Conference 7.286::home_work

    re .0	I can't help with your basic question, but I'll pose
    a different one to you.   Would a greenhouse  "work"  on a deck ?

        I believe that greenhouses for growing vegetables need a lot of
    thermal storage, typically the ground provides this, sometimes its
    supplemented by a few inches of crushed stone on the floor that is
    also there to help drainage, often the shelving is put on 30,
    50 or 60 gallon water filled drums, this adds more thermal storage
    too.  I don't know if you're really planning to grow much in this
    greenhouse, but it would seem difficult to add enough thermal mass
    if it is on a deck.
    
    	R
    

    Ref .1, if I planned to use it for growing, you're correct, but
    all I want it for is a sun room. In their brochure, the vast majority
    of the "Vegetable Factory" rooms were used as a sun room, without
    the large thermal mass needed for solar. 
    
    Eric

    Am interested in any feedback anyone may have regarding Four Season
    sunrooms ? 
    

    I have one.  What do you want to know??
    
    

    any info you may have.  Do you use it all year round ?  Type of glass ?
    Can they custom design ? etc...
    

    Did you have it installed on a concrete slab ?  How long did it take 
    to install ?  Would you recommend this type of addition ?
    

    My parents have one.  It was installed on a slab, took about 2 weeks
    from start to finish.  They installed it on the livingroom side of
    their ranch, so they now have a small livingroom, go down 3 steps, and
    into the sun room.  The only small drawback I can see it that it is
    VERY WARM during the summer.  They had to purchase solar screens the
    first year, because it was unbearable.  But it's a delightful room, and
    really opens up an otherwise boxy, cramped ranch.  

We have a 14X21 foot 4 season sun room build from components provided by
Northern Sun - a company in either Washington or Oregon, if I remember
correctly.  Two sides are totally glass panels set in Calif. cedar wood
frames.  One wall is a sliding glass door and a window, one wall backs up
to the house.  The ceiling has 3 sky lights.

I resisted the builders advice and left the wall between the room and the
rest of the house intact.  In the winter I leave the door to the dining
room and the window to the kitchen open and let the heat flow from the
house to the sun room.  We have electric heat in the sunroom, but never
need to use it.  (I have a long length of track lighting that provides a
lot of heat a lot more quietly than the electric heaters, any only heats
when the room is used since the lights of off otherwise.)  During the
hottest days of the summer, I open the skylights and some of the windows
and close the openings to the house to keep the heat from the rest of the
house.  I also have a thermostatically controlled vent fan that turns on at
when ever the temp gets above what I set it to. 

The windows are double paned and self venting so that even on the coldest
day I never get steam or condensation on any of them.  The sky lights are
mounted in such a way as to be able to leave them open even in a heavy 
rain.  THey only way water comes in is if they are opened very wide and a
wind blows the water in from the sides.

I have a lot of plants in the room, and some of them are sensitive to 
extreme temp fluxuations, but they do very well in the room.  (And I have 
to keep moving the furniture closer together because they are taking over!)
 
The foundation is ordinary concrete support columns, with one corner 
cantilevered out to meet code re: distance from the septic tank.  The 
underside is very well insulated plus has 1 1/2" plywood under about 3"
of concrete and ceramic tile.

We have had absolutely no problems with the room but did have some trouble
with the contractor when it was being built.  The 3 month project stretched
into 12, but that's another story.

We really love the room, and it's all the better because it faces South 
into a wooded area of the yard.

    Does anyone know of any other outfits in the Southern New Hampshire area
    that specialize in adding sunrooms, other than Four Seasons in Amherst?

    	Dick Howe of Sunrise Builders in Milford did a nice one for me... 
    Not the pre-fab variety.  They framed up the room and used 4x8 fir
    beams for the roof.  They later set 3'x10' pieces of glass in a rubber
    and metal system on top of the beams.
    

    	Saw what looked like a nice pre-fab system outside the Manchester,
    N.H. Home Quarters, then I asked for a price. It was $85 / sq. ft.. 
    Ouch !!! A 10x10 room would be $8500. I'm not sure if it includes a slab 
    too, but it should for that price.
    
    	Ray

    
    Yup... Home Depot stores in the area have all recently built some nice
    looking woodframe prefab's inside the store. 
    
    				

    re:-1
    
    	Actually, for the ones at Home Depot, they worked out to be a bit
    less. I priced one that was about 10'x14' (rough guess) and it worked
    out to be just under $10K including the site work (slab and sub floor).
    It could be had for less if you wanted to install it. Works out to about 
    $70 / sq. ft.. These also came with some nice French doors.
    
    	Ray

       I have a "Four Season's" Glass Sunroom attached to the back of my
    house that see's direct sun for about 8 hours each day in the summer.
    I plan on adding solar screens or shades to the room and am looking for
    a mail order source so that I can install them myself. I've searched
    the Web and have a couple of leads, but would like some further
    options. Has anyone purchased these shades for a sunroom (curved eave)
    from either a mail order or sunroom store that they'd feel comfortable
    recommending? Any idea of the price per section? My room is 8 sections
    long (about 21 feet). I'm interested in spending as little as possible
    for them. Thanks for your help.
    
    Bob