Screened Porches

Converting a deck, or building new

If you already have a sound deck in the right place, screening it in is often the cheaper route to the space you actually want. The deciding factors are whether the framing can carry a roof, whether the posts land where they need to, and the height and pitch you can get without fighting the existing roofline.

Where the deck is undersized, low, or in the wrong spot, building purpose-made is usually the better answer — a porch designed as a porch from the framing up avoids a lot of compromises.

Screen choices

Things worth deciding early

• Ceiling. An open rafter ceiling feels bigger; a finished one feels like part of the house and hides wiring.
• Floor. Standard decking works, but a covered porch stays wetter for longer after rain, so gapping and drainage still matter.
• Door swing. Where the screen door lands decides your furniture layout more than people expect.
• Fans and lighting. Much easier before the ceiling goes up.
• Future glass. If you might enclose it properly one day, framing for that now is far cheaper than retrofitting later.

The season it buys you

A screened porch adds usable weeks at both ends of the year — spring evenings before the bugs arrive in force, and autumn nights when the deck is otherwise too cool to sit out comfortably. That is the practical argument for it over an open deck.

Common questions