As a Calgary resident, your brain will conjure all sorts of American Southwest imagery when you hear the experts at Desert Sun Patios refer to an Arizona room. However, you don’t have to worry about dried out skulls or cacti on every wall; they’re talking about a type of sunroom that originated in Arizona but can now be found in all parts of North America. For Canadians, this typically refers to a three-season sunroom or a screen room.
What is an Arizona Room?
The summer temperatures in Arizona regularly reach into the mid to upper 30s with not much respite during the night. Before the advent of air conditioning, Arizona homes would be too hot to sleep in so many residents built semi permanent structures on the back of their homes that were sheltered from above and the sides, but with mesh windows to allow a cool breeze to come through. Sound familiar? What this is describing is an early prototype of a three season sunroom. Arizona rooms have evolved a little to become permanent home extensions, but the key design elements of a low solid wall with large mesh windows remains the same no matter where you’re building one.
Benefits of an Arizona Room
Even though Calgary doesn’t suffer the same sweltering temperatures as Arizona, building an Arizona room on your property comes with plenty of additional benefits:
- Extra space – the obvious benefit of installing an Arizona room in your house is the additional space that you get. The typical design for an Arizona room is larger than that of a standard screen room (though the final size of your Arizona room will be dictated by your outdoor space, local planning laws and your budget), meaning that you gain an extra room in your house. Whether it’s more room to spread out when you host big parties, or a quiet getaway space from the children, extra space is always welcome in any home.
- Flexible room – with this extra space comes the opportunity to examine your needs and dreams for your home and purpose your Arizona room towards those. Historically, the Arizona room has been used for recreation and socializing as well as providing a cooler place to sleep at night, but the modern uses for your new room are almost endless. The mesh or windows provide sunlight or a breeze which can make your Arizona room the perfect three season greenhouse, while those same features can turn it into a luxurious home gym with free air conditioning.
- Improve house value – as with any home improvement project, there has to be a small part of your plan that thinks about the added value that the project will bring to your home. If you’re planning on adding an Arizona room because this will be your 30 year home, you’ll be pleased to know that adding an extra room to your home can drive up the value enormously. Couple this with the relatively cheap cost of installing an Arizona room (compared to traditional house extension projects) and you’ll find that the extension will almost certainly pay for itself over time.
