Why Pick A Sunroom
When you’re looking for your next big home improvement project, you won’t get better value than adding a sunroom to your home. There are many reasons to pick a a sunroom as you’re looking to increase the size of your home, but three of the biggest reasons to go for a sunroom include:
- Bring in the light – one of the main reasons to choose a sunroom as your home extension project is the amount of extra light they bring into your entire home. In many rooms, they run floor to ceiling meaning that you have uninterrupted views out over your garden while avoiding the bugs, heat and wind that often drive homeowners inside. The big bright windows and views out over your garden also adds a sense of luxury no matter the size of your house.
- Additional space – the extra room can be used in such a wide variety of ways that you’ll have as much planning how to use your sunroom as you will actually being in the space. For many sunroom owners, the extra room is treated like a formal living room or a private adults only retreat away from the hustle and noise of the rest of the house. However, more creative uses include making a home gym with a motivating view, a remote office environment that will mean that you never want to return to the office, or a spare bedroom to entice family and friends to spend the night.
- Excellent return on investment – as an investment in your home, a sunroom represents incredible value for money. They are considerably cheaper and quicker to install than a full home extension while adding a whole room to your home’s footprint which instantly drives up the property value. In many cases, they can be installed straight on top of an existing deck or patio meaning that you don’t have to spend a fortune on digging deep foundations. They are also often take up a smaller profile than the rest of the house, which means that you don’t have to worry about expensive building permits or fighting local planning laws to get your extension granted.
Choosing the Best Sunroom
However, it’s common knowledge that not all sunrooms are created equal. Here at Desert Sun Patios, our team of local experts will be able to work with you from the initial discussions to welcoming you to your new space. They will help you find the best sunroom for your home by helping you think through some hard decisions including how many seasons, the type of roof and the overall shape
How many seasons?
The main decision that you’ll need to make at the start of the sunroom planning process is whether you want a three or four season sunroom. This will affect a series of further decisions down the line so you need to consider the benefits of each. A three season sunroom is designed to be used in spring, summer and autumn only, and as such doesn’t require connecting to your home’s heating and cooling system. It’s a cheaper project as the materials are designed to be less effective at insulation and more geared towards generating heat in the room. A four season sunroom is designed to be used year round so it requires hooking into your heating system. However, this makes it a much more permanent addition to your home, and the materials are better at insulating which will lower your heating costs during the cooler months.
Roof style
Once you’ve made that choice, you will need to think about the overall structure. For many Calgary residents, the footprint will be dictated by local planning laws, but the choice over the roof style can give you extra space. The most popular sunroom roof choices in Calgary are an A frame (or gable) and a studio roof. As the name suggests, an A frame roof rises to a single roof line and will make your sunroom feel tall and majestic. However, this height can make it more expensive to heat and installing overhead lighting will be harder. A studio roof on the other hand connects to the roof of your home and slopes down to the furthest edge of your sunroom. This will give you a lower room profile, but this can make it perfect for skylights or a series of recessed overhead lights. They tend to be easier to heat as well.
Sunroom shape
The overall shape of your sunroom may be dictated by the space available to you in your garden. However, even in confined spaces you will still have a variety of options of overall shape design, which include:
- Cathedral – as the name suggests, this is a sunroom with a long rectangular floor plan with a high A frame roof that runs down the centre of the room. Cathedral style sunrooms often culminate in a set of patio doors leading outside at the opposite end from the house. This means that the doors often act as a focal point for furniture and artwork.
- Conservatory – this is a classic design from Europe in which the sunroom spreads out in a semi circle or dome shape from the home. It can be a gabled high pointed roof or a flatter studio design depending on your personal preference and main building profile. The roofs here tend to be made from glass so the room will heat up dramatically in the summer room; ideal if you want to grow heat loving indoor plants!
- Straight eaves – this design almost always has a solid studio roof and lends a much more permanent feel to your sunroom. These sunrooms tend to be four seasons and are intended to be used as a full time living space. Given the solid roof, you will need to think carefully about how you’ll light the room from the ceiling or installing skylights throughout the space to bring the outside in.
