If engineered properly, sunroom additions are designed to hold up to the same wind speed as the rest of your house. In the case of homes built in coastal regions, that means the sunroom structures should be built to resist hurricane force winds. The specific windows chosen for sunroom play a role in the resistance. For example, not all windows in porch enclosures are necessarily hurricane rated. Check with your local building department on what local requirements are needed for your sunroom.
While not all sunrooms are usable at “habitable areas”, it is possible to have a sunroom that meets standards of a living room, office or even a bedroom. To use a sunroom in this manner, the windows must meet code standards including DP rating required for living areas, energy code rating and egress openings (for bedrooms). Other code requirements will include items ranging from smoke detectors to storm protection for windows to minimum headroom (amongst other items). *It is possible in most municipalities, including those around Myrtle Beach to build sunrooms that are only intended to be non-habitable porch enclosures and do not require all of the items listed above.
Your existing screen porch can usually be converted to a sunroom as long as the original structure is built to current building code requirements and the existing porch does not have any rotting or other deficiencies. Some screened porches may require additional structure or partitions to fit a window system.
If doing a full sunroom addition with a roof and enclosure the install can take 3 to 6 weeks. Sunrooms that are just enclosing existing porches can be as quick as 2 days and as long as 4 weeks depending on features chosen.
There are different ranges of sunroom window prices. A 4 track enclosure such as Porch Conversions or Eze Breeze are the best cost points. Single pane glass windows can be about 50% more than the 4 track enclosure and a double pane window with energy efficiency rating and high wind rating can be twice as much as single pane windows.
Traditionally, a 3 season sunroom is not insulated and has no HVAC. The 4 seasons sunroom is built with insulated glass (often including Low E for keeping down solar heat gain) and insulation in the walls and ceiling. While a 3 seasons porch is going to get you through most of the year including the moderate portions of the hotter and colder months – certain times of year may be less enjoyable due to extreme heat or cold. Meanwhile a 4 seasons porch allows year round usability through a heating and cooling system. Usually a mini-split system performs well for a 4 seasons sunroom.
Your sunroom can get hot at certain times of the year due to solar heat gain. In particular room exposures where direct sunlight gets into the porch more easily and can heat up the room more quickly. In those cases, an insulated glass window with Low E will help tremendously. There are also higher rated Low E such as Low E 366 which block out significantly higher levels of solar heat. Other ways to keep your room cooler are with higher rated insulation in your ceiling area.