Three Season Room Project  – March 21st 2010

On March 21st we broke ground on a three season room project. With today’s rising fuel prices, it makes more sense to find that  “get away” feeling without having to leave home.  This project may help you learn how to accomplish some basic planning, demolition and construction tasks which could help make your dream of a three season room more affordable.  Always check with your local town or village and get the proper building permits. We already have plenty of living space, so the three season room option was better than a four season room which could increase our property taxes. Our back patio area really needed a face lift and by adding the roof, screens and vinyl windows, we’ll be able to use our hot tub more in the cold snowy winter months.

Last year we had several contractors bid on this project, but they were all way overpriced while using what I considered “cheap” construction methods using SIP panels, which are fine, but not my favorite construction technique.  This three season room design uses traditional stick construction built on top of a traditional deck frame.  The roof system consists of 8 engineered trusses with a  6/12 exterior pitch and a 3/12 interior pitch which will provide a nice inside cathedral ceiling that will later be covered with cedar or bamboo boards. Since there will be a hot tub inside the structure, I am building the deck and wall framing with all pressure treated lumber. The floor will not be decked, but rather covered in 3/4″ treated plywood sub floor, then covered with a yet to be determined floor covering. The prices we were quote for this projected ranged from $25,000 to over $47,000.  My three season room plan will cost around $8k to complete.

We will be using “Eze Breeze” vinyl screen windows and transom windows to prevent too many birds from crashing to an untimely death. Our current patio windows seem to be a favorite place for birds to crash & burn into. This entire three season room design idea will eventually be offered as a detailed plan set at barplan.com – but for now, this blog series will help any do-it-yourself builder proceed on their own with confidence.

The image at left shows the CAD rendering of the completed three season room.

Designed for upper Midwest region (snow loading) using engineered scissor truss (6/12 – 3/12)
Room dimensions: 14′ deep x 30′ wide. 24″ overhang.

Contractor price quoted as: 25k – 47k
My DIY cost, about 8k complete.

Use this article as the basis for your own three season room plan. It’s easier than you think and a little elbow grease will save you thousands over a contractor and will provide a nice bit of sweat equity in your home.

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Once this project is completed, we will offer this as a plan set with 3D CAD drawings and many more photos.

Follow along with us for the next few weeks while we knock this project out. Click here to view all of the three season room construction project entries. You can also see my now completed 2008 Garden shed & greenhouse project under the Construction category.

After it’s initial release, we have found the CHBD 2.0 (Custom Home Bar Designer) Resizing Web Tool is working out well, but is in need of a few enhancements, so I am working on getting version 3 out as soon as possible to include the following:
1. Full compatibility with MSIE ver 6+ AND Mozilla Firefox. That will make MAC users happy!
2. Improved user interface.
3. Many added admin side functions.
4. Provisions for multi-section modules.
5. Better user management.
6. Integrating the membership and CHDB databases.
7. Several other fixes.

After the release of version 3, expect to see a wild rash of new projects released that will allow for nearly an infinite number of bar size variations. Our database development will grow rapidly in 2009.
Version 4 will bring more surprises. But we’ll hold off on releasing any info at this time.
If you’ve tried the new CHBD 2.0, tell us what you’d like to see in the future versions and we’ll do our best to work them in. Thanks & Have Fun!