Setting your Porch Renovation Budget

The temperate climate is one of the great joys of living in Upstate South Carolina. This beautiful weather begs for a screen porch on your home. In fact, with a couple of strategic features (more on that below), a screen porch can be enjoyed year-round! But what does it cost to build one?

This blog is part three of our "Setting your renovation budget" series (check out our Kitchen and Bath entries), where we seek to offer pointers, perspective, pricing, and tips for considering your project. As with each of these posts, if you're looking to scroll to the bottom and find "Your screened-in porch will cost ______ …", you won't find it. One of our core tenets is building personalized quotes for each client, considering taste, budget, size, etc. Renovation quotes aren't one size fits all but are tailored to fit you perfectly. One metric you commonly find, if you’re looking for a general number, is cost per square foot. While this can be a helpful guide, it doesn’t tell the whole picture (we wrote a blog about it here)

In general, the cost of the screened-in porch is the most misunderstood of all renovation projects. Often, clients think it's just framing and a roof, right? We'd ask, have you ever seen a framed home? Sturdy - yes. Pretty - no. In general, when you're thinking about the price of a screened-in porch, think about it as equivalent to one of the high-dollar spaces done to the interior of your home (think $300 sq/ft and up), like your kitchen or primary bathroom. While cabinetry, tile, fixtures, and appliances drive interior space costs, the materials, climate control, and features drive a porch's cost.  

Some things to consider that will impact the price point of your porch:

What is your porch attaching to, and how is it attaching?

Unless you're building a stand-alone porch, it'll be tied into your home somewhere. If it's tying into an existing deck but is a splintery, warped mess, we'll need to repair it before attaching it. If it's connecting to your home, depending on what's going on in the home's guts, that could also impact the price point.

The existing and new porch roofline.

Your roof will attach to your existing roofline or the side of your home, so the slope, pitch, and type of the roof will impact the bottom line. If it's attached to the side of your home, window and vent locations can also affect the cost. If it can be a simple extension of the existing roofline, it's a straightforward process. It'll cost more if your roof has gables, different slopes, different angles, and enough dormers to spin a NASA physicist's head.

Is anything in the way?

HVAC. Electrical box. Gas line. A massive oak tree. Anything can be moved (or removed, in the case of the tree), but it will add cost. Given each of the utility elements connect to your overall homes systems, these can quite easily become multiple thousand dollar items that are costs completely unaffiliated to the porch build itself. Anytime these can be avoided, it’s recommended.

The porch materials

When considering the porch materials, the primary options are pressure-treated lumber or composite materials. Composite materials like trex and timber tech are fantastic. They last decades and have plenty of color and texture options to tie well to your home's style. However, these materials cost about five times more than traditional pressure-treated lumber. However, You won't have to paint or stain the composite, so you will recoup the cost and time on that front. It'll also never warp or rot.

Climate controlling

One of the great joys of a porch is spending an evening outside, yet still being comfortable even when the temperature shifts out of that 60s to 80s sweet spot. For those chilly nights, we've installed (to rave reviews) ceiling heaters like these. When the weather warms up, installing a quality outdoor fan like this makes even the hot, sticky summer weather comfortable.

Other cost driving features include:

Decorative trim: this includes tongue and groove ceilings, custom railings, and accents.

Open gables & wood beams: The open gable brings in more light and the views you want, and the exposed wood beams add the mountain cottage look.

Fireplace: big statement, big price point. To add a fireplace, you can expect to add an extra 15-25% to the overall budget. One thing to note on the fireplace: it's great for ambiance, but if you want heat, we recommend heaters for efficiency.

Grilling area: adding a smaller (uncovered) side deck to the porch is a fantastic feature if you'd like to bring your grill up next to your porch.

Making your elevated deck a roof: you can completely waterproof the underside of your deck, screened-in or not, and create another outdoor hangout space. With this, you have a couple of options: aluminum or Trex. The aluminum option keeps the water away, but you can't finish the underside of the deck (it'll look nice, but it's not customizable). If you want the custom option, you can go with the Trex rainescape, which installs in between the bottom of the deck and what will become a roof.

So to conclude:

• Screened-in porches in the Upstate are one of the best investments you can make in your home for year-round enjoyment.

• When setting a budget for your screened-in porch, consider it an interior space comparable to your kitchen (starting around $300 sq/ft).

• Consider the surroundings—what it ties into above, beside, and below. All these things can impact price.

• There are many unique features and add-ons to consider for a screened-in porch, which can (as with anything) impact the price. However, the good news is that you can customize your porch to fit the taste and style of your existing home.