Francis J. Cuneo needed a sunny refuge–fast.
The retired Naperville prosecutor couldn’t retreat anymore to his home’s library. His grandchildren, ranging in age from 2 to 6, had taken over the room with their toys, books and singsong kids’ videos. Same with the den. And he wasn’t heading to Florida any time soon.
So Cuneo created his own oasis by adding a 16-foot-square all-glass solarium off the back of his kitchen. Now he’s there every day watching television, reading the paper or looking at the rain or snow falling on the roof.
“The cookie snatchers and the ankle biters . . . they don’t get into that room,” Cuneo said. “Neither do the dogs. That’s my last retreat.”
Updated from the days of smoked-glass, fast-food-restaurant-style solariums of the 1970s, prefabricated sun spaces can add both style and space, usually at a price below what most stick-built room additions would cost.
“It’s just an easy add-on,” said Jim Alyea, owner of Alyea Greenhouses Inc., a Wheaton company that sells and installs prefabricated sun spaces. “It’s a fairly inexpensive way to add a room with a lot of light.”
Spurred by changes in window technology, improved structural designs and a wider variety of styles, sales of factory-built sunrooms are growing at an annual rate of about 8 percent a year and are at $2.5 billion, according to Ducker Worldwide, a market research company.
Enclosures are either marketed as three-season or “seasonal” rooms not suitable for year-round use or as four-season, year-round rooms. “Approximately two-thirds of U.S. sales are four-season rooms, and we expect this to be the fastest-growing portion of the market over the next five years,” says Scott Shober, associate partner at Ducker Worldwide.
From the bottom, additions and sun spaces are a lot alike. Both require either a concrete foundation or pier supports that comply with local building codes. But the similarities end there. For a traditional room addition, contractors finish the walls and roofs on site from scratch. With prefabricated sun spaces, the glass and aluminum or wood-framed walls and roof arrive at the job site in boxes of pre-built panels or pre-measured parts. The contractor pieces the room together like a set of building blocks.
“They’re completely like an erector set,” said Bill Orange, president of UnderGlass Manufacturing Corp. in High Falls, N.Y., home to one of the industry’s oldest greenhouse and solarium manufacturers, Lord & Burnham, founded in 1849. “Everything is cut to size, the holes are in it, the gaskets are furnished. It’s just assembled in the field.”
Assembly may sound easy. But most manufacturers recommend installation by licensed, experienced contractors. In fact, installation by an inexperienced homeowner or contractor can lead to problems and voids most warranties, Orange said.
“It’s either going to leak forever or you have glass-seal failure,” Orange said. “And that’s what they don’t want.”
Shober also cautions that although some enclosures are marketed as four-season rooms, there’s a broad range of performance within the category.
“Subpar products might end with a leak,” he says. “Most important, you want to make sure the glass is insulated and has the appropriate solar coating. Many consumers are not aware of the importance of different glass technologies (R-values, solar control or low-emissivity coatings, tints, etc.) . . . but they can make a big difference in comfort, particularly when you have a glass roof.”
Experienced contractors can install a sun space in a matter of days. Once the foundation is in, contractors take between two to five days to complete the room. Less work means less cost–up to a 20 to 30 percent savings, Alyea said. After ordering a sun space, it typically takes between four and six weeks for the kit to show up on site, he added.
Homeowners’ biggest decisions are where to place their sun space and what style to choose, experts agree.
Today’s most popular sun space is a room with see-through walls and a solid–rather than glass–roof, said Dottie Michalski, Addison branch manager of Patio Enclosures, which sells prefabricated sun-space manufacturers and installers. The average sun space sold by her branch in 2004 cost just more than $15,000, Michalski said.
“[All-glass] solariums in this climate–while they’re gorgeous–are not that practical in most cases,” she said. “More and more, we’re seeing people go to the more traditional (sunroom). It makes it usable space without baking in the heat in the summer.”
Uses for sunrooms are as varied as the styles available. Many homeowners place their sun space directly off their family room, Alyea said. Another popular spot is off a walkout basement. Some use them for eating areas, others for relaxing space.
“We built a room so a guy had a place to smoke his cigars,” Michalski said. “People have all kinds of reasons why. It’s not a necessity–it’s fun.”
Sun spaces attach to the house either at the fascia board on the front of an existing eave or can be butted up to the home’s existing roof or walls. Lean-to spaces typically have a half-arch off the house. Or two lean-to sun spaces can be combined to create a peaked roof running perpendicular to the existing home.
One major difference between a sun space and conventional construction is the addition of dedicated heating and cooling systems to make it usable year-round. Once that’s added, the room becomes additional living space for tax purposes.
“It’s taxed more like a tool shed, if you will, if it’s a three-season room,” Michalski said.
But even in Chicago’s northern climate, the sun makes an unheated sun space usable during winter days, Orange said.
“Even if it’s 20 degrees outside and the sun’s shining on it, it’s 70 degrees inside,” Orange said. “But at night, the temperature’s going to drop.”
Homeowners should consider the placement of their sunroom to ensure they get the most use of the room. A southern or eastern exposure receives the sun’s morning and early afternoon rays. But if situated on the on the west or northwest side of a home, a sunroom is typically exposed to intense afternoon and early evening rays, presenting a risk of overheating.
“The biggest problem with any glass enclosure is cooling it–it’s not heating it,” Orange said.
Building in shade, though, is an option. Tints, coatings and shades allow homeowners to decide just how much sunlight to let in. Low-emissivity coatings keep heat in during winters and out in summer. Reflective glass also cuts heat from the sun. Manual and automatic shades are adjustable.
But Cuneo has enjoyed the sun’s warmth in his solarium even on a chilly 20-degree Chicago day. He loves looking at the outdoors, or catching a ray of warmth when it’s cold outside.
Despite that, he does have one complaint about his sun space.
“As in life, there’s a down side to everything: washing the windows,” he said, adding that hose-sprayed window wash about every three months does the trick.
Luckily, his grandchildren will be old enough to do that for him some day.
– – –
Putting together the pieces
Knowing the types of materials that go into a sunroom will help you select the room you want.
SUPPORTS
Vinyl (PVC): Vinyl is a highly insular, low-cost material that requires little maintenance. Most vinyl supports have an internal reinforcement of either aluminum or galvanized steel.
Aluminum: Similar to vinyl, aluminum is more expensive and not as good as an insulator. It is, however, stronger, which can make it a good choice for the roof structure. Many aluminum supports are vinyl-covered.
Wood: For traditional designs, wood is a popular option. It is more expensive and requires periodic maintenance.
ROOF AND WALLS
Usually sunrooms have glass walls. Roofs are a transparent glass or polycarbonate or can be opaque, made of foam-insulated sandwich panels faced in aluminum, for example. Glass roofs provide the best stargazing but are more expensive and usually require some form of shading. A double-glazed window is typical, but to maximize comfort and energy efficiency in a four-season room, you may want to upgrade the glass. Look for the Uvalue of the glass or polycarbonate. It’s a measure of how well the material prevents heat from escaping. Ufactor ratings generally fall between 0.20 and 1.20–the lower the number, the less heat passes through and the more energy-efficient the space will be. For example, new high-tech glass with low-emissivity coatings can cut down on ultraviolet radiation, and adding argon, an inert gas, brings extra insulating value.
Sources: Mike Fischer, technical director of National Sunroom Association; Conservatory buyersguide.com; www.fourseasonssunrooms.com
