By CHRISTINE LYNCH
Most homes have one room where people seem to congregate. Often it’s the kitchen or a family room, depending on the layout of the house. In the warm weather, an inviting spot to gather would be a screened in porch.
By definition, a porch is a structure that is attached to a house and, unlike a deck, is covered by a roof. When enclosed, a porch offers safe containment for small children and pets while keeping out unwanted wildlife. That is, with the proper squirrel-proof screening.
Walking onto a porch gives the feeling of being outdoors, yet provides protection from insect pests, direct sunlight, and rain (unless it’s wind driven, then, no). A porch’s décor can be polished, in keeping with the rest of the house style, or rustic, simply reflecting the natural surroundings. The ceiling and walls may be wired for lights, televisions, et cetera or un-wired, using candles when needed, which adds a nice atmosphere.
It’s an ideal spot to relax on chaises, a porch swing, maybe a hammock, but a porch isn’t just for sitting. This space can be used for eating, hobbies, and entertaining. It also makes a handy sleeping area, especially with a houseful of company. Also, it solves the problem if a bedroom doesn’t have air conditioning, the windows don’t let in enough air, and a fan just pushes the stuffy air around. Carry your pillows out to the screened in porch, where the open sides let the cool night air flow with no bother from nighttime insects.
Homeowners seem to be thinking about porches once again. In part, it might be a touch of nostalgia for those long ago summers they spent as kids playing games out on a screened porch. A well-designed porch also becomes a solution for lowering energy bills. A practical option, if you’re thinking of adding or enclosing a porch, is to make it convertible to a three-season room. This adapts a screened in porch to a year-round room in the colder weather by replacing the screening panels with window glass or plexiglass. Insulated glass would bring in the light and sun’s warmth while controlling the cold temps.
Another increasing concern is getting fresh air while not being at risk to the growing types of diseases attributed to insects such as mosquitoes and ticks.
Joe Valle is chief executive officer of the Falmouth-based Valle Group, which offers custom designed building, additions, and remodeling projects in Plymouth, the Cape and the islands. He brings more than 40 years experience working in the business and affirms there is a noticeable resurgence in screened porches.
“Over the past three years there is a real uptick in the interest in three-season rooms.” He said that many of the Valle Group’s new projects are specifically designed to include at least one screened porch. “We’ve done several houses right on the golf course in Willowbend and the people living there use these porches as another room.”
A search on the Internet lists many home building and design websites that refer to the screened porch trend in both renovation work and new construction. In fact, recently installed porches tend to have more square footage than in the past. Newer ones are closer to room sized, not just a four-foot extension beyond the house wall, which were a cramped place to plunk a couple of Adirondack chairs. Mr. Valle pointed out homes now might have multiple screened porches, say off the kitchen as well as the master bedroom. This allows access to the outside from different parts of the home, opening up multiple spaces and “bringing the outdoors inside.”
If your home currently has either a front porch or a back deck, that space can be transformed easily into an outdoors/indoors area. Mr. Valle said screened porches “add quite a bit of value to the home,” in that they “add living space in a relatively inexpensive way.” Heat and electricity aren’t required. And, typically the entrance from inside the house is either a slider or French doors, which allow additional light to enter the home and when opened helps air circulate. He added, “A three-sided porch enhances views, adding a whole circumference,” especially for porches on upper levels of the home realtor.
Kate Plummer, a in the South Yarmouth office of Today Real Estate, agreed “A screened porch definitely adds value to homes on the market.” Ms. Plummer said it’s difficult to put a specific price value because there are a lot of variables to consider. She mentioned she had just been with clients that day who were looking at a home. “The woman was thrilled that the property had a screened porch,” she dais.
For do-it-yourselfers, the typical screening material is made of fiberglass, although aluminum and stainless steel also are used. The most useful mesh size is 18 x 14 (that is 18 holes across and 14 holes tall, per square inch). This size has plenty of openings for airflow, but they are tiny enough so flies and mosquitoes don’t pass through.
Screening is available in a few choices. Stainless steel is the strongest and the most expensive. It only comes in a shiny silver color that tends to magnify sunlight. Aluminum also is strong, flexible, moderately priced and comes in both silver and a non-reflective charcoal color. Fiberglass is the least expensive and comes in a range of colors, but it isn’t as durable as the other materials. So, if you have active squirrels or other critters wishing to see what’s inside the screens, it would be best to use tougher screening.
For added privacy, there is a type of screen with one-way visibility that doesn’t allow those outside to see in, yet allows porch occupants to see out.
One important thing to note is if you have an existing deck that will be refinished as a screened porch, just adding screen panels won’t be enough to insect proof. To properly seal off all access points, screening material should be affixed to the underside of the deck and to the overhead roofing.
Growing up, my family lived in a home with a screened porch. We used that space whenever we could. There were nice plantings and a few small trees outside that made it feel we were out in nature, even though we were only several feet from a neighborhood street. In summers, we had most meals out there, a side door led right out to the grill patio. Sitting out there in the evenings, we’d enjoy fresh air without getting bombarded by the legendary Jersey mosquitoes.
Our place didn’t have central air conditioning, so even when we were in the kitchen, we’d leave the door open onto the porch, which let in a cooling breeze that wafted throughout the house. And, at Christmastime, we put up our holiday tree out there, where it stayed fresher much longer.
Thinking back on that now, I plan to talk with my husband about enclosing our deck. It would be a nice space to introduce our grandkids to playing board games and lazily rocking in a porch swing. Simple pleasures.