That's right, we built a sunroom for under $1,000. You might be asking yourself, "How is that possible?" The fact that my husband is a contractor helped. He did this with a little ingenuity and a lot of talent. After years of looking out the back slider door to an abyss of nothingness I knew we needed something to brighten up our world. We contemplated adding a sunroom for about a month before figuring out a plan that we could afford. Here is how we did it.
First we set the concrete and took down all our measurements, factoring in that we'd build a lean-to style sunroom with a glass roof. My husband got to work nailing the framing down to the concrete while I became his makeshift apprentice, holding 2 by 4s where needed, passing nails, and sharpening flat construction pencils so he could write down his measurements as he went along. The wood, nails, and miscellaneous items came to around $300.
During this whole process we were acquiring (with the help of our local craigslist) used and sometimes new glass window panels. Now this in itself takes most of the leg work. We needed two doors for each side with hardware and 10 double-paned glass pieces for the remainder of the project. It was like everyone was storing these things in there garage for a rainy day. Granted most were unusable because of water between the panes or small cracks, but for the most part we came out good in our quest. We paid about $100 dollars each for the complete sliders used.
We stripped the panes down to their bare bones and made sure they were nice and clean. My husband got the very best silicon caulk and one by one placed them into their nooks. They were not going anywhere I was assured. The slider doors were installed next.
We caulked everything thoroughly before laying the roof pieces down.
Then came the white aluminum we placed around each bulkhead. The cost for the aluminum was around $200. Being a contractor, my husband had the machine needed to bend the aluminum into place, but you could easily rent an aluminum brake from a home improvement store. With white nails he carefully hammered the aluminum down into the wood as to not make a dent. Lastly we decided to tile the floor with a screen printed tile.
