Sunroom addition ideas wanted
#14
If the sunroom is going to have a proper roof, then the slider will not let in much light anymore.  At that point all that glass is much less important.

I do remember sitting on a large covered porch that had ceiling fans every 8 or 10 feet.  It was awfully hot and there were lots of mosquitos, but we were comfortable and suffered no bites.  The breeze from the ceiling fans was sufficient to prevent the mosquitoes from lighting on our skin and making a bite. 

Since then, I have been questioning screened-in porches.

Ah, but I digress. 

I would not bemoan losing the slider if I made a sunroom under a roof.  If the roof was all glass, that would be another story.  

If you made something like this, then I would really want to keep the slider:

[Image: glass-sunroom.jpg]
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
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#15
(02-02-2021, 01:42 PM)crokett™ Wrote: the window at that end of the house is a complication....I would not want to lose the walkout basement.

We've modified the concept a bit.  The lower deck will be replaced and enlarged with no enclosure.  Those bedroom windows will be replaced with a French door that walks out to a raised, screened-in deck.  There will be stairs between this upper deck and the lower deck, then stairs from the lower deck down to the basement walkout.  It will look a little strange to not go the full length of that wall with the raised deck, but that's a lot more material to consider.


(02-02-2021, 08:32 PM)Snipe Hunter Wrote: You don't see many 2nd floor overhangs like that. Any idea how it's held up? Do the joists run lengthwise?

Now I know why you asked this question, and more than likely it will be a free-standing deck without a ledger attached to the house.  I'm not sure how you then tie the roofs together.  Although more work, I am strongly considering making the lower deck free-standing, too.  The current ledger is attached to concrete masonry block.  The inspector didn't think enough fasteners were used (I agree), and I don't see from inside the crawl space that the existing bolts even go all the way through.  I'm not sure how I can check that the builders grouted inside the block, and I know there are epoxy anchors, etc, but making it free-standing seems like it is more along with my level.


(02-02-2021, 01:39 PM)joe1086 Wrote: Consider an architect. A couple more thousand might pay off in the long run. That's what we did and he came up with a few ideas we never considered for our porch project that I'm currently still working on (ugh).

Yes, we're going this route.  It seems like architects/structural engineers aren't hurting for work, though.  It's been a real challenge trying to find someone.  First guys definitely knew what they were talking and their plans for other clients looked very good, ghosted us after they proposed we sign a contract for 1/2 the plan price and I asked to talk to references.  Second firm just seems extremely busy.  Some other places don't return calls or emails.  Third was recommended by our realtor as someone he frequently works with, but he seems busy.  I'm on my 4th possible engineer.  He actually did pick up the phone this morning.  Hopefully he remains interested. I'm starting to wonder if I'm coming across as a potentially difficult customer.
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#16
We're just finishing up an addition right now. Just cleaning up punch list items. We are replacing a cheesy "Patio Enclosure" aluminum sun room with a 20x22 family room with a lot of glass. We need a lot of glass because we're in the woods with trees blocking natural sunlight. The job entailed a complete new roof, re-siding the whole house, adding 2 windows where there were none, replacing 4 windows. Bumping out a wall to make a desk/office area near the kitchen and the addition with it's own mini-split heat pump and widening the rear sliding door opening from 6ft to 8ft.

The general contractor has been good, they used very good subs (imho) but there have been a lot of delays, mostly due to the inability to get materials and experienced labor. Also, the big developers are picking off workers from the smaller contractors by offering large signing bonuses. They had 13 of their own people in the field and lost 10 of them during our build. They run about 10 jobs at once. This company used foundation, framing, drywall, flooring, roofing, HVAC, siding and electric subs. But still have their own people for the little stuff like trim, stairs, decking, setting windows, shutters and taking care of problems that are inevitable along the way. They kept hiring anybody they could and almost everything their own (new) people did had to be redone. Talking to other people who are building homes and additions right now are going through the same thing.  I inspect a lot of additions, new homes etc.

We chose siding, flooring, windows, decking and roofing back in July when we signed the contract. The only thing we were able to get was the windows. We got the windows because we insisted they order the windows right after signing. Windows (Pella) arrived the middle of September. If we waited much longer, we still wouldn't have windows. Andersen and Marvin windows would have been a 4 to 5 month wait. Most everything else is usually stocked locally. When it got to the point of ordering shingles, siding and flooring... the ones we chose were taken out of production and we couldn't even order them. The manufactures have reverted to only making the most common styles and colors. There is a vinyl shortage. So we settled for what we could get. I even got involved trying to source materials out of the area and couldn't find them either. We did finally get the vinyl composite decking we wanted but it took 3 months and this is just for a 6x9 landing and steps coming off the new addition. I will build a larger deck on the other side of the addition when material prices come down.

Contrary to many reports, some materials are much scarcer and more expensive now than they were just a few months ago.

If I were to do it over:
I would have asked the contractor to order everything when we signed the contract and paid for materials upfront and rented a storage facility to store materials as they came in. We probably would have gotten everything we wanted. The contractor never came back asking for more money except for having to replace some bad roof sheathing.

Also, some contractors are only doing Time and Materials contracts as opposed to Lump Sum contracts like usual. They are affraid of price increases. We signed a lump sum contract and we're glad we did.

I have inspected two unfinished homes recently. The original buyers of the home bailed out when the cost of the build doubled during construction and they ran out of money. They signed Time and Materials contracts. In both cases, contractors bought the unfinished homes and they'll sit there unfinished until material prices come back down to earth.

So, do your best to design around materials that are readily available and not around your "wish list" because if you don't, you probably will wish you did.
Neil Summers Home Inspections




I came to a stop sign and a skanky tweaker chick in a tube top climbed out of the brush and propositioned me.  She looked like she didn't have any teeth so I counted that as a plus.


... Kizar Sosay





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