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The Perfect Porch
Screens let the outdoors in while keeping the insects out
Washington Post Photo
Bonnie Washington’s screened porch replaced a rarely used deck behind her house. It makes an ideal coloring spot for a young visitor.
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Published: August 2, 2008
WASHINGTON - One of the first things that Mary Henning noticed about her house in Arlington, Va., was the tiny bedrooms -- three small spaces with three little closets. Not so good. But her reservations disappeared when she stepped through the kitchen and saw the screened porch.
"I walked out onto the porch and thought, ‘Oh, my God. I love this house,'" Henning said. "The porch sold me."
To be sure, a screened porch has practical appeal. But another draw is its modest, old-fashioned charm, the jog of a childhood memory that occurs each time the screen door slaps against its frame. For both reasons, homeowners look to these sheltering spaces as the perfect place to while away the days of summer and beyond.
"We live on the porch all summer long and into the fall," Henning said. "We have meals, relax, entertain and sit during rainstorms.... It reminds me of a summer camp."
The popularity of screened porches, say builders and architects, is a function of the environment. "It's just a return to common sense about our climate," said Ralph Cunningham, the principal of Cunningham Quill Architects. "It's hot, it's humid and there are lots of bugs."
Two years ago, Cunningham's firm designed a porch for Bonnie Washington's house in Chevy Chase, Md. The existing deck sat unused in warm weather because the mosquitoes were so bad. "You'd be out there for five minutes and you'd want to pack it in and go inside," Washington said. Having three young children made things worse. "It's one thing for us to get bitten," she says of herself and her husband, "but it's another when (the kids) get bitten. And they were bitten a lot."
Today, the screened porch is one of the family's favorite living spaces much of the year. It's where the kids like to play games and do arts and crafts, where the parents like to watch the kids play outside, and where they have meals and entertain. They recently held a dinner party on the porch during a rainstorm.
Alexis Gentile Comrack spent her youth on her parents' screened porches, sleeping on them during the summer because the house had no central air conditioning. But it wasn't nostalgia that prompted the construction of a porch now being added to her home in Washington. "Seriously," she said, "it's because of the mosquitoes."
Her husband, Chris Comrack, is building much of the porch himself. He has hired subcontractors to help with the flagstone patio foundation, the copper roof and the gutters; he and his father will do all the framing, screening, painting and trim work.
Experts say that homeowners should expect to spend at least $30,000 for a well-built screened porch. Details such as a tongue-and-groove ceiling or recessed lighting cost more. "You're really building an addition," said Tim Burch, the president of the local chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry in Warrenton, Va. "You're just not adding heating and cooling."
In the end, Burch said, clients invariably feel that their porches represent money well spent. "Ten out of 10 clients who add them say it's the best thing they've ever done."
John Barrett, the owner of a building company in Laytonsville, Md., said that screened porches have been "the most significant part of (our) business" in recent years. "It's a very cost-effective way of increasing usable living space."
Chris MacBride and her husband, Neil, added a screened porch to their house in Arlington, Va., in 2004. They were inspired by a porch they had enjoyed while house-sitting as newlyweds 16 years earlier.
Their porch has a painted wood floor and a pale-blue beadboard ceiling. An end table fashioned from a Singer sewing machine base (her great-grandmother's) with a piece of glass on top sits alongside secondhand wicker chairs and a "nap-depth" sofa with cushions covered in outdoor fabric. "The kids come back from the pool and sit out there with wet bathing suits, and I couldn't care less," Chris MacBride said.
The porch acts as a summer family room where the MacBrides spend time together, read and play board games. It's put to good use in the winter months, too, as storage for muddy cleats, firewood and cases of soft drinks. "It's a fun space that I can reinvent to suit our needs," she said. "That's harder to do with an interior space."
Now the MacBrides' porch is the one providing inspiration.
The neighbors on one side recently added a porch, and the neighbors on the other side are having one built.
Three other friends in different neighborhoods also have added screened porches.
"We've inspired friends, and no one has been disappointed. It's contagious. Once you have a porch, you won't want to go back to not having one," she said.
Kate McCauley and her husband, Jim Balick, are renovating their house in Arlington. When the first set of architectural plans proposed enclosing the porch to expand the living room, their response was "absolutely not."
The porch is "tiny and nondescript, but it's a real part of our lives," McCauley said.
"It's messy with kids' gear and shoes and hockey sticks and baseball hats and balls ... but we have too many good associations. It's how we got to know our neighbors, and it makes all the difference in the world to us."
Before you build
Thinking of adding a screened porch? Here are some things to consider:
• PLACEMENT: Think carefully about where you situate a porch, builders and architects say. Ideally, the addition should not block the house's main view outside but should be built to one side. Before you build, be aware of how much sun your house gets and where, and how the porch will change that. If possible, the porch should not block light into the house or get too much direct sun during the day.
• LIGHT: A porch will reduce natural light in adjacent interior spaces. Adding skylights to the structure can replace some of that light. And the higher the roof, the more light is let in.
• BUILDING ON AN EXISITING DECK: In most cases, a screened porch cannot be built on top of a deck, experts say. Most decks cannot support a second story or a roof system. More likely than not, a deck will have to be reinforced or replaced with a sturdier foundation.
• MAINTENANCE: Screens have a tendency to pop out and can tear, so maintenance can be a factor.
• AMENITIES: Options have increased. Today's screened porches can be equipped with amenities once considered only for interior spaces, such as electric fans, recessed lighting, cable TV, cabinetry and fireplaces.
• SECURITY: If someone wants to break into a porch, he can.
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