3 season vs 4 season?

July 7, 2013 10:02 AM

We're looking at adding to our crappy 1980s colonial a room off the kitchen where the sliders are. We have a large deck back there and could keep part of the deck while adding a 3 season (or patio room) off the back. Our house faces east with the rear of the house getting the sun in the afternoon - but only for a little bit since we have a hill directly behind the deck. I'm wondering what others have done? We are torn between making it a 4 season room simply to be able to use in the winter. However I like the openess of a 3 season room and really want to avoid in our area having the 4 season room count against us in property assessment.

I don't need to know anything about the build. That much I know on my own. What I'd like to know is if you've built one or bought a house with one , did you use it as much as you thought? What would you change? What made it great or what made it not so great? Do you find you wanted to use it more (making it a 4 season) or less (making it a 3 season)?

posted by lasamana to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Best answer: I screened in a porch in a house I used to live in. We were out there all the time, even in winter. And that was just screened in. I moved away but I was considering making plexi plugs for the windows so I could use it more.
posted by nevercalm at 10:07 AM on July 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

What is the winter climate like where you live?
posted by Jacqueline at 10:32 AM on July 7, 2013

Best answer: A colleague of mine had a glassed-in porch that was in theory a three-season room, but got so warm from the exposure that it functioned as a four-season room. (Yes, I can speak from firsthand experience!) And we're in upstate NY, which is not exactly Los Angeles in the winter.
posted by thomas j wise at 11:40 AM on July 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I can't imagine the tax burden on one extra room is going to be that much. Also, screened porches or 3-season rooms are also going to increase your property value and therefore your taxes. So I would leave that consideration out.

But as thomas j wise says, it's quite possible to design what is, for tax purposes, a 3-season room that is, for practical purposes, really a 4 season room. If you insulate it well, above and below, use double-glazed windows (maybe casement type so they open wide and really give you that screened-porch feeling), and put in some heavy drapes in the winter, you may be able to get away without installing heat.

I also screened in a porch, pretty much lived there in summer. I probably should have turned into 3-season room with glass. And if I had, I probably would have wished I made it 4-seasons.
posted by beagle at 1:28 PM on July 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I'm in CT by the RI line. It really only gets super cold for about a month.
posted by lasamana at 4:49 PM on July 7, 2013

Best answer: My house had a "3 season" room that we recently tore down and replaced with a 4 season room with lots of windows. Scare quotes used because we could only use it briefly in the spring and fall--it was way too hot in the summer and too cold in winter. It still feels light and airy, but we can get a lot more use out of it as a 4-season room.
posted by Empidonax at 8:47 PM on July 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My house has a 3 season porch/room (also in CT). Since I smoke out there, I decided to put in an electric fireplace heater, which works pretty well. It's a relatively large space so it takes an hour or so to become comfortably warm. Luckily it has a remote so I can start it from inside. Plus, during the rest of the year, I can turn on just the fake fireplace effect which is kind of nice. It also becomes very hot in the summer, and I've had fleeting thoughts about putting in an air conditioner. Most bothersome, though, is that I keep plants out there, and some of them have to be brought in for the winter. Despite all of that, I still love it.
posted by eunoia at 9:58 PM on July 7, 2013 [1 favorite]