History of Sun rooms

Farmhouses and urban row homes featured a covered porch as a place for the user to sit and relax. With the suburbanization of America, families increasingly used their back patios and gardens for this purpose. However, weather conditions often made patios unusable at times, providing an incentive for families to cover and screen in their patios for privacy and for shelter.

As this trend evolved, so did improvements in glass manufacture, making it possible to attach storm windows together to enclose a patio space.

During the 1960s, professional re-modelling companies developed affordable systems to enclose a patio or deck, offering design, installation, and full service warranties. Patio rooms featured lightweight, engineered roof panels, single pane glass, and aluminium construction. These versatile patio rooms extended the outdoor season, provided protection from rain, wind and insects, and gave homeowners extra space. The interior of a sun rooms warms quickly in sunlight, even on cold days, and may provide a means of heating the part of the main house into which the sun room or conservatory opens. Furniture and plants located in a sun room/conservatory should be resistant to temperature change.

As customers became more energy conscious and building technology aware, patio and sunrooms became available with insulated glass, vinyl and vinyl-wood composite framework, and more elaborate designs. Many American companies also began to offer greenhouses and conservatories, which were popular in Europe.