A clean simple way to add a screen porch to your home.

Most of us nowadays think of aluminum storm windows and doors as a "normal" way to add screening to your home. With the focus of many people on having their homes covered in vinyl and aluminum to make them "maintenance free" a lot of homes lose their character, especially here in New England where we are known for beautiful homes. I'm going to offer up a different option that may appeal to you.  Hand crafted cedar screening on a porch. I will also say that in most cases using cedar and nylon screening is less expensive and will last just as long as prefab aluminum panels. 

 On this particular home, a reproduction cape style house, vinyl clapboard siding combined with vinyl trim moldings allowed us to balance ease of care and maintenance with the classic cape style found here on the Connecticut shoreline. The homeowners wanted to add a bit of wood to make the outside of their home feel warmer. We found untreated cedar to be the right answer. It offers the warmth of wood with the natural ability to resist the weather and rot. It will also weather to a natural light gray color which will add to the charm of the house.

Framing a rail out of cedar 2x4 and 4x4 posts gives an easy place to staple the screening which is then covered by the 1/2" by 1 1/2" strips ripped from the same cedar. very simple and easy to do. Stretching the vinyl screening takes a little time and practice, but can be done by any DIY homeowner. Replacing a torn screen is also easy, it takes about an hour to do, and it will look just like new.

 Taking time to lay out the pattern of the panels helps to make it appealing to the eye as well. I chose to leave the upper panels larger than the lower to allow better sight lines from inside. A few other tricks I used to make this screen room have clean lines are; I hid the screws used to install the rails and posts in inconspicuous places so they are not readily apparent. I drilled weep holes in the bottom 2x4 plate to let any water out that might get inside(the floor is pitched out as well). I also lined the screening up so the mesh is perfectly vertical and horizontal with no wrinkles in the fabric. 

 Oh yes, one last thing, No Painting! I almost forgot, to mention that the cedar is a perfect choice to leave in its natural state! It weathers to a nice light gray color and really takes very little maintenance.   

And that's about it! Not very difficult, but taking care in the design and installation makes it a beautiful clean porch that will last a lifetime.

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