Sunrooms grab the spotlight as luxury home additions

Bob Karlovits

Sunrooms and patio rooms seem to be turning into the decks of this decade.

Like the '70s and '80s, when decks of all sorts began showing up on tiny ranch homes and hefty Victorians, sunrooms are becoming common from the exurbs to the city.

Frank Caliguri of All State Remodeling in Lower Burrell says his firm has been building patio rooms for 25 years but, "There just have been more and more of them in the past five or six."

The National Association of the Remodeling Industry, headquartered in Illinois, says 500,000 homeowners add sunrooms each year. A report in Builder Magazine says sunrooms are the third most-popular amenity sought in homes that cost more than $250,000.

Scott DeWitt, owner of Sun Room Designs in Youngwood, says he has been making the parts for units for 40 years and is doing "more than ever before."

Alan Levine, director of sales for Legacy Remodeling in Dormont, says these jobs are "the new 'in' product."

Adding this type of room seems like an easy decision for Michael Keck, branch manager of Patio Enclosures in Beechview. He says the conservative nature of Pittsburgh keeps many residents in their homes, so an addition can maintain that familiarity while adding a new function.

"If you are staying in your home, you can add a patio room and make it do something for you," he says.

Adding new uses to a home

Homeowners seem to be looking for lifestyle options from a sunroom.

"If you have a deck or a patio, it seems like a natural thing to consider using it all year around," Keck says.

David Dickson, general manager of Quaker State Construction in Carnegie, says, "If you have a deck, it is an easy thing to add a room to it."

Pat Hiller of Whitehall quickly discovered that. She and her husband, Bill, needed to remove a small porch that had been added before they bought their home in 1991. They called Dickson's company to create an exit area where the porch was and then add a deck.

But Pat Hiller saw some photos of a sunroom in Dickson's material and went in that direction. The result is a screened-in, unheated room on a deck framework.

"We love it," she says. "We can sit out here regardless of the weather."

Dickson says some of his customers end up adding a sunroom to a deck and then putting another deck on the outside of that room.

"That way, they keep that outside element," he says.

Levine says adding a sunroom generally is a matter of choice rather than need.

"If you need a roof, you get a roof," he says, "but these rooms tend to be more luxury items. They allow you to be outside without being cold."

The room professionals all say the typical installation with that in mind consists of an 18-inch to 2-feet-high vinyl or aluminum wall with some sort of energy-efficient window system. Some homeowners, like the Hillers, stay with screens only.

Most times, the professionals say, the units are built with three-season use -- spring, summer and fall -- in mind, but beyond that, there are options. DeWitt, for instance, says during the 40 years that he has been producing room-addition materials, he finds three-season use to be the most dominant.

That can make the job rather easy, he says, but he warns glass-dominated rooms can become "as warm as a greenhouse" in the summer.

For cooler months, Caliguri says, heating can be added with some sort of space heater or baseboard heat or by running ductwork from the house to add forced-air heating.

Levine says his customers ultimately have decided to install some sort of heating unit to provide four-season use.

What's it going to cost?

Naturally, all of the options create variations in cost. Keck says it is possible to add a basic, screened-in sunroom to a home for about $4,000, but top-line projects become like room additions and can cost as much as $150,000.

DeWitt agrees with a $4,000 to $5,000 bottom figure, but says most of his projects end up somewhere around $20,000.

Realtor Magazine, in its 2007 "Cost vs. Value" report, suggests an average price of $72,728 for sunroom additions in the mid-Atlantic states. From that, the report says there is a $41,200 recovery at sale for a 56.8 percent recoup.

Pat Hiller says she has spent about $17,000 for her project, but is going to add some kind of patio below it, so the total cost of all the work will come to close to $23,000.

Levine estimates his rooms to be in the $30,000 range but says he feels comfortable with the product he is offering. It is called SunSuite, a new design from Owens Corning, which is a Fiberglass room custom made from designs drawn up by local representatives.

That product is so new, Levine's Legacy just got its franchise in November 2007 and will install its first unit in June, he says.

Randy Shoup has taken the outdoor room business in a different direction.

He is the owner of Alternative Innovations in Kennedy and, about five years ago, began installing ceilings to the space below decks to keep that area from becoming rain-sodden.

Within two years, the idea developed to add walls and create a form of enclosed patio. By 2005, he says, he began an arrangement to have those walls made by Thermal Industries from Hazelwood.

"We gave the people that had a deck a room underneath," he says. "I never anticipated going that way."

Before you add

Adding a sunroom to a home is a remodeling job that entails major decisions on placement, says a remodeling tip sheet.

These hints are offered by the Illinois-based National Association of the Remodeling Industry. The association also reports sunrooms are the fifth most-popular remodeling project.

It suggests keeping in mind these ideas:

• Make sure the placement of the room doesn't ruin a good or unobstructed view.

• Have a good understanding of where the room will be connected to the house and how that will affect the home.

• Will the sunroom block access to any other parts of the home?

• Are there local municipal setback codes that will come into play with construction of the room?

• Will the architecture of the sunroom fit that of the home?