Screen Porch Designs

Locate for Advantage

Our quest for perfect screen porch designs includes finding the right location to take advantage of several factors like the view, wind direction, and sunlight to name just a few.

This guide will help in the development of your own porch plans. For pictures showing screened porch designs be sure to see our screen porch photo gallery.

Beautiful screen porch design by Home Rebuilders

To develop the right screened porch designs you need to address several key factors. To help you, we've created several easy to use guides to walk you through the process. We will cover your porch location in this guide; the others address your porch's purpose, architecture, utilities, materials, and landscaping.

The first step is to determine your porch's purpose or how you will use your porch. Is it entertaining large groups or mostly to share an intimate dinner for two? The purpose determines many other factors such as your electrical, lighting, and yes, even location.

Screen Porch Location Considerations

Easements: are pathways that must be accessible and unencumbered by law. Here's a few easements that could potentially affect the location of new screened porch:

• Flowage easement: You cannot alter or block water runoff depressions, gullies, or streams.
• Utility easement: You must allow access for utility lines and poles.
• Accessibility easement: When properties are split, you must allow access, usually a driveway width, to the other property.

Setback Restrictions: are based on the distance from the edge of the property to the new construction. Most municipalities have such restrictions and are normally 40 feet from the front, 15 from the sides, and 20 from the rear. We lived in a community where there was a 50 foot setback requirement from the street which subsequently prevented us from extending our porch.

Any of the above could impact where you can locate a screen porch. Most municipal planning departments require a site plan; they should check to see if any of the above are in violation before a permit is issued. For most of us our screen porch designs will not be affected by them but we know of cases where it has occurred.

Home Owner Associations (HOAs): This is not a group you want to dismiss if you happen to live in an area controlled by one. HOAs have immense legal power in the courts and it is very difficult to get a favorable ruling in most cases if you violate a rule.

I've read about a neighborhood where several homeowners had to take down their screen porches because it violated their HOA rules. The screen porch designs were beautiful but they lost their case in the courts; down they came and at their own expense. So before proceeding with construction, ensure you are in compliance with your HOA.



Topographical features such as slope, terrain, and landscaping can affect the location of your screen porch.

• A steep slope or even moderate sloping may be excellent locations for a screened porch. Most would require additional pier reinforcement which will increase costs but you would be using property that otherwise is unusable. (Use our rise and run guide (slope) to help you determine the slope of your yard.)
• Terrain can affect your location as well. If you live in a flat area that is prone to flooding locating a screen porch at ground level in a low area may not be the best spot.
• Landscaping should be considered as well when locating a screen porch. Although you have a roof, shade trees can help keep the hot sun off your porch to keep it cooler. Likewise, if you desire a lot of light for reading or playing games, you might consider not placing it in a shaded area.

Screen Porch Siting

Along with the wind comes the sun. Placing the screened porch on the west side of your home will invite plenty of it. Blocking the sun is easy with our porch blinds and shades!

You'll also want to capture views of wildlife, the setting sun, or even your children playing in the yard.

Views are important to most of us so it should play a major role in determining where you build your porch. Or position your screen porch to avoid unsightly objects, e.g., your neighbors dilapidated shed, an untended swimming pool, etc.

In addition, consider noise levels. If you have noisy neighbors perhaps placing the screened porch on the opposite side will help alleviate the intrusion.

And lastly, consider traffic patterns in your screen porch designs. Does you porch give you easy access to areas of your yard or home that you frequent often? Do you have a garden that needs to be watered on the right but the faucet is to the left of your screened porch? Will your guests have to go through the kitchen to access the porch?



Be sure to review our Screened In Porch Ideas (your porch's purpose) and Screen Porch Design (your porch's architecture) considerations before you build a screen porch or install a screened porch kit!

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