Patio enclosures in Placentia CA - a patio room built for the way you use it

Choose screens if you mostly want bugs out and a breeze coming through, glass if you want to keep the yard view and the daylight, and insulated panels with windows if you want the room to hold its temperature and feel more private. That's how one sunroom company lays out the trade-off, and the key point is that screens won't stop cold, heat or rain the way glass and insulated walls do. If you want to sit out there in July and in January, I'd lean toward insulated walls, because that's the option built to hold temperature.

It has to be replaced or topped with solid panels, because one sunroom company notes that lattice and open-slat covers can't serve as the roof of an enclosed room as they are. I check the posts and beams on the first visit before I recommend one way or the other, since that decides whether the frame is worth building on.

Once the room is fully walled in, built to be heated or cooled and open to the house, an industry sunroom specification treats it as conditioned living space, and its windows and doors then need to meet thermal performance requirements along with air and water resistance. That's why I ask up front whether you'll heat or cool it, because it changes the windows, doors and walls we plan around. It's far easier to plan for it from the start than to add it later.

Put the effort into the roof and the glass. One sunroom company says an insulated roof panel upgrade can make the finished room far more comfortable, and Low-E glass, which is coated to reflect heat, is available for glass walls.

The city wants the application signed by the property owner, a California licensed contractor or the owner's authorized agent, and the contractor pulling it has to show government ID, a state contractor's card, proof of workers' comp and a Placentia business license number. We're licensed and insured and bring that paperwork ourselves. If your home is in an HOA, the city also needs a notarized letter of authorization from the association or management, so ask for it before we schedule anything. The city has also designated fire hazard severity zones, so it's worth asking the Building Division how they apply to your address.

The cost comes mostly from three choices, the walls, the roof and whether you heat or cool the room. Screen walls keep it on the lighter side, while glass, insulated panels, roof work and the windows and doors a conditioned room needs each add to it. I give you the figure in writing after I've seen your patio and cover.