Screened Porches

The porch of a house serves as a place where one can sit and relax in the shade of the porch and enjoy the outdoors. But what happens during the summer season when there may be mosquitoes and other pests about and one does not want to sit on the porch and get stung by these pesky creatures. It is at these times that one yearns for a screened porch. Now to screen a porch one has a number of choices. One can use window type panels or have curtain type screens. The other solution is to have summer windows that one installs in the porch and take down during the winters.

Most of the older houses have wooden porches and they do really give the house its look. Now to screen these porches can require quite a bit of imagination so as not to spoil the overall look of the house. Secondly some porches may be stepped porches which are on different levels, so fitting in window type screens can be quite a task. If one is constructing a new porch then with a little foresight one can design the porch to have a screen that would not impair the look of the porch and the house.

There are two types of screens that one can use. One is screen fabric that is stretched over the frame and is stapled or joined using Velcro strips. Care should be exercised when stapling the screen that they are not too loose or too tight. Screen frames can be made of wood or aluminum and the screen fabric is fixed in the frames. Screen fabric is available in a number of colors so that they blend in with the décor of the house. If the screens are to be put in and taken off often then it would be best to use frames that have twist and snap locks.

If one wants to build a porch so as to get some additional living space then this opens up a variety of choices. One can get a wooden porch to give a warm look or a vinyl porch. If it is to be a screened porch then it would be more practical to keep the lines of the frames straight. This would allow easier installation of the screen fabrics. Plastic sheets are also another option of screened porches if one wants to keep the rain and the wind out. However one may start feeling stuffy in them

In screened porches there are basically two choices that one has. The first is to have a framed screen system and the other is to have screen fabric. If there is an open porch or a deck one could convert the entire deck into a screened porch or a portion of the porch could be converted into a screened porch. A screened porch is a nice place to relax, take a meal or just read the newspaper and watch the kids in the yard. The advantage of a screened porch is that it keeps the mosquitoes and flies away.

There are a number of designs for screen fabrics and frames that one can choose from and order. The builders of screen frames are usually very cooperative and might even go the extra yard to accommodate some changes in the design of the frames. Of course for the do it yourself types there are kits that they can select from or they can design and build there own designed screened porch. For easy construction and easy maintenance one can get a vinyl porch. However the wooden porch has a touch of its own and the aura of a screened wooden porch cannot be matched by a vinyl porch. Lanai is the Hawaiian word for a porch and Lanai screened porch are known for their line of aluminum screen porches.