Converting enclosed patio to 'real' construction

15 years ago

Our house has what I guess you could call a patio room, or maybe a 3-season room. This room has metal strips that hold thin fake stucco walls in between the strips. The windows aren't even glass, but some sort of thick plastic in metal frames. The roof is beams stretching from one side of the room (at about 7.5 feet height) to the other side (about 10 foot height) -- no insulation or anything, but covered with the same shingles as the rest of the house. The roof is being held up with heavy beams at the corners of the room (on the outside). The floor is at the same level as our outdoor patio, and is about 2 inches lower than our regular house slab. This was all permitted work done long before we bought the house, so I'm assuming this was all done correctly.

The room originally had that awful wood siding stuff as the wall material on the interior; we covered that with thin drywall so we could at least have a normal painted look, and put some tile down in the room to replace the awful parquet that used to be in there.

The problem with the room is that it's hot as heck in the summer, and freezing in the winter. So we can really only use it for a few months of the year, and honestly, I'd like to make it into a "real" family room that could be an actual part of the house, with heat/AC, carpeted flooring, etc.

From what I've described, do you think it's possible to convert this room to regular 2x4 construction, by leaving the ceiling as-is, and putting regular walls in place of the fake ones? Does code require an insulated ceiling? (I recognize that the room would not be perfectly warm without ceiling insulation, but having real walls and windows would probably help some!) Would we have to pour a new floor to bring it to the height of the rest of the slab? I know that code is different depending on where you live, but I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of doing anything like this before.

Featured Answer

Billl

15 years ago

Without seeing it, I would suspect you would be able to reframe and insulate the exterior walls with little problem. It doesn't sound like they are supporting anything.

For the ceiling, if it is just beams, you could sprayfoam the voids and drywall over it.

For heating, have you looked at radiant flooring as an option? IF you are on a slab, your options for running ductwork for forced air may be pretty limited.

Overall though, it sounds like you need a pro to come out and give you some options. It sounds like you have an open mind and reasonable expectations, but just need a little guidance as to a practical and cost effective way to get there.

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Comments (7)

chris8796
15 years ago
My first question would be does the slab have footings/foundation to support exterior walls or is it a floating slab with only the posts supporting the roof on a foundation? Eventhough the wall is not load bearing, you don't want your wall of glass windows moving.

Some states have adopted very strict energy efficiency codes now, so any "conditioned space" would need to comply with those. I was suprised to see our exterior walls are now required to be R-20 and ceilings R-38, under 2009 IECC.
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Stacey Collins
15 years ago
We did this!!!

We live in Maine. The 1956 house we bought had a "sunroom" that looked like it had originally been simply a concrete-pad patio area. Sometime in the 80's it had been converted to living space by adding 4" framed walls, windows, roof, baseboard heat, woodstove, and carpet on the concrete pad. It was VERY COLD in winter, needless to say.

We did not have the budget to completely rebuild it, so we kept the roof. (We did have spray-in-place foam installed to create a "hot roof", then sheetrocked an normal cathedral ceiling over it.) The roof was propped up and the walls removed. A proper framed floor was built on top of the concrete pad, and insulated. New proper 6" exterior walls were framed and insulated. New windows and door were installed (actuually re-used some of the existing Andersen casements we'd removed), and the interior was finished like a normal space, with hardwood floors, baseboard heat, etc. We then removed the old exterior wall that used to separate the house from the "sunroom" and opened it up to one large space. It's very snug and comfortable now!!

We did have an architect and engineer evaluate the existing concrete slab to make sure it was OK to build the new floor/walls on.

I can post photos if you want.
dbdur
12 years ago
staceyneil

We are thinking of doing this with our 3 season room. I would love to see your pictures. It sounds sort of like the same scenario we're dealing with. If you dont mind can I ask what your cost was?
Thanks
hosenemesis
12 years ago
dbdur, you may want to try sending a message to staceyneil by clicking on her name, since this thread is so old.
Renee
JC Salvador
10 years ago
collins design, can you please send me pics of the finished room. I'm looking for some ideas for the enclosed sunroom we have. i would appreciate it thanks!
JC Salvador
10 years ago
collins design, how much did you pay for the remodel of your sunroom?