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. 

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. 

How Does A Screen Room Work?

A screen room is an external addition to you home. It’s a permanent fixture, but it’s primarily a post and beam structure with a solid roof to give you year round shade and protection from the elements. The feature that sets it apart from other home additions is the big mesh screens that act instead of walls. Think about the fly screen on a tent, but one that goes all the way around a room and you’ve got the right idea. A screen room can be built with a foundation and concrete floor, but it’s also lightweight enough that it can be built on top of your deck or patio which brings the cost down dramatically. 

How A Screen Room Can Transform Your Home

Adding a screen room makes perfect sense for those Calgary homeowners who are looking to extend their home on a budget and without necessarily adding to the overall square footage of their property, if you include the deck or patio. A screen room can be a transformational addition, as it gives you these benefits, among many others:

• A quiet place- if you’ve got children running around at home, it can be hard to find a quiet space in which to relax. This is essential to everyone’s emotional wellbeing, and a screen room can be designated as an adult only area so that you have a place all to yourself to enjoy that early morning cup of coffee or just a five minute sit down after lunch. 
• The best of both worlds – a screen room allows you to get the best out of being inside and being outside at the same time. The big screen windows allow the warmth and breezes to come through, and you’ll be able to see and hear your family out in the yard. However, they also prevent the bugs and dust from coming in, and the roof shelters you from the hot midday sun. 
• A shelter for your plants – finally, keeping house plants has become a world wide obsession after the global pandemic. A screen room is an ideal place to keep your plants who need plenty of sunshine but who don’t do well with being outside. Either add them as decorations, or turn the whole space into a living greenhouse. 

What Is A Screened In Deck?

As the name suggests, a screened in deck is the addition of a simple frame construction on top of your existing deck with a solid roof and enormous mesh screens instead of windows. They are typically built in a post and beam style structure from treated lumber which gives your screened in deck an outdoorsy vibe on which to base your decor. It’s a great option if you’re looking for a way to get more usage out of your deck beyond just the daytime summer months as the screens provide a barrier to the bugs as well as some respite from the breezes. It doesn’t count as an extra room for planning or permit purposes, especially if you keep the roof within the profile of your home, and it’s a cheap way of creating some additional space around your home. 

Uses For A Screened In Deck

The fact that you’re sitting in a room that has a roof to protect you from above but no walls to stop sideways rain or strong winds does put a limit on what you can use your screen room for (and indeed when you can use it!); no one wants to sleep on the cold and windy deck in fall or winter! However, there are many uses for a screened in deck to help you get the most of Calgary’s breathtaking fall scenery:

• Cosy family room – by far and away the most common use for a screened in deck is to create a new living space for everyone to enjoy. The roof covering means you can invest in comfy furniture, and you should set the room up so everyone has a good view out over your garden and the vibrant colours of fall. 
• Outside dining – another way to bring you closer to the Calgary fall scenery is to make your screened in deck into your daytime dining room. Keep the vibe rustic with a long farmhouse table, and add some storage along the inside wall so you don’t waste time tripping back and forth to the kitchen for plates and utensils. 
• At home spa – finally, a screened in deck gives you an unspoiled canvas to be creative with. An at home spa room, complete with yoga mats, a recliner and a sophisticated speaker set up can transport you to a place of fall coloured zen, right inside your home.