Greenhouse Plans

Your specific home will have its individual aspects that will make your sunroom construction options and sunroom pricing possibilities different from your neighbor or family member s home. However, starting with people who already have a sunroom is a good way to get an idea of what features you want your sunroom to have. For example, if you want an aluminum sunroom with few windows and a solid roof, you re looking at a much less expensive option than a full glass sunroom with wood beam construction. So here are a few factors which will affect your sunroom pricing when you are exploring sunroom construction.

Foundation Considerations That Will Affect Sunroom Prices

When you are building your sunroom, you start

with the foundation. However, that foundation must be in compliance with the building codes of your local area. These codes will vary in part due to the climate that you live in. For example, if you have a considerable amount of freezing during winter, then the foundation will have to be deeper than in warmer climates. This will mean more expense in labor and materials. Then you will need to level or grade the area that you are preparing for your sunroom. If you have an existing deck, certain types of sunrooms can be built on top of them, saving you time and money. But again, it depends on your local building codes. However, if you are building an addition from scratch you will do best for stability and insulation to start with a slab foundation. It is a good base for all kinds of sunroom construction. If you cannot grade and level your construction area, then you will need to build a framed foundation, with concrete or cement block outer walls.

Roof Choices and Sunroom Cost

For many homeowners, the roof of their sunroom is not something that they have to think about. They want it to be a solid barrier from the sunlight, allowing the sunroom to get its exposure only from the full or partially glass walls. For others, however, they plan to have a number of skylights in the otherwise solid room. And still more would

like their entire room to be made of glass so that they can take full advantage of the room as a potential greenhouse as well as a warm place to spend cool days. The cost of the framing on the roof itself will be done in a traditional construction manner, though the type of material used will affect the price greatly. These material types will be discussed more in the following section. But what s important to remember about the roof is that the more skylights you have, the more expensive the construction will be.

Material Choices for Sunroom Construction

There are a number of choices in materials for building your sunroom. The material you choose will greatly affect the

cost of your sunroom not just at construction, but in the future in regards to heating, cooling and maintenance costs as well. The first material is PVC. This is the cheapest material that can be used for sunrooms. It has a number of additional advantages as well; it offers a high level of insulation in order to keep heating and cooling costs lower, it is available in a variety of colors, and it takes very little maintenance. The one drawback is that you will not be able to use it on certain historic buildings. Next in cost is aluminum. An aluminum sunroom is very similar to PVC, but doesn t do quite as good a job at insulating. However, it does have low maintenance issues and can come in a number of styles and colors in order to coordinate with your existing home covering. The most expensive material you can choose is wood. For many people, they prefer wood because it is more traditional, and because they can stain or paint it to custom colors in order to match their home exactly. However, there is one tradeoff besides the higher cost it will also require maintenance from time to time.

A Major Factor in Sunroom Prices Your Windows

Windows in a sunroom are probably the greatest variable in sunroom pricing. Not only does the number of windows that you choose make a difference, but

so does the type. If they are fixed, they will be less expensive than if they open. If you choose a size window that is the standard type and size sold, then you will have less expense than if you request a custom-insulation. The type of glaze that you choose to put on the windows will matter as well. You can get windows that control the amount of sunlight that enters, ones that block out damaging rays and even ones that help control the temperature of the room. But the more your windows can do, the more expensive they are bound to be.

Andrew Caxton is a consultant who writes on many consumer topics like house additions and home decorating

at http://www.allsunrooms.com . For additional information regarding costs, budgets or patio room designs go to sunroom prices.