Help with lean-to greenhouse purchase

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by Akhenaten

Oh, it's chimney

Yes. Old chimney that used to be vent for wood burning kitchen stove, and upstairs stove for house heat on second floor. Now I get it!

[piping plover]

WW, I’m curious about insulation and heating in your sunroom. Your room looks cantilevered about a foot over the first story. Did you need to consider insulating under the sunroom floor that extends out unprotected over the outdoors air? Or is it so minimal that the sunroom minimum temperature is good enough? Do you have heating in your sunroom or does the first floor rising heat maintain an acceptable minimum temperature in the sunroom? Thanks!! I am taking notes for my own possible sunroom / screen porch conversation.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by piping plover

WW, I’m curious about insulation and heating in your sunroom. Your room looks cantilevered about a foot over the first story. Did you need to consider insulating under the sunroom floor that extends out unprotected over the outdoors air? Or is it so minimal that the sunroom minimum temperature is good enough? Do you have heating in your sunroom or does the first floor rising heat maintain an acceptable minimum temperature in the sunroom? Thanks!! I am taking notes for my own possible sunroom / screen porch conversation.

No insulation. Both it (sleeping porch) and room below (mudroom) are an unheated addition to the house. And with that many windows, insulation wouldn't do much. The overhang is minimal and has a dead-air space under it, as the house and porch have vinyl siding now and the soffit is covered.

They're old style double hung windows, and have the old aluminum storm windows covering them. No heat duct out there. Leaving the door that leads from the porch into the laundry room (former bedroom) open provides part of the heat. Just plain old rising heat and very old house. I will have a very small space heater that I used in the basement to bump up the heat in the coldest months and at night. It ran most of the time when in basement, so should be about the same upstairs. Since we have three 1500 watt heaters going on water tanks in winter for horses and livestock, running it is a drop in the bucket moneywise.

In cold months, we set downstairs thermostat at 65-68F. At times upstairs heat gets uncomfortable. We leave windows open a few inches at night in bedroom, or it would be too warm.

The roof isn't insulated, and is presently leaking a bit more than I thought. It's an almost flat roof, covered in tarpaper roll roofing. We want to put a metal roof on top of it, but haven't found anyone to do the work yet. Go figure.

I also plan on making curtains out of a couple of old quilts and leaving two north windows and one northeast window covered during winter months.

[Dollythehun]

PP, we added an unheated sunroom in 2010. It has a block foundation and an insulated floor with tile. Two sides attach to the house and it faces south. It was costly to run the ducts and our furnace may not have handled it either. I put an electric fireplace out there. You could just as easily hang baseboard heaters on the walls, if you could spare the space. It stays pretty warm with little effort. The biggest problem is mildew on the windows from the high humidity. Easily taken care of with bleach spray. We run a ceiling fan on high all year.

My husband uses the analogy "speed costs, how fast do you want to go." While others on the OB may be skilled, spry, or well heeled enough to "go faster," we took the most practical, economical ways.

[Akhenaten]

I like it. Wonderful practical solutions, as if my grandmother had in my childhood in the deep USSR

[Dollythehun]

Originally Posted by Akhenaten

I like it. Wonderful practical solutions, as if my grandmother had in my childhood in the deep USSR

Yes, my Busha from Poland, too.

[piping plover]

WW,

thank you for the detailed reply. Very helpful. So, the dead space below overhang and the rising heat along with space heater gets you through the coldest nights it seems.

And Dolly, our jacuzzi tub room is similar to what you described for your room conversion. Thanks!

We converted our jacuzzi tub room from unheated to fully heated several years ago. We retrofitted block crawl space beneath it. The tub pipes froze one winter so that’s what drove that conversion and the orchids gladly benefited.

So NOW, we are thinking of converting our OTHER screen porch into a year round sunroom with heating. This room was built on a wooden deck and is entirely extended out over the ground, cheap screen windows and no crawl space whatsoever. Four feet above grade. Unheated, the room gets 5 or 10 degrees F above outdoor minimum at night. In RI winters I cannot keep my orchids in there from November to March. Absent of building a retrofitted foundation, do people just insulate under the floor boards and then seal with typical outdoor house siding? With legit heat eventually installed and the French doors open to interior of house I would think that is okay for the orchids. Any one have experience /ideas on this? Also, this is the sunroom that I was considering adding small skylights to. Photo below.

[Dollythehun]

PP, which way does this face? Obviously more than one way. My greenhouse window faces north with a small west and east panel. It has insulation in the base but is not connected at the base to the house. Like WW, it just juts out. I have to run a tiny heater on the worst winter days. I'm sure someone will have other thoughts but, you could stud the bottom out heavier and lay in extra styrofoam, then cover it. But, what's in the walls and ceiling?

[piping plover]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

PP, which way does this face? Obviously more than one way. My greenhouse window faces north with a small west and east panel. It has insulation in the base but is not connected at the base to the house. Like WW, it just juts out. I have to run a tiny heater on the worst winter days. I'm sure someone will have other thoughts but, you could stud the bottom out heavier and lay in extra styrofoam, then cover it. But, what's in the walls and ceiling?

Dolly, it faces south, and has east and west walls. The north side is attached to house, with French door into LR. The walls are typical 2x6 construction with insulation and roof is prolly uninsulated. We will put in real windows (as opposed to the cheap screenhouse windows) if we do this right and legit. Thanks!!

[estación seca]

Wood putty is better than miter saw skills.