Pros and cons of a screened porch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Screened porches are for people who don’t really like being outside in nature but like to pretend they do. We seriously considered adding one but ultimately realized we didn’t want to give up the deck space. We have young children and the deck is awesome for playing. Screened porch is just for like… sitting.

That’s what I am worried about with a screened porch. It’s nice but it feels too…contained. And bugs can still get trapped in the screen porch. With a deck, they can’t. That’s my one concern!

Do you all live in the DC area?

Mosquitos will plague you outdoors even if you do mosquito squad. It's hot as hell in the direct sun and then you'll get eaten alive so see how often you use your outdoor space in the summer months in the DC area. Just when it's cooling off and you might want to head out, that's the worst time of day for mosquitos. It sucks.

Also, why can't children play on a screened in porch? Mine do all the time. If they'd like to move outside to "nature" they are capable of using the door handle and moving outside.

+1 Exactly! Plus, you don't have to worry about flies or other flying insects when enjoying a meal or snacks on your porch.

[Anonymous]

No cons. Best thing we did to our house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any porch is going to make the interior of your house darker. I think that’s the only con.

Doesn’t have to. Put in a bunch of large skylights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a covered deck with a ceiling fan. It's essentially just like a screened porch but without the screens. We had a screened porch in a previous house, but I didn't care for the upkeep with keeping the screens clean and how the pollen etc. gets trapped inside. This is much easier to clean. Also, where we live now we have lots of high winds in the late winter/early spring, and it seemed easier not to have to worry about the upkeep of screens in the long run. A final bonus is we're not blocking as much light into the house with just a roof... if we had screens we would block more light. The roof still keeps our porch furniture nice and dry which is great (even from morning dew).
We spray our yard for ticks which helps a lot with the bugs... but also possibly because of our micro-climate of high winds, I think we tend to get fewer mosquitoes overall. So I don't find we need the screens to keep out insects here. In a different house I might feel otherwise though.
We have a small deck and patio area too and use both of those quite a bit too... in the cooler months I like to be out in the sun, not in the shade! If anything in the future I'd like to improve and expand on our patio. I've seen many nice screen porch/covered deck projects that include expansive patio areas adjacent to them.

I doubt it's your microclimate. The pesticide just doesn't work on the ticks, it works on the mosquitos and beneficial insects as well - despite what the pesticide companies say.

[Anonymous]

what did you decide, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Screened porches are for people who don’t really like being outside in nature but like to pretend they do. We seriously considered adding one but ultimately realized we didn’t want to give up the deck space. We have young children and the deck is awesome for playing. Screened porch is just for like… sitting.

That’s what I am worried about with a screened porch. It’s nice but it feels too…contained. And bugs can still get trapped in the screen porch. With a deck, they can’t. That’s my one concern!

I disagree with half of the first PP's statement, but I'll concede the other half. It's true that when my DCs were young, we had a baby pool out on the deck and one of those plastic swing sets for toddlers. We definitely spent a lot of time out there playing, but even then we had a retractable awning to create shade or to keep them dry if it was raining just a little bit. I wouldn't do either of those things on the screened porch. But it doesn't feel contained at all. The screens are really fine and not dark at all. The floor is also screened so bugs don't get in. The roof of our porch is an A-frame, which most are, so there's an added airiness to the feel. I couldn't like our screened porch more and my DCs (tweens and teens now) love spending time out there with friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our house has both a deck and screened porch and only one of them gets used. It's not the deck.

Exactly this.

Also- a lot of screened porches have skylights. It makes a difference but it isn’t necessary.

The ease of eating outdoors is amazing. Also- you can finish most attics withoit getting HOA approval. The screened porch if you choose to add it later is a pita.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Screened porches are for people who don’t really like being outside in nature but like to pretend they do. We seriously considered adding one but ultimately realized we didn’t want to give up the deck space. We have young children and the deck is awesome for playing. Screened porch is just for like… sitting.

Not sure where you live but in MD, the mosquitos mean that we play much better on the screened porch. I love being outside but not if I am being eaten alive during dinner.

We are in VA and our deck is perfectly pleasant if we spray for mosquitos

How can you say you like being in nature when you're killing it so indiscriminately? There are no mosquito sprays that don't also kill beneficial insects. Seems like the people who really like nature are those who understand how harmful mosquito sprays are and, instead, have screened porches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100% worth it. A deck is really not that useful in this climate, whereas a screen porch you can use 9-10 months of the year and up to 12 with the fireplace. We recently turned our deck into a porch.

How much was it to convert, if you don’t mind me asking? That was another option we were considering. But heard it’s pretty expensive.

It’s about as expensive as adding a room. You can’t convert the deck - it’s highly unlikely it will support the roof. There are no “Florida rooms” here because everything has to hold up heavy snow.

It depends on the footing. If you have a deck with a concrete footing and brick piers, you should be fine and it should be able to support it. But if it’s just a deck that just has the wood buried in the ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any porch is going to make the interior of your house darker. I think that’s the only con.

Doesn’t have to. Put in a bunch of large skylights.

Also we went from a window to a large door so more light come in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Screened porches are for people who don’t really like being outside in nature but like to pretend they do. We seriously considered adding one but ultimately realized we didn’t want to give up the deck space. We have young children and the deck is awesome for playing. Screened porch is just for like… sitting.

Not sure where you live but in MD, the mosquitos mean that we play much better on the screened porch. I love being outside but not if I am being eaten alive during dinner.

We are in VA and our deck is perfectly pleasant if we spray for mosquitos

How can you say you like being in nature when you're killing it so indiscriminately? There are no mosquito sprays that don't also kill beneficial insects. Seems like the people who really like nature are those who understand how harmful mosquito sprays are and, instead, have screened porches.

If you eat plants or eat meat, or use electricity for your home, everything you said is hypocritical.

[Anonymous]

Love our screen porch - we added it at the end of a big renovation project and I'm so glad we did (if only because I will never live through construction again!) We added 3 skylights and the screens are almost imperceptible - I think the building materials have come a long way! We don't have the sunspace windows because the porch is fully open to our living/family room through three sets of French doors, and I didn't want the view through vinyl windows for any part of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Screened porches are for people who don’t really like being outside in nature but like to pretend they do. We seriously considered adding one but ultimately realized we didn’t want to give up the deck space. We have young children and the deck is awesome for playing. Screened porch is just for like… sitting.

Not sure where you live but in MD, the mosquitos mean that we play much better on the screened porch. I love being outside but not if I am being eaten alive during dinner.

We are in VA and our deck is perfectly pleasant if we spray for mosquitos

How can you say you like being in nature when you're killing it so indiscriminately? There are no mosquito sprays that don't also kill beneficial insects. Seems like the people who really like nature are those who understand how harmful mosquito sprays are and, instead, have screened porches.

If you eat plants or eat meat, or use electricity for your home, everything you said is hypocritical.

Hypocritical doesn't mean what you think it means.

[Anonymous]

We recently converted our old screened-in porch to a three season room with the Willy windows you lower for the screen-in porch effect and also a firebox for the cold. It’s easily easily the best room in the house and it was worth every penny. Incidentally we also have a finished attic that no one ever uses.

[Anonymous]

VINYL windows, lol