Additions
Sunroom and four-season room additions in Lancaster and Chester County, PA
Most families end up spending more time in the sunroom than in any other room. We build four-season rooms the way we build any addition: footings, a framed floor, framed walls with as much glass as the structure allows, a real roof, insulation, and heat and air, so the room is a living room with a view rather than a porch with windows. Three-season rooms and screened porches are simpler versions of the same thing, and we build those too.
Four-Season, Three-Season, or Screened
A four-season room is a conditioned addition: insulated floor, walls, and roof, double-pane windows, and heating and cooling, usually a ductless unit so it has its own thermostat. It counts as living space and it is used that way.
A three-season room has the windows but not the insulation or the heat, so it is comfortable from April to October. A screened porch is a roof, posts, and screens, the best room in the house for about five months. The structure is similar across all three. The difference is in the insulation and the heat, so it helps to think about how you will actually use the room before choosing.
What Makes a Sunroom Work
- Orientation: south and west glass gets afternoon sun and heat, and east glass gets the morning. Overhangs and the roof design manage it.
- Windows: big fixed units with operable units between them for air, or sliders and French doors to a patio or deck.
- Roof: a shed roof under the second-floor windows, a gable for height, or a hip to match the house.
- Ceiling: a flat insulated ceiling, or a vaulted tongue-and-groove ceiling with a fan.
- Floor: tile over a slab, or hardwood or luxury vinyl over a framed floor, matched to the house where the rooms connect.
- Heating and cooling: a ductless mini-split sized for a room that is mostly glass.
Why We Stick-Frame Rather Than Kit
Aluminum sunroom kits go up fast and look like what they are. A stick-framed sunroom on a foundation uses the same siding, trim, roofing, and windows as the house, so it reads as part of it, and it is insulated to the same standard as the rest of the house. Dalton’s years with an exterior remodeling company were spent matching rooflines and siding on exactly this kind of job.
Permits and the Yard
A sunroom is an addition under the state code: a building permit, a zoning check for the rear setback and impervious coverage, and inspections through final. If the room goes where a deck or patio is now, we take that out and rebuild what should stay. The house stays closed until the room is weathertight.
Questions
Questions We Get
Can a sunroom be built on an existing deck or patio?
Not on the deck framing. A conditioned room needs footings and a floor built for it. A patio slab can sometimes stay as the floor if it was poured thick enough and the edges get footings. We check both before we draw the room.
Will the sunroom overheat in summer?
A wall of west glass with no overhang will. Orientation, roof overhangs, low-e glass, operable windows, and a properly sized mini-split keep a four-season room comfortable in August. It is a design question, and we design for it.
Does a four-season room count as living space?
Yes, when it is insulated and conditioned to the code like the rest of the house. That is the difference between a four-season room and a three-season room, and it matters for how the house is appraised.
Process
How We Work
- We visit, measure, and talk through the scope before anything is priced.
- You get a written proposal, and we build to it.
- Where the work needs a permit, we walk you through it every step: the application, the drawings the township asks for, and the inspections.
- We are on site from the first day to the last, and the house stays clean while we work.
- We walk the finished job with you, fix anything on the list, and clean up.
Additions
More Kinds of Additions
Service area
Where We Work
Based in Christiana, we work across Lancaster County and Chester County.
Lancaster County
- Christiana
- Gap
- Quarryville
- Strasburg
- Lancaster
Chester County
- Parkesburg
- Coatesville
- West Chester
- Kennett Square
- Downingtown
- Malvern
- Chester Springs
- Frazer
Dalton and his crew worked on our kitchen and 1st floor remodel. Framed out new mudroom, pantry and office space and installed new electrical throughout. Very professional and great to work with!
— Samantha GordonKitchen and first-floor remodel5 stars on Google
Ready to Talk About a Sunroom?
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