Why Choose A Screened In Deck

A screened in deck is an increasingly popular home upgrade for Calgary citizens as it doesn’t require any additional digging or renovation. The simple post and beam structure gets erected on your existing deck and turns it from a space that is only usable in sunny weather when it’s not too hot and the bugs aren’t biting to somewhere that you will want to sit during all of your free time. The solid roof gives you day-long shade and protects your deck furniture from the Calgary summer thunderstorms, and the screens keep out the bugs and the worst of the strong winds. 

Further Benefits of a Screened In Deck

Beyond the benefits of living your best outdoor life while enjoying all the comforts of being inside, a screened in deck also comes with a variety of additional benefits.

Increased Property Value

In terms of returns on your initial investment, a screened in deck represents incredible value for money. The simple structure keeps the costs down, but a screened in deck dramatically increases the curb appeal of your home to prospective buyers who will envisage long summer days spent on the boundary between inside and out. It’s also a quick install, meaning that you can add it to your property in time for the real estate photos and you’ll see a jump in the asking price and offers.

More Space To Spread Out

With more and more Calgary residents opting for staycations to make the most of our wonderful city, a screened in porch offers you a significant bump to the square footage of your home without incurring an exorbitant cost. Whether you choose to make your new space the focal point for family gatherings or make it a full kid-free zone, the extra space will give everyone some breathing room during the summer. You’ll also find that a screened in deck makes the perfect “command centre” for your summer gatherings, providing shade for those who overheat quickly and a place to host drinks and snacks for those who want to run around in the sunshine. 

Increased Mental Health

There are a slew of scientific and psychological studies that have shown the positive impact of nature, and being close to nature, on our mental health. There are also studies that show that the busyness of modern life coupled with rampant technology use makes it harder for us to connect with nature. A screened in deck gives you the space to put the phone down and take some mindful moments each day to enjoy the natural beauty in your backyard. Its a great place to set up a yoga mat for a quiet morning stretch, or simply somewhere to curl up with a cup of something hot and a good book to fully decompress after a long day. 

How A Screened Porch Works

A screened porch is a great addition to your outside space because it’s such a simple structure to add. It’s typically built on top of an existing deck (or patio, at a push), and connects to the external walls of your home through screws and ties. The money saving part comes from its construction, which is basically a post and beam format with a solid roof and screen walls. The screens, made from insect proof mesh, is what makes it magical during a Calgary summer. You’ll get all the sunshine, cooling breezes and views out over your garden without having to worry about the strong overhead sun or the biting insects that can spoil any outside time in the city. 

Bring The Outdoors Inside

Your new screened porch instantly blends the boundaries between inside and outside given the lack of solid walls combined with a solid roof over your head. You can continue to bring the outdoors inside with some of these ideas:

• Choose outdoor textures – the overall vibe of a room is always about how you decorate the space, and this often comes down to which textures and materials you choose. Picking slightly rougher textures, such as a burlap rug, wicker chairs or driftwood picture frames, will conjure up the feeling of being outside from the comfort of your indoor space. You can complement these touches with some soft furnishings like a soft throw blanket to snuggle under or a large beanbag chair for younger family members to relax in during the summer evenings. 
• Find outdoor furniture – another approach to blend the boundaries between indoors and outdoors is to use furniture that you would typically use on your deck or patio. While this could include a set of comfy folding lounge chairs, it can also be an outdoor set of wicker arm chairs and a long sofa. For some extra warmth in the spring and fall evenings, consider a small electric fire pit to use as a central focus point for your screened porch.
• Bring the plants inside – finally, you can make you and your family feel like they’re stepping directly into the garden by bringing some of your potted plants from the garden to the screened porch, and put them next to some of your indoor houseplants that would thrive in additional heat and humidity. Consider having some hanging from the rafter and aim for a mixture of colours and sizes to create a unique visual effect. Finish the outdoor feel to your indoor space by picking out interesting plant pot designs; this can act as your artistic finishing touches while also looking after your plant babies all summer long.

Key Features of a Screen Room

A screen room is an additional space for your home that typically sits where your house meets your garden. For most people, this will be directly out back, and you can save money if you can build your screen room directly onto your deck or patio as you won’t have to worry about digging foundations. 

A screen room is a simple structure at heart; regularly spaced out posts hold up a solid roof, and the walls are made from mesh screens. You can choose to have a half wall, where wooden boards go a metre or so up to provide more protection, or simply have floor to ceiling screens for more breezes and sunlight. They typically have an external door at the opposite end to where your screen room joins your house so that you have access to your garden. 

Creating a Relaxing Retreat in your Screen Room

Your screen room should be viewed as a blank canvas for you to design and use however you see fit. To create a relaxing retreat to give you some peace and quiet away from your family, consider some of these design tips:

• Minimal seating – it can be tempting to buy a full patio set of chairs and loungers for your screen room, but this invites people to come and join you. Instead, think about a couple of comfy armchairs or a recliners so at best you’ll have one other person sharing your quiet space with you. 
• Think soft – to get yourself into full relaxation mode, you should be looking at soft fabric for your furniture (the screens and roof keep any rain and debris away), and you should have a healthy stack of pillows and fuzzy blankets for early morning coffee and late night reading throughout the warmer months. 
• Final touches – to finish up your relaxing retreat, think about adding a Bluetooth speaker so you can play your chillout playlist, as well as some low level lighting to set a calm atmosphere in your screen room. Most importantly of all, make a poster advising noisy people to keep out when you’re in there, and you’ll have the most relaxing summer ever in your screen room. 

What is a Screen Room?

Like most beneficial home additions, a screen room is exactly what it sounds like: an extra room for your home where the walls are made from screens and mesh instead of plasterboard. They typically get added to the back of your home to provide a transition from your house to your yard, and you’ll save time and money if you have an existing deck or patio that you can use instead of digging new foundations for your room. Screen rooms are simple in structure using a post and beam formula. They typically have a solid flat roof and usually have a door at the opposite end to your home to allow foot traffic through to the garden.

Benefits of a Screen Room

A screen room is the perfect spring and summer home improvement project for Calgary homeowners as they can be installed in a short period of time and you’ll be surprised at the low cost of the overall budget. They also bring the following benefits to your home:

• Extra space – the most obvious benefit of a screen room is that it provides you with extra space during the warmer months. Whether you use this as space for entertaining guests or somewhere to escape to when you need a break from your family, you’ll be amazed at how just a few extra square metres of comfort and style can change the whole vibe of your summer. 
• Protection from the worst of summer – a screen room gives you all the benefits of being outside without any of the inconveniences. The big screen windows means you can sit outside all day and the bugs are kept at a safe distance. The shape of your screen room also breaks up the worst of the wind, and the solid roof protects you from the hottest part of the day. 
• Supervisory positioning – if you have children, your screen room makes for the perfect “base” for summer fun in your garden. You get to sit in the cool shade of indoors while being able to see and hear everything that’s going on outside. Your kids will then use your screen room as a stopping place for snacks and drinks throughout the day, and maybe a place to stretch out and take a well earned siesta after all that playing.

What is a Screened-In Deck?

A screened-in deck is as simple as it sounds. It’s a solid structure that sits directly on top of your deck (so no messing around digging foundations) that provides mesh walls and a solid roof to create an extra room for your house. You have some choices about how much mesh covers the walls, with the option of full mesh from floor to ceiling or to have part of the walls made with solid wallboard to provide more protection against the infamous Calgary wind. You’ll connect to your home through the same door that you’d use to access your deck, and then have another door connecting your screened in deck to the garden. 

The Perfect Home Addition

It’s easy to see that turning your deck into a screened in room automatically gives you an extra room in your home, and you’re much more likely to use your screened in deck throughout the year instead of just sometimes when the weather is warm and you’ve got time to make a day of it. However, your screened-in deck is the perfect addition for a variety of other reasons:

• Adds instant value – the next biggest reason to invest in a screened in deck is to add value to your home if you’re planning on selling it soon. It adds to the functional square footage of your home at a fraction of the cost of a full home addition, and the open space will have prospective buyers dreaming of creating a luxurious oasis for themselves in their new home. 
• A versatile space – the best thing about creating a brand new room in your home is the endless possibilities that your new space offers. A screened in deck can be used for anything, from a quiet, adult-only living room to a home gym with excellent views and a cooling a breeze, or even a plant room where your more needy green babies can get the warmth and sunshine they need to thrive without having to be out in the wind and rain all day. 
• Connecting indoors to outdoors – finally, a screened in deck allows you to live your best indoor-outdoor lifestyle. It encourages you and your family to get out of the house more, without the worry of a sudden rainstorm, getting eaten alive by the endless summer bugs or having to protect your food and drinks from the wind. You can still get the views (and supervision!) out of your garden from a comfortable position in your new screened in deck.

Summer Screen Rooms

It’s easy to envisage how to enjoy summer in your screen room as this is the season they are designed for. You get all the benefits of being outside – the scents, the sounds and the warmth as well as the view over your garden, without the pesky bugs and rain stopping you from having fun. During the summer, you’ll want to think about some fans to get the breeze moving, as well as some indoor rugs to stop your family tracking dirt in and out of the screen room. 

Fall Screen Rooms

Fall is a beautiful season in Calgary, and there’s nothing like seeing the leaves change colour from the comfort of your screen room. Lean into the cozy feeling of the season with some seasonal soft furnishings, with pillows and blankets allowing you to spend the lengthening evenings out in your screen room. Take your screen room game up a notch with a hot drinks station so that you and your family can enjoy tea, coffee and hot chocolate while curled up on the couch together. 

Winter Screen Rooms

The Calgary winter can feel like it lasts forever, and there will be days when your screen room can’t be used as the mesh lets too much cold air in. However, you can buy plastic inserts to stop the wind from coming in, as well as installing a simple heat source such as an electric heater to allow you to look out over your winter wonderland. Finding a way to open up your screen room in the winter is a great plan as it allows you to have a quiet space to escape to during the busy holiday season. 

Spring Screen Rooms

When spring finally rolls round, you’ll find that the screen room really comes into its own. Not only do you get the beauty of watching the world come back to life right before your very eyes, but you’ve also got a perfect home for any seedlings and plants that need protection from the last frosts while getting plenty of sunshine and warmth. 

The Benefits Of A Park Model Screen Room

As you can imagine, a screen room is a great addition to your trailer during the hot Calgary summer months as the mesh windows offer a very different experience to traditional glass. They are also inexpensive compared to a full room extension or even a sunroom add-on as the lack of solid walls helps to keep the price low. You’ll find you’ll save energy as well as you’ll spend more time outside and less time trying to run your air conditioning  all summer long. 

In addition to the cost effectiveness and extra space, some of the most noticeable benefits of a park model screen room include:

• Summer breezes – while Calgary is known as the windy city, there’s something very peaceful about the way that mesh screens take the sting out of the strongest summer winds and leave you with a cooling breeze in your screen room. If you’re worried about rain coming in, you can install solid plexiglass screens that can be removed to give you extra protection during the usual Calgary summer storms. These can also be simple rolled sheets of plastic that you pull down like shades when the bad weather rolls in.
• Protection from the bugs – as every Calgary resident knows, the main drawback of summer in the city is the bugs that seem to multiply every day and evenings can be impossible due to the incessant biting. This is where a park model screen room gives you the ultimate summer sanctuary. You get all the benefits of being outside into the evenings with the warm winds and the sunset views while the mesh screens do their job of keeping the pesky bugs out of your trailer. 
• A quiet space – not only does a screen room give you a sizeable percentage increase on your property’s footprint, but you also gain a whole new room in your home to make into a quiet summer oasis. Your park model screen room will attach to either your front or back door, meaning that you always have a means to close the door on your noisy family and enjoy some peace and quiet. 

Using Your Park Model Screen Room

A park model screen room is a quick and easy install, especially if you have an existing deck or patio to use as the foundations. You can modify it in a variety of different ways, from having a half wall, half mesh system to provide some privacy, to adding a couple of glass skylights to let even more natural sunlight into your space. No matter how you choose to customize your trailer screen room, you’ll quickly find a variety of uses for your new space.

Morning Oasis

Part of the magic of owning a trailer is that you’ve got your own parcel of land to enjoy, and there’s no better place to watch the sunrise with a cup of tea or coffee than in your screen room. You get all the perks of being an early bird, such as the bird song and watching the sun bring the world to life without having to worry about the morning bugs. To make the most of your screen room as a place to get your morning zen, choose soft rugs or carpet for the floor to keep things cosy, and add some soft furnishings and blankets to keep the vibe going. Invest in a cushioned armchair and sofa set that you face away from your trailer towards the screens so you feel like you’re sitting in the landscape while enjoying a hot drink. 

Storage And Seating Combo

You can easily make your new trailer screen room run the whole length of your trailer which can almost double the footprint of your whole property. This in turn means that you can section off your screen room for a couple of different uses. A good combination is to have one part function as an outdoor living room with seating for your and your family and tables for drinks and snacks. The other part of your screen room can then be used for storage for all your outdoor gear that you don’t want cluttering up your trailer, such as your gardening tools or any camping gear that you want easy access to. If this is how you want to set up your park model screen room, consider having either a door at either end of the space so you don’t cause traffic flow problems, or put the external door directly across from the main door to your trailer to make a clear split between the two spaces.

A Space For Guests

Finally, the additional space means that your trailer becomes somewhere that people can come visit easily without feeling like sardines in a can. You can easily turn your screen room into a guest bedroom with some black out blinds for night time and a pull out sofa bed so you can use it as a living room during the day. Make sure you have enough lighting for evening time hang outs, and you’ll want to consider having a half wall structure to keep the breezes away from the bed overnight. Your guests will love the feeling of sleeping outside and being able to spend more time with you and your family. 

What Is An Outdoor Pool Screen?

A pool screen, also known as a pool enclosure, is exactly what it sounds like: a large mesh screen that covers your whole pool area. The fact that it’s a mesh screen means that you’ll get all the benefits of an open air pool, including the warm sunshine and a breeze to keep things fresh. It’s typically a free standing structure that needs to be slightly larger than your entire pool area, though they can also attach to your home if your pool is nearby. You’ll want to make sure that the screen goes up high enough so that people can throw pool toys around without being so high that it’s a pain to clear leaves and winter debris off once the snow starts to melt in spring.

The Benefits Of An Outdoor Pool Screen

A screened in pool is a large investment, so it’s one that you should consider carefully before taking the plunge. However, installing a pool enclosure brings many benefits to your pool life:

• Easy spring opening – the Calgary winters can be never ending, and leave behind a trail of leaves, branches and other debris once the snow melts. A pool screen keeps all of this junk off your pool area meaning that you have one less step to do to get your pool ready for the summer months. 
• Protection from bugs – while everyone looks forward to the warmer weather each spring, there seems to be a collective memory lapse about the bugs that come out at dusk. The mesh on a screened in pool keeps the bugs at bay, meaning that you can enjoy your pool well into the evening (if you haven’t experienced the joy of a warm pool on a summer night, you haven’t lived yet!)
• Keep the toys at bay – finally, any pool owner will tell you that one of their pet peeves is losing pool toys all over the yard from overzealous play. A pool screen provides a natural barrier from any over throws and allows you to protect the rest of your lawn and garden from chlorine drips and wayward pool toys. Now you don’t have to spend your summer yelling at people to throw toys gently, or picking up the mess before you mow.

How Does A Screen Room Work?

A screen room is the ultimate compromise between being outside in your garden and an extra room in your home. It’s like a covered deck at its most simplest, with posts that attach to the floor holding a roof that attaches to the outside of your home. What helps to keep the costs down is that the “walls” are typically made from wooden panels at the bottom and large mesh screens at the top. This allows the sunshine and breeze to come through, while protecting you from bugs and debris. It does make your screen room almost impossible to heat beyond the temperature outside, so you’ll find it’s definitely a seasonal space with the occasional evening usage as the nights get warmer. 

Why Choose A Screen Room In Spring?

You won’t truly understand the joy of sitting under a solid roof with the warm springtime breeze on your face until your first day in your springtime screen room. Other benefits you’ll find of having a screen room in spring include:

• A quiet space – even though the warmer spring weather means you can send your family outside more often, there are still those April showers that force more indoor time. Your screen room is a great way to create some adult only space where you can experience the serenity of springtime with a quiet cup of something hot. 
• A growing space – the recent global pandemic sparked a dramatic increase in Calgary residents keeping exotic houseplants. There’s a time at which your plant babies need some fresh air and shaded sunlight, meaning that your new screen room is the ideal location for them. You don’t have to use your screen room exclusively for your plants, as they can easily be used to decorate as well as getting the indoor outdoor benefits. 
• A family space – as springtime activities get going, it can be hard to find a time and space to gather everyone together and collectively breathe. Your screen room can be filled with comfy chairs and couches for everyone to meet up once the day’s activities are done, and talk about their successes and challenges together. The fresh air and breezes will help everyone find some springtime serenity in the screen room.

What Is A Screen Room?

A screen room feels like a compromise between being able to sit outside and building a full extension to your home. It’s effectively a covered porch, with mesh or screen for walls, and a wooden or aluminum set of posts and beams to support a solid roof. They usually sit at the back of your house and act as a seasonal extra room. It is possible to use them when the temperature drops, but you’ll spend most of your time in your screen room during the warmer months as a break from the outside. 

The Benefits Of A Screen Room

When homeowners start thinking about encouraging themselves and their families to spend more time outside, the most common idea is to add a deck or a patio to the back of the house. These are cheap and easy installations, and for the most part, they allow you to sit outside during the day, when the wind is calm and when the sun isn’t too bright. 

A screen room removes these barriers by providing protection against both wind and sun. The screen mesh doesn’t stop the wind as effectively as a solid wall, but you’ll notice a calming breeze rather than a full scale blow, and this will make your screen room into an airy retreat during the summer. The solid roof provides full shade as well as the opportunity to install a ceiling fan to keep everyone cool even on the hottest days. 

Screen rooms are a popular home improvement choice because they can be built on top of an existing deck or patio, meaning that you save a small fortune by not having to dig foundations. This also reduces the  building time, and a screen room can be installed in under a week with the right Calgary contractors. Given that you’re effectively gaining a brand new room, the return on investment for a screen room is remarkably high. 

Finally, a screen room gives you a wide variety of options for the newly created space. Many people use it as an indoor outdoor living room, and fill it with couches and tables. However, you could also use it as a formal dining area to get the best of both worlds, or even a home for those indoor plants that need a bit of light and fresh air but who can’t handle strong winds and high heat.