Adding patio screens or screen rooms for decks will really make a huge difference in how hospitable your outdoor living areas can be. By providing cooling shade from the sun when it’s lower in the sky, to keeping out insect pests, to allowing you and your family an area of increased privacy, patio screens certainly bring a lot to the table.
Adding screens for patio use doesn’t just affect the livability of your patio either, it can actually increase the comfort of your indoor environment as well. This is because you can more readily open up areas of your home to facilitate air movement, without having to worry about insect pests getting into the home.
The Ins and Outs of Home Efficiency
The best things you can do to lower your energy bills is to add features to your home which will passively cool the home in summer, open up your home to improve airflow, and allow you to spend more time comfortably outdoors. This is an area where screen houses for decks and other types of patio screens really make their mark, as they help to address all three issues at the same time.
First of all, patio screens will help to reduce the amount of direct sunlight and other intense glare from entering into the house through windows. While not as important in regards to this factor as an overhead canopy on your deck or patio, it’s still quite helpful. You might be surprised at how much energy is reflected off dull gray patio slabs and up through windows or open doors. Drop down patio screens allows you to further control the amount of sunlight, direct or not, that will be warming your home.
Second, by creating a screen house on your patio, you allow yourself to keep the door into your house open without worrying about letting in annoying pests at the same time. Similarly you can open up your windows that are inside the screen house as well. While you can do the same thing with windows and doors that have their own screens, it may not be quite as effective since screens do limit airflow somewhat, and so having them outside the cooling effect of the patio canopy is more efficient than having them between the house and this cool body of air.
Third, with a patio screen house you have a wonderful place for you and the family to spend time in the fresh air and enjoy the beauty of your landscaping. This can be a great benefit to the health of your family, and gives you other options to pursue at times rather than to sit inside and participate in activities that are generally using a lot of electricity. Given that you’re outside more, you can also reduce the amount of time that you run your air conditioning in those hot summer months, which can make quite a difference in your electric bills over time.
How to Screen in a Patio
Generally speaking, it’s not that difficult to screen in a patio. If you already have a patio cover of some sort, whether it’s a canopy or awning, there often will be screen panels specially designed by the manufacturer of your specific model. These are made so that they can just “snap in” or otherwise attach to the awnings and canopies, and can make the task exceedingly simple.
For this reason, if you are looking to add canopies and awnings to your deck or patio, it’s a great idea to make sure that the models you choose either have built in screens, or are designed to have screen panels added in later if you so choose. This gives you maximum flexibility in regards to how you use your decks and patios later on, and makes sure you won’t have to spend a lot of time and frustration while searching for a compatible product.
If you have a custom canopy or awning, you might be facing a bit more of a challenge in this regard. This is especially true if your patio covering has uncommon dimensions. There are screen products that you can use to create a screen house out of just about any shape or size of patio roof or cover, but doing so will take a bit of extra work and perhaps require you to do some modifications on your own.
If worst comes to worst, you can simply buy a roll of screen mesh and make your own screens. This requires some skills with sewing, which is usually seen more as an interior decorating skill than exterior. If you want though, you can create more sturdy screens by building wooden frames that can be attached to the patio roof. This is a way for the handyman to approach the project if they aren’t so handy with a sewing machine. The problem here is that it may be more difficult to raise the screens when you want to, and so it’s more likely to be a solution for permanent fixtures.
Enjoy the Comfort of Your Screened Patio
After all the hard work (or not so hard work) of screening in your patio, take the time to enjoy it often. It’s sometimes easy to forget to take time out of our busy days to relax and enjoy the beautiful features we spend so much money and effort building for our homes and yards. A patio that has been screened off is a great asset to help ease away worries and stresses while you relax outdoors. Don’t let all your efforts go to waste by taking it for granted!
