Sunroom design in Woodcrest CA - a room planned for how you'll really use it

A four season room is heated and cooled and has all-weather windows, while a three season room isn't heated or cooled and uses uninsulated windows or screens. Pick by whether you want the room every month or only part of the year. If you just want shade and air, a screened patio with screens only, no windows and no temperature control may do it, and I'll tell you so.

A sunroom in the Riverside area usually costs about $95 to $200 per square foot. Larger rooms that need a foundation and have heating and air conditioning land at the higher end of that range. Your written estimate shows the room type and what's included, so you know which end your room sits near.

The county decides that, because Woodcrest is unincorporated and Riverside County Building and Safety issues the permits here. Its list names enclosed patios, patio covers and additions and alterations, though not sunrooms by name, and it tells owners to check with its Planning office for setback information before building any structure. When a job needs a permit, we handle the application with the county and get the work ready for each inspection.

Shade it from the outside and give hot air a way out, which is what design guidance from the UK recommends, using a roof overhang or louvers for shade and roof vents paired with low vents so air moves through. The same guidance says sunrooms overheat easily in summer and that shade and venting work best when they're part of the first design. They're much harder to fit once the walls are up.

Choose by whether you care more about light or comfort, since that same UK guidance says a solid roof insulates and shades the room, while a glass roof gathers more sun but loses more heat at night and is prone to overheating, leaks and glare. Venting skylights in a solid roof bring back some daylight, and one sunroom company notes that dirt, pollen and water spots show up faster on overhead glass, so it needs more cleaning. For most rooms I lean toward solid with skylights, but if open sky is the whole point, we'll plan glass carefully.

Ask which license they hold and how much they want up front. The state's awning contractor class covers patio covers but not patio enclosures, and a residential remodeling contractor can't contract to make structural changes to load-bearing parts such as foundations, load-bearing walls and roof structures. Under state contractor rules, a down payment can't be more than $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is less, and we're licensed and insured.