determined to get it started, so I packed up and headed down to the lake near the end of September to get started.  I'll talk about the next stage - Demo and Framing, in a future post.