Sunrooms & Porches in Augusta, GA
Four different rooms get called a sunroom, and they cost about three times apart. We'll price the ones that actually suit how you'll use the space.
The Four Rooms People All Call a Sunroom
Ring three companies for a 'sunroom' and you'll get quotes for three different things. This is the ladder, from simplest to most involved, and roughly what each one costs here.
Screened porch — around $18k to $32k
A roof, a floor and screen. Keeps the bugs and the sun off, and in this climate that's genuinely most of what people want. Ceiling fans make it usable from March to November. Not weatherproof and not intended to be — rain blows in and that is fine.
Three-season room — around $30k to $55k
Glass instead of screen, usually single-glazed or basic insulated units, uninsulated walls and roof. Weatherproof, and comfortable spring and autumn. Hot in a Georgia July and cold in January unless you accept high running costs. The most commonly mis-sold rung on this ladder.
Four-season conditioned room — around $55k to $95k
Insulated walls and roof, thermally broken frames, low-E insulated glazing, a foundation rated for conditioned space, and its own heating and cooling. Genuinely part of the house, all year. This is the real thing, and it is priced like an addition because it is one.
Glass room or conservatory — $75k and up
Glass roof as well as glass walls, structural framing to carry it, and serious attention to solar gain and condensation. Beautiful, and the least forgiving of a west-facing wall. We build them; we also tell people when rung three gets them ninety percent of what they wanted.
What We Build
Screened Porches
Roof, floor and screen — with the framing and footings done properly, because a porch is still a structure.
Three-Season Sunrooms
Glazed and weatherproof, honest about being a spring-and-autumn room rather than sold as something more.
Four-Season Conditioned Rooms
Insulated envelope, thermal-break frames, low-E glass and its own HVAC. Priced like the addition it is.
Patio & Deck Enclosures
Enclosing what you already have — after we've been underneath it and confirmed what the framing can carry.
Motorized & Retractable Screens
For covered patios and porch openings. Often the cheapest route to a usable outdoor room by a wide margin.
Roof-Only Covered Patios
Shade and rain cover with nothing enclosed. Frequently the right answer, and the one nobody quotes.
Deck Reframe & New Footings
The unglamorous work that makes an enclosure legal and safe. On its own quote line, never buried.
We'll quote more than one rung of the ladder on purpose, so you can see what the extra money actually buys before you spend it.
"Four-Season" Describes the Envelope, Not the Glass
Almost every three-season room we're asked to look at was sold with the words 'you can use it all year'. Technically true. Comfortably and affordably, no.
A genuine four-season room is a conditioned space, and that is a list of things rather than a single feature: insulated walls and roof, thermally broken frames so the aluminium isn't conducting heat straight through, low-E insulated glazing, a foundation and floor assembly rated for heated space, and its own heating and cooling — because tapping the house system usually just makes the rest of the house uncomfortable.
Adding a heater to a three-season room doesn't upgrade it. It gives you a room that is expensive to heat and still cold near the glass. And the distinction isn't marketing: a conditioned room has to meet the energy code, which changes the permit and the inspection.
So we ask one question early — will you use this in July and January, or in April and October? Both answers are completely respectable. They are just different buildings.
- ✓Insulated walls and roof, not just glazed walls
- ✓Thermally broken frames — the detail nobody mentions
- ✓Low-E insulated glazing specified per elevation
- ✓Its own heating and cooling, sized for the room
We'll Price More Than One Option
Most visits end with two or three quotes at different rungs of the ladder, so you can see what the extra money buys. Plenty of people go one rung down once they can compare.
Five Lines the Cheapest Quote Usually Doesn't Have
Enclosure quotes vary far more than the finished rooms do. Nearly all of the difference is in these five items.
Footings and structural framing
A deck built for furniture is not built for walls, a roof and glass. New footings and a reframe are common and they are real money. A quote without a line for this hasn't looked under the deck.
Heating and cooling
A four-season room needs its own conditioning, sized for a very glassy space. Extending a duct from the house is cheap and usually makes both rooms worse.
Glass specified per elevation
Different coatings on the west wall than the north wall costs a little more and is the difference between a room you sit in during August and a room you don't.
Permit and energy-code compliance
Conditioned space triggges an energy-code path, insulation documentation and inspection. Skipping it is how a room ends up unpermitted, which surfaces at resale.
Flashing where the roof ties in
Every enclosure connects to the existing house roof, and that junction is where leaks start. Step flashing, a proper ledger detail and a kick-out at the bottom. Invisible, and the thing we get called to fix on other people's work.
Your Existing Deck Probably Can't Carry a Room
This is the most common surprise in the whole category, so we get it out of the way on the first visit by going underneath with a torch.
A deck is designed for a live load — people, furniture, a grill — and it is designed to be open, so wind goes through it rather than against it. Put walls and a roof on the same frame and you've added permanent dead load plus a large sail. Joist size, span, beam capacity, post size and footing depth were all sized for the old job.
Sometimes an existing deck is genuinely fine, usually when it was overbuilt or built with an enclosure in mind. More often the honest answer is new footings, a new beam, and sistering or replacing joists. That is a real cost and we would rather you heard it from us in week one than from an inspector in week six.
It is also why a quote that is thousands cheaper is often a quote from someone who never crawled under.
- ✓We go under the deck with a torch on the first visit
- ✓Joist size, span and footing depth all checked and written down
- ✓Reframe and footings quoted as their own line, never buried
- ✓If your deck is genuinely fine, we'll tell you that too
Four Steps, and the First One Is Free
Six to twelve weeks from signing, depending on which rung of the ladder you pick.
Design visit
We measure, go under the deck, note the orientation, and leave you quotes at more than one rung of the ladder.
Drawings & permit
Structural drawings, energy-code documentation for conditioned rooms, and the permit submitted and tracked.
Footings & frame
New footings where needed, deck reframed, walls and roof framed, and the roof tie-in flashed properly.
Glass, finish & handover
Glazing per elevation, interior finish, electrical and HVAC where it applies, then a walk-through with you.
Often About Being Talked Down a Rung
I rang three companies asking for a sunroom and got three quotes for three completely different things, which I only understood after Vellamore walked me through the four options. What I actually wanted was a screened porch. They talked me down two rungs and I have never once wished I'd spent the extra.
Another company quoted a four-season room on top of our existing deck without ever going underneath it. Vellamore crawled under, showed me the joists were 2x8 on twelve-foot spans, and explained that the room would have needed footings regardless. That was the difference between an honest quote and a cheap one.
They asked which way the room faced before they asked about anything else, and then specified a low solar-gain glass for the west wall and clearer glass on the north. In August that room is genuinely usable. My neighbour's identical-looking room is not.
What Owners Ask Before Building
What does a sunroom cost in Augusta?
It depends entirely on which of the four rooms you mean, which is why the ladder above exists. Broadly: a screened porch $18k-$32k, a three-season room $30k-$55k, a genuine four-season conditioned room $55k-$95k, and a glass-roofed room from $75k up. Footings and any deck reframe sit on top of those and are quoted separately so you can see them.
Can you build on top of my existing deck?
Sometimes, and we'll know after going underneath it on the first visit. A deck is framed for people and furniture and to let wind through; a room adds permanent weight and a large sail. Often the honest answer is new footings, a new beam and some joist work. Occasionally a deck was overbuilt and is genuinely fine, and we'll happily tell you that.
Is a three-season room really unusable in summer?
Not unusable — uncomfortable at the hottest part of a Georgia afternoon, especially facing west. With a fan, some shade and the right glass a three-season room is pleasant a good nine or ten months here, which for many people is exactly the right purchase. What we won't do is call it four-season.
Will a sunroom add value, or add tax?
Possibly both, and it's worth knowing before you start. A four-season conditioned room is added heated square footage, so it can be included in an appraisal and it can show up on the assessment. A screened porch or three-season room usually isn't counted as living area. Talk to your assessor's office; we'll tell you which category your room falls in.
Do you use a manufactured system or build on site?
Both, depending on what suits. Manufactured aluminium and vinyl systems are quick, come with a real warranty and work well for three-season rooms. Site-built framing matches the house's roofline and finishes and is usually the right call for a four-season room you want to read as part of the house. We'll price the sensible option for your rung.
How long does it take?
A screened porch is typically three to five weeks on site. A four-season room is six to twelve weeks, and the permit and structural drawings add a few weeks before that. Glass and manufactured systems have lead times of their own, which we'll confirm before you sign rather than after.
What about screens — do I need glass at all?
Very often not, and it's the question we'd most like people to ask sooner. In this climate a roofed, screened space with fans does most of what people imagine a sunroom doing, at a third of the cost. Motorised retractable screens on a covered patio are a genuinely underrated option.
Will the roof tie-in leak?
Not if it's flashed properly, and that's the detail to ask every bidder about. It needs step flashing where the new roof meets the wall, a correctly lapped ledger, and a kick-out at the bottom of the run so water leaves the wall rather than running behind the siding. Most enclosure leaks we get called to are a missing kick-out.
Tell Us When You'd Actually Use It
Spring and autumn, or July and January? That one answer decides which rung of the ladder you're on, and most of the price with it. Which way it faces decides the glass.
- Visit us3841 Washington Road, Augusta, GA 30907
- Call us(706) 555-0173
- Email usdesign@vellamoresunrooms.com