Homeowners Corner: Screens of all kinds for your home by Michele Collins

It’s a warm summer night, there’s a nice breeze blowing and it’s time to relax. You head out onto your back patio to enjoy the evening and here come the bugs.
Adding motorized screens, a screen enclosure or a sliding door screen unit to your home allows you to enjoy the “outside” all year round. Investing in the addition of a screen unit will, without a doubt, allow you to increase your enjoyment of your home for numerous reasons.

  • Adding a patio/porch enclosure can increase the value of your home by 4-5%
  • A professionally installed screen unit or enclosure can retain up to 75% of its value over time.
  • Installing screens on your patio will also increase the square footage of living and entertainment space.
  • There are solar screens that can absorb a minimum of 50% of the heat and can go up to 75% depending on the type of screen that is installed.
  • They allow you to open your doors and enjoy the fresh air.
  • They can protect your furniture and patio floor from pollen and debris.
  • And, the best reason, they will keep out the bugs.
    Anyone with an open porch quickly learns how often they have to clean. Pollen that coats your floor and furniture, leaves and lawn trimmings, and not to mention the dead insects and rodents. A screened porch will still need cleaning, just as any room in your home does, but the screens will block much of the debris and save you a lot of cleaning time.
    If you don’t want to fully enclose your patio, the addition of motorized screen units may be for you. Motorized screens are extremely simple to use. Once installed, they can be raised and lowered with the simple push of a button. This option gives you the best of both worlds — an enclosed space when you want it and an open space the remainder of the time.
    Don’t lose the use of your patio just because the weather changes. Motorized screens offer a variety of options for any season. Use them to enjoy the summer breeze without irritating pests., lower them for privacy as you soak in the hot tub on cold winter nights. Retractable screens are as close as you get to being able to control Mother Nature. Enjoying the comfort of your patio is as easy as pressing a button.
    There’s also the option of a sliding door screen unit. You see these often in garages, but they can also be easily installed on your back patio. Whether you opt for a 2, 3 or 4 door unit may depend on the size of the opening where it is being installed. Each of the doors operates on its own track so you can open one door, slide them all the way to one side or keep them closed. The best part is that once they are all closed, you can lock them so that they can not be opened from the outside. The sliding door unit is the most affordable of the patio screening options.
    A full enclosure would be your other option. An enclosure gives you a whole new room for relaxing and entertaining. You can enjoy a beautiful day or evening with family, friends or just by yourself and you don’t have to worry about the bugs driving everyone indoors. A screened porch does the important job of keeping pests out, while still letting you take advantage of being outside.
    Each of these options requires that you have a slab, a roof, and pillars for installation. If that is not the case, you still have the option of shading your patio with a motorized awning. Easily installed, an awning allows you to enjoy your patio area in most weather.
    Awnings help to limit direct sunlight so that you can get more enjoyment form your patio space, they can protect your patio furniture and flooring from sun damage and supply the shade you need to really enjoy our outdoor space. When they are not in use, they can be retracted until you are ready to use them again. Awnings can also be installed over windows to block the sun, over your AC unit to keep it cool and inside your pool enclosure to give you a shady area.
    As you can see there are multiple options available that give you the opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors. All you need to do now is decide which you like best.