Looking for Some Creative Ideas for 'Temporary' Screen Porch

14 years ago

We have a small beach house and wanted to add a screened in porch to the back of the house off the sliding glass doors in the kitchen.

Unfortunately when we looked into permits we discovered that we're in a wetlands zone and the cost for all the permits and hoops we'd have to jump through was more than the construction of the deck and porch. We don't have a fortune to spend on this. It's on a budget.

So I'm looking for some creative ideas. We are putting in a small outdoor shower, and we think we'll take the risk of just sneaking in the deck knowing that if by some chance we got caught we could take it down. But a permanent screen porch with roof might draw too much attention.

Our other deck option is a floating deck. This might be better because it's not permanently attached to the house.

I was thinking about just buying one of the screened gazebos for the deck and pushing it up to the screened doors, but that's not airtight or anything. But we could easily take it down if we had to and could take it down after the summer was over. We are also wired for electricity out there and had wanted to add a fan.

Anyone have another idea I haven't thought about? I like the shade sails, but they don't enclose the area, and we were hoping for something we could relax in day or night, even nap in.

Thanks!

Featured Answer

stu2900

14 years ago

Check out this site and look through the gallery. There are several setups that might work for you. I've really been studying the site and think this is the direction we're going to go instead of screening in our deck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mosquito Curtains

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Comments (8)

john_hyatt
14 years ago
What would it take to make the permit store happy. J.
gideonsmom
Original Author
14 years ago
Not feasible. They will require us to have an extensive site plan drawn up which will likely end up costing thousands of dollars and then it has to go before a board which can deny the request and/or ask you to make changes. This will cost more than the porch itself, and it's just a small ranch house that's been in the family that we've remodeled on the cheap and anybody new would tear down to build a big new house. :( Bummer. The porch would have been nice.
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john_hyatt
14 years ago
I would like to get thousands of dollars for a site plan no matter how many changes they wanted.

The permit store is not that hard to deal with a few questions before hand,a little leg work, plan drawn up with a scale ruler bang bang your done. Nothing you cant do yourself and defentley will not cost thousands of dollars. You just have to work with them not against them.

Depending on the power the permit store has combined with the lot restristion you signed on to in the deed sneeking in your project could very well cost you thousands of dollars not only with the price of the project going up and coming down but fines as well plus you could make bad will for any other project in the furture.

J.
gideonsmom
Original Author
14 years ago
Hi,
Thanks. We have looked into and indeed it will cost thousands of dollars. We also thought about drawing up plans ourselves but were flat out told that it's not a good idea because the board will shoot you down if it's not done to their approval. It's because of wetlands and conservation. Thanks for trying to be helpful, but that is just not option. I really did explore those options as I would rather do everything on the up and up. I think we will probably do the floating deck, which will not be tied onto the house.

I was really hoping for some advice on some other options for screening. I looked into the sunsetter awnings and they had a "screen room" option, but right now I guess I'm just leaning toward getting one or two of those shade sails because of price.
justme48
14 years ago
You wrote..."I was thinking about just buying one of the screened gazebos for the deck and pushing it up to the screened doors, but that's not airtight or anything."

Maybe you could put an arched trellis as close as possible to the house, stretch canvas over the arched part, and staple screening on the sides. You could line up 2-3 trellises together to get the length "walkway" you need to get to the gazebo. It's still not airtight, but it might work okay.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}
kterlep
14 years ago
Why not a shade sail with a gauzy fabric that would be rolled up most of the time but could be unrolled and tied down when you will be out? In my experience, the problem with temporary gazebos is that they fall apart in the wind. You would have a secondary issue that the shade sail is not engineered to hold the weight of the screen plus the wind the screen walls catch, so it would have to be a light fabric whatever you use (and again, I would suggest something you can roll up).

I am going to be adding some cheesecloth-like fabric (not sure what I will use yet, maybe even old lace curtains, thinking "shabby chic") to my victorian kitchen porch so we can sit on it-it will add shade and bug protection. But I will do it so that I can roll it up into the roof if the wind is bad.

We had one of those $300 gazebos (I think it was 10x10 or 12x12 when we lived in Illinois and it barely lasted the season before the wind sheared it. I think it was aluminum.

Also, have you looked into solar fan options?
loves2read
13 years ago
what did you decide to do about adding that screened outside area?