Screen Enclosure - How Tall, Hip, Gable or Mansard

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Mike welcome to TFP, great design video. Here is a couple of thoughts.
Hip, Gable, Mansard??? This is a personal preference. The wife and I chose Mansard and our roof is 12 feet high. I think the Mansard style is easier to replace screens however we have had no experience with Gable or Hip.
8 feet walls are plenty, ours measure about 7.5ft high and we are pretty happy with that height.

1. Speaking from experience if you are putting in a pool cage. Put in a double door on one of the sides. I only had one door and ended up putting in a double door and another single door on the opposite side. I should have listened to my wife
2. Plan on plumbing electrical and water for a future summer kitchen.
3. Plan on adding solar and heat pump in your equipment pad.
4. Make sure that you have a very large equipment pad, our equipment pad is 19 ft long x 9 ft wide.
5. Put lights at pool equipment pad.
6. Put in water spigots in all 4 corners of the screen cage both inside and outside the screen cage.
7. Put in electrical outlets in all 4 corners of the screen cage both inside and outside the screen cage.
8. Go with a large outdoor space as possible. We have 1800sq ft of pavers and we wish we did a larger space. You will be quite surprised how much room tables chairs and lounges take up.
9. Run conduits for speaker wires if you plan on wired speakers.
10. Plan on positioning your pool so that you can watch TV comfortably when you are in it. I know that this may sound strange but we love watching TV, football games, NASCAR races and movies when we are relaxing in the pool.
11. Place pool light facing away from the house, we had ours facing towards the house and we notice some glare from it.
Look at the 3 links in my signature bar for ideas. Post lots of pics :cheers:
 
I've seen many screen enclosures over pools and otherwise but never without a roof as depicted in the video. Is this what you're planning on and if so why?

The style and design of a screen enclosure is largely dictated by the home and owners goals and preferences. I personally wouldn't have an enclosure in Florida that isn't "complete" (including a screened roof). The roof keeps insects, critters and leaves from the pool area. It also greatly reduces UV intensity in the pool area; that greatly reduces chlorine demand and allows more time to be spent within without excessive sun exposure. We've found that sunscreen isn't needed within our enclosure but many of us wouldn't go without it in direct Florida sun. The roof structure might make the entire structure stronger and less prone to wind damage but you'd need to consult with the provider on that aspect. I agree that a double door is helpful and should be considered, it can be very helpful when removing items in preparation for a major storm.
 
Brentr said:
Mike welcome to TFP, great design video. Here is a couple of thoughts.
Hip, Gable, Mansard??? This is a personal preference. The wife and I chose Mansard and our roof is 12 feet high. I think the Mansard style is easier to replace screens however we have had no experience with Gable or Hip.
8 feet walls are plenty, ours measure about 7.5ft high and we are pretty happy with that height.

1. Speaking from experience if you are putting in a pool cage. Put in a double door on one of the sides. I only had one door and ended up putting in a double door and another single door on the opposite side. I should have listened to my wife
2. Plan on plumbing electrical and water for a future summer kitchen.
3. Plan on adding solar and heat pump in your equipment pad.
4. Make sure that you have a very large equipment pad, our equipment pad is 19 ft long x 9 ft wide.
5. Put lights at pool equipment pad.
6. Put in water spigots in all 4 corners of the screen cage both inside and outside the screen cage.
7. Put in electrical outlets in all 4 corners of the screen cage both inside and outside the screen cage.
8. Go with a large outdoor space as possible. We have 1800sq ft of pavers and we wish we did a larger space. You will be quite surprised how much room tables chairs and lounges take up.
9. Run conduits for speaker wires if you plan on wired speakers.
10. Plan on positioning your pool so that you can watch TV comfortably when you are in it. I know that this may sound strange but we love watching TV, football games, NASCAR races and movies when we are relaxing in the pool.
11. Place pool light facing away from the house, we had ours facing towards the house and we notice some glare from it.
Look at the 3 links in my signature bar for ideas. Post lots of pics :cheers:
Click to expand...

This is great info!! Few follow up questions:

  1. The double door, assume you added this to make it easier when moving in/out furniture and equipment vs. bringing it through the house correct?
  2. Tell me about the need for water spigots at all 4 corners inside and out, is this to make it easier when hosing off the deck?
  3. Tell me more about the uses for electrical in all 4 corners inside and out
 
MikeFL said:
Correct, they left open in the video to make it easier to see inside from all of the angles.
Click to expand...
Sometimes I can't see the forest through the trees!

The mansard roof seems to be the most popular and is probably the simplest and least expensive. The maximum height may be a little higher than other styles in some cases but the sloping sides tend to minimize the apparent size . I'd go with that unless there's something you don't like about that style. In your case I'd have the wall height match the height of the house walls as depicted in the video, it would look more natural. I don't know the design limitations but I'd try to keep the overall height as low as practical with your one story house. I like the bronze colored structure, it not only looks better in my opinion but I suspect it's easier to keep looking good. The white structures like I have are by far the most popular in my old neighborhood but they show dirt and algae and need to be cleaned often to keep them looking good. Cleaning the cages properly is no small task so the less often the better.

There are a few things besides basic style that must be considered. How to attach to the house and the gutter arrangement are important for appearance, strength and maintenance. Also, by code there are some minimum corner/wall bracing requirements where walls aren't directly attached to the house. If I were having another enclosure designed and built for me I'd ask about beefing those up, that could make a difference in survivability in case of a major storm and it's just a matter of time before you get one anywhere in Florida. I'd go with the most open screening that's common. More dense screening can get very dark and the wind loads in a storm would be much higher and could greatly increase risk and extent of storm damage. High wind damage isn't covered well by insurance companies in Florida so it's important to make the cage strong and durable.

Good luck!
 
Re: Outlets and Water- you will want to have water access for plants, washing the deck and house down, and stuff like that. If I had the option to place bibs in more spots I could run small soaking hoses (on timers even, if I also had outlets) to my large planting areas.

Maddie :flower:
 
MikeFL said:
This is great info!! Few follow up questions:

  1. The double door, assume you added this to make it easier when moving in/out furniture and equipment vs. bringing it through the house correct?
  2. Tell me about the need for water spigots at all 4 corners inside and out, is this to make it easier when hosing off the deck?
  3. Tell me more about the uses for electrical in all 4 corners inside and out
Click to expand...
Hi Mike see following for follow up
1. The double doors are for moving furniture in and out. If you looked at thread in my sig bar regarding outdoor summer kitchen New Outdoor Summer Kitchen in the Dolphin Bar and Grill you will see that we had to quickly add double doors in order to get our summer kitchen in place.
2. Water spigots at all 4 corners will come in handy one day as you will need to hose down deck, add water to the pool occasionally and perhaps spray yourself when you get too hot when sunbathing.
3. I cannot stress how important having enough electrical outlets are. Better to have too many than too little. DW always want to decorate the poolside especially during christmas with all those sparkley flashing statures. Something always need charging, iphones and boom boxes etc.
 
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Fuldo said:
Sometimes I can't see the forest through the trees!

The mansard roof seems to be the most popular and is probably the simplest and least expensive. The maximum height may be a little higher than other styles in some cases but the sloping sides tend to minimize the apparent size . I'd go with that unless there's something you don't like about that style. In your case I'd have the wall height match the height of the house walls as depicted in the video, it would look more natural. I don't know the design limitations but I'd try to keep the overall height as low as practical with your one story house. I like the bronze colored structure, it not only looks better in my opinion but I suspect it's easier to keep looking good. The white structures like I have are by far the most popular in my old neighborhood but they show dirt and algae and need to be cleaned often to keep them looking good. Cleaning the cages properly is no small task so the less often the better.

There are a few things besides basic style that must be considered. How to attach to the house and the gutter arrangement are important for appearance, strength and maintenance. Also, by code there are some minimum corner/wall bracing requirements where walls aren't directly attached to the house. If I were having another enclosure designed and built for me I'd ask about beefing those up, that could make a difference in survivability in case of a major storm and it's just a matter of time before you get one anywhere in Florida. I'd go with the most open screening that's common. More dense screening can get very dark and the wind loads in a storm would be much higher and could greatly increase risk and extent of storm damage. High wind damage isn't covered well by insurance companies in Florida so it's important to make the cage strong and durable.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
This is very helpful, thanks for taking the time to respond!
 
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