House Addition in Millville, DE - Sunroom, Screened Porch, Deck, and Kitchen Remodel

This house addition in Millville, Delaware was really a joy to complete.  It was an older home that we doubled the existing square footage of the home, adding a sunroom, screened porch, composite deck, new siding, new roofing, and a kitchen remodel.  The end result was a much more enjoyable atmosphere for entertaining and relaxing.  In fact, the customer recently gave us a 5-Star rating with an online remodeling rating service.

Customer Rating: City: Millville, DE Project: Addition to Existing Structure		"I have never really done much home construction so this addition was my first experience. I had heard so many horror stories concerning the local construction crews in my area so i was uncertain about whom to choose to do my addition. All I can tell you is that from the initial sketch to the final touch up, my deck, sunroom, screened porch, and kitchen remodeling project could not have gone off any smoother. Your scale doesn't have nearly enough stars for me to accurately rate Alcoa Consruction. Alcoa really does deliver gold star service!"

Design:

We first completed the design portion of this addition, completing working drawings, renderings, and budget estimation.  Once we had the project details squared away, we started on the build portion of the contract.

Additions:

Screened Porch

We added a 12' x 35' Screened porch to the front of the house.  The trick was that the home was really overgrown with vegetation and we had a lot of site work to complete before we could begin construction.  We also needed to trim multiple trees and disconnect power and cable lines before beginning.  We used heavy duty aluminum screen with built in aluminum tracks.  We used composite Timbertech decking and Certainteed solid vinyl double beaded soffit ceiling for years of low-maintenance enjoyment.  We completed the porch with a hanging swing chair, new coach lights at the front door, and three ceiling fans to cool things down in the summer.

We used solid aluminum structural columns instead of lumber columns.  The main reason for this is that when using lumber, you have two options: regular lumber or pressure treated lumber.  The problem is that if you use treated lumber, you can't wrap it in aluminum because the aluminum can react to the chemicals in the treated lumber causing corrosion and / or rotting.  On the other hand, if you use regular lumber, you can wrap it with aluminum, and this is the cheapest method, but eventually, un-treated lumber will be worn down by the elements and be subject to rot and mold.  In an oceanside environment where we operate, this is especially important.  We actually have repaired hundreds of screen porches where other contractors used inferior methods.  You can use vinyl sleeves over treated columns, but we have found that the screen securing tracks of the aluminum posts are much more secure and hold up to wind much better.

Sunroom

We added gabled 12' x 25' sunroom with a vaulted ceiling and custom glass windows in the gable.  The sunroom featured custom 8 foot tall Low-E windows that are both energy efficient as well as beautiful.  They have integrated screens in the windows that allow the sunroom to function as a screened porch during warm temperatures.  We also installed two Low-E sliding glass doors to allow easy access and maximum airflow during the summer.  The sunroom was built on a solid foundation and fully insulated and waterproofed.  We used 3/4" tongue & groove Advantech flooring to ensure maximum quality and durability.  We finished everything off with synthetic Restorations Millwork trim from Certainteed on the exterior and painted pine trim inside the sunroom.  The walls were finished in drywall with a smooth finish and painted to match the new colors in the home.  The flooring was a commercial grade vinyl in a hardwood finish.

Roof Framing, Shingles, and Siding

By adding the screened porch and the sunroom, we needed to re-frame the room line to make these new additions flow seamlessly with the existing home.  Going back to the original ridge line, we framed a new roof and split it in a gable at the sunroom.  We then re-shingled the entire original and new roof with 30 year architectural shingles for a uniform look.   We then added Certainteed Cedar Impressions Vinyl Cedar Shake Siding to the gables of the addition and existing house trimmed with Certainteed Restorations Vinyl Trim.  We then replace all of the gutters and downspouts on the home.  The final touch was to remove and repaint all of the shutters to match the new color scheme.

Deck

We built a 12' x 12' composite deck using Timbertech composite decking and trimmed with Certainteed Restorations Millwork trim.  This ground level deck was built with extra support with a future hot tub in mind.

Interior Renovation

We cut a six foot opening from the new sunroom into the existing house at the kitchen area.  We moved all electric, HVAC, baseboard heat, and cable connections at the wall.  We then cased the opening to match the existing trim in the home.  Next up was to replace the kitchen counter tops with Wilson Art Black Star Granite.  This is a great product that keeps the budget low, but looks very high end.  Again, to keep costs low, the client decided to replace the cabinet doors instead of complete new cabinets.  We had custom cabinet doors made with a bead board wainscot insert to give them a "beachy" feel.  We then had them painted in custom paint shop to give a pre-finished look.  Each door had to be custom sized to match the existing structure.  Next we replace the existing refrigerator and dishwasher.  None to soon, we found that the old refrigerator had been leaking slowly over the years, and the sub floor was completely rotted.  We replaced the framing and sub floor and it looked like new.  We then added a wall mount microwave with custom sized cabinets above.  When we began to start the flooring, we found that the bearing wall of the existing home was sinking.  We jacked up the home from under the crawl space foundation to make the floor level, and repaired the structure.  The flooring the client choose was a commercial grade vinyl product that looked just like hardwood, which we used throughout the kitchen, new sunroom, and office area.   The benefit of the vinyl is that it is much more resistant to moisture and scratching, and will look the same 20 years from now as it does today.  We then repainted the entire home, adding trim, new light fixtures, and hardware.  We then upgraded the entire home with new smoke detectors to meet current code and improve safety.