Where you are may play a factor. A just screen porch is nice in a lot of places, most of them. But if you get much cold or crappy weather you can mostly enjoy it when it's nicer out. And you have to think about what is in the porch in the winter that you might not want semi-exposed. Or a way to close off/protect the screens in winter in some places. I think a screen porch is great and can allow more open views, but it's not enough mileage for some folks.

An enclosed porch can be more useful in some ways. Full windows can allow you to close them against poor weather, extending your time to use it. But it needs more structure and can block more views. I currently have a three season enclosed porch, and I love it. But if/when we rebuild it, it's likely going to be as a four season so I can better overwinter plants out there.

Fournier is in that FLW school open style, usually. You might want to do your porch in bigger panel screens or larger pane glass without muntins. If your concrete pad off the house is original, maybe take a cue from that for your style of concrete pad. I do suggest a concrete pad.

Northern new england here. we have to board up our screen porch in the winter or the wind will rip the screens out. If you live in cold climate, have the screens removable to store, or have boards or shutters made to protect. We sure love it in the summer!

We have a covered deck with heaters and no screens. We live in Vancouver and bigs aren’t really an issue. We sit outside every single morning, am typing from there now, and most evenings after dinner, other than dead of winter. The heaters work really well and I love the fresh air. We also have a large dining table and bbq out here. It is easily one of my favourite parts of our home.

I live in MN and no one removes their screens or boards them up in the winter, so I guess YMMV.

I like a full screen porch more than a 4 season room, personally. If you don't need the year round space, the full screened walls make you feel like you're outside without bugs, which is so nice in my area. I don't love the partial wall/window look of a 4 season room (here that's usually called a sun room). I'd rather have outside space.

In my area, a 3 season porch is defined by heating. If it has a heating source it's considered 3 season. My sister's screen porch is 3 season because they added a fireplace. Space heaters like west coast has would also be nice. I looked into those for our under-deck patio but decided against it. We don't really use our patio enough to justify the expense - we spend more time on our deck.

We also considered using motorized phantom screens on the porch below our deck, which would have been great. But we were quoted around $25k for that (2-16' screens and 3-7' screens), and we would have had to add drainage/screening to the underside of the deck, so we opted not to. If cost is not a big issue, I would look into phantom screens - if you'd ever like to NOT have the screens, that's a wonderful option and eliminates the concern over leaving screens up in winter.

Assuming you are building a structural screen porch and not buying one from costco, you will be adding a roof. You need to consider what that will look like, and how it will look attached to your current roof. You also need to consider what light you will be blocking in your house with that roof. We designed a custom home and put the screen porch off the side of the house so it had 3.5 exposed faces - only the width required for the door was attached to a wall of the house. That way we minimized the light we blocked in our home. (Unfortunately we didn't get to build it so I can't show pictures). It would have blocked only about 4' of our southern facing side, and in the later afternoon it would have blocked any western sun that would have made it into our living space, which was an absolute benefit to me.

Your roof will also need a foundation, so you will need to consider what sort of foundation you will have (spread footings or piles). In our area, we needed piles for our deck due to the crappy clay soil. If you have good soil (sandy soil) you could probably use spread footings, which are less expensive. The advantage of piles (we used screw piles) is that nothing will move or settle.

I grew up in a house with a screened porch (deck). My parents added a skylight to the roof, and that was wonderful. Their porch was on the east side of the house, and the skylight was on the southern slope of the roof, so the porch got a lot of sun in the morning.

I personally have not seen too many screen porches built on the ground. Most of them in my area are elevated, even if just a few feet, and use decking for the floor, so I can't really give advice on flooring on grade.

^ agree, love a screened in porch 😍 by us you see a lot of decking for flooring with screening below the flooring to make sure no bugs from below, I love a ceiling fan as well - you can also upgrade the screening so it is almost transparent

Love a screened porch. Never had one but my best friend does and it is always the top of my list when looking at AirBnBs. I find it irritating when only the upper half is screened and the furniture sits too low to really enjoy the full views. I love a full top to bottom screen.

Even if you live somewhere cold, it is great to sit outside in the fall with a down blanket and something hot to drink. It doesn't just have to be a summer space.

My friend is having to repaint and repair rot much sooner than I would have anticipated. Think about what it is constructed of, will there be any plants that hold moisture, or drop leaves of debris right next to it.

A friend has a slate floor on her screen porch. She has bird feeders outside and watching the birds is my favorite part of the porch. There are always plenty of birds to watch and quite a variety, too. If you've never had a bird feeder, it can take the birds some time to learn it's there.

It rains a lot, so she has a deepish overhang and the sofa is under it, so rarely gets that much rain on it. She has a woodburning stove in a corner to extend the season.

I love all of these ideas... thank you. I hadn't considered that I could add a heating source but still keep it a screened in porch. Brilliant. . . .yes it gets cold here in St Louis but with some heat I could get 3 seasons out of it. I had also been thinking of skylights or a ceiling fan.. A neighbor has a screened in porch ... and he has wall-mounted fans on the corners. I am thinking I could do that AND have my skylight.

I would love to have floor to ceiling screens but what to do about your dogs? I have two doodles (35 lbs and 48 lbs). They are three years old, so I don't think it would be a regular thing to run at the screens but... if there is a rabbit out there? who knows!? Do they make screens strong enough to keep dogs in?

Thanks so much for the comment about the light that will be blocked from the roof. There is one small window near the kitchen door that would be blocked and I had not thought about that. When I originally started thinking about a porch (and talked with another architect / neighbor who would love to be my architect but is too busy to take on a job) we talked about extended the roof out (which would limit our roof). But my contractor talked about the possibility of a gable roof. So we will see when they are here tomorrow.

I also thought I'd add. . .I mostly want a couple of comfortable chairs and small table (to sit, watch the birds, read outside). And a small table with 4 chairs to have coffee / eat outside. (I live alone but sometimes have my son and ex-husband over). I was originally thinking maybe 10x14 or 10x12 (shall see what architect says).

It's funny b/c I told my contractor-friend that we needed to get started on this (to the point where I have a bid) because I have some money saved to either (a) buy a car or (b) build a porch. And I don't have a good sense of what a porch will cost. So I'll find out soon. (Can't do both and luckily by 2013 Honda only has 173k miles on it so it has a few years left.)

This is all so helpful. Thank you.

I have just taken pictures of our screened porch. 7 years in and still looks new. Absolutely perfect for our Shenandoah Valley VA location. We have a North West/ North/ East view . Two skylights. Notice the window length. Perfect to see out into my extensive gardens and still have a wall. I don’t like the look of fully screened sides. The angle of the ceiling goes beautifully with our 1910 house. We get so many compliments. We have the gazebo, original to the house, for meals. The French Doors are our DR so we open those when we are entertaining. DR gets plenty of light from two other windows , one is under the open roof back porch area , one is in the screened area and one on the NW side.

The single door is our mud room and there is an entrance in it to a full bath with shower.

Any questions please ask. I think it is 14x16 . I can measure if need me to.

We have stacked screened porches, 11x31. Two large infrared heaters in the ceiling of each one that keep us warm for three seasons (central VA). No fans since the porches face ENE. Flooring on the bottom one is brushed concrete; upper is Trex. Screens are huge, as you can see - full view of the back yard!

Photos from before we moved in and obviously pre-landscaping:

Upper:

Lower:

Yes, they make screens that will withstand most dogs. I'm in FL so we have a large screened cage around our lanai/pool area. It took a while to get the screen cage installed so my 60 lb dogs had gotten used to running out into the yard. The first day they installed the screens one of my dogs ran straight into the screen and bounced off. They learned after the first day!

The same dog did rip one of the screens going after a lizard on the other side of the screen. She was using her teeth to try to kill the lizard and managed to rip one of the sections.