[lightworker888]

We are thinking of replacing our screened in lanai with glass or acrylic windows and a sliding door. We want as much window panes as possible. I am looking for recommendations from those of you who have had that kind of work done. I got the info on Advanced and on White from previous threads but wondered if there were other companies that specialized in this work. Any help with this decision would be most appreciated.

Thanks
LW

[English Ivy]

We had Martin Aluminum enclose our 9 x 20 lanai in March of 2009. We used acrylic. We had three quotes and Martin's was the best.

I wasn't sure I'd like the lanai enclosed but I am so glad we did. I love it.

I was like you in wanting the largest panes possible. I learned in going through the quote process that unless you tell them they spec it out with more narrow panels rather than few wider panels. It's obviously easier on the installers because they don't weigh as much. On our 20' section we have three sections (6 total panels) just a bit over three feet each. I've seen some homes that have four or five sections (8 or 10 panels) in about the same space. Make sure you tell them what you want.

Hope this info helps.

[EdV]

I used Jammie Stevens Construction to enclose my lanai with a knee wall, glass slider windows and a tripple sliding glass doors that open to a bird cage.

Very reasonable and good work.

[lightworker888]

If anyone else can weigh in or have used these or other companies, please post.

I will be sure to specify exactly what we want to that I get an accurate quote. Thanks for the tip.

We are leaning towards glass, especially for upkeep and scratching reasons. Any comments pro or con?

We don't have direct sun in the lanai as we have a northish facing. It's a CYV.

Thanks for ideas

LW

[mac9]

About 5 months ago, we had T&D enclose our lanai with 4 sets of sliding glass doors with a tint and low-E glass. Their work is great and we now have the option of opening the room entirely or partly or having it totally closed. People used to shy away from glass because it affected your property taxes. However,this is no longer true. Also, acryllic will scratch and eventually warp so that it needs to be replaced.

[lightworker888]

Do you have screen doors so that you can open the doors w/out getting bugs or anoles in the lanai? How do the 4 glass doors work, ie do they pass each other or are they like french doors? Are they floor to ceiling and do you need extra A/C or heat? What direction are you facing? Sorry to be asking so many questions. Don't mean to pester, but your description sounds great for our situation.

Thanks for any more info.
LW

[784caroline]

This past summer we completed enclosing our lanai by making it part of our family room. To do this we knocked out the sliding glass doors (made an arched entrance way) raised the lanai floor by 4 inches, and added heat and Ac to the lanai. At the same time we are adding a hexagonal hobby room off of the master bedroom and knocking a window out to add the doorway and also assed a pocket door as an entrance to the former lanai area. We are used LOW-E , insulated "Glass" sliders over glass transom windows which provide a total glass effect on the back of our house.

Our contractor was a former Villages BUilding Supervisor and now a general Contractor. Once you agree on the scope of the project, he brings in an engineer and architect and provides detailed drawings, stress loads etc which are all submitted to the county/ Villages for approval. For teh heavy work he uses all COntractors who he previously worked with in the VIllages and who are now working on VIllages New homes...ie T&D did all of our concrete work, rebar, and cinder block work. ROMAC provide all the windows, Munns did all the heat/ac work etc. He has done alot of work for us previously (Crown moulding, custom entertainment center etc) and did a number of lanai expansions in our neighborhood. What was nice was this is a guy who has no middleman or sales staff to deal with ..its all with him. He was very competitive with many of the contractors mentioned on this board.

[mac9]

We have a Camellia which had a lanai of 28 x 8.5. We extended it by 3 feet. The open side is a 10 foot door that is in 2 parts so that it slides right to left. All of the door have movable screens. The back part is 2 8 foot doors surrounding a center 12 foot door. The 8 ft doors slide left to right and right to left respectively. The 12 ft door opens from the middle. Next to the master bedroom sliding doors is a fixed window. All are floor to about 10 inches from the ceiling. As I said, we had it extended 3 feet and the level raised so as to be even with the sliding pocket doors into the living area. They even built real pockets for the inside doors to slide into so that they are out of the way and we have more wall space.
We are extremely pleased with T&D. We had 3 bids and they were in the middle, but they had the better ideas. We also had a golf cart garage added to the front at the same time.

[Mallory]

Does anyone have any experience with or knowledge of Blackburn Bros. Construction for this type of work? Thanks for any and all input.

[JenAjd]

How are these for cleaning? Seems like you "might" have to remove them to clean properly on the outside and if they're as heavy as they sound here could be quite the job to do so. Also a "ball-park" cost factor...just curious what they're talking about here. Our lanai is approx. 10X16

[LittleDog]

We installed acrylic windows in our lanai about 1 year after we moved in. We decided to upgrade to glass windows. The acrylic windows went from floor to ceiling but the glass windows only go down to about 3 feet from the floor. That area is now walled and has electrical outlets so we have a little less window area than the acrylic. We basically didn't really do any other modifications to the lanai. We did replace the siding on the interior of the lanai with wall board but pretty much that was it. For the work we used Custom Windows who we had used earlier for the acrylic windows and driveway paving. The glass windows were tinted so that you couldn't see in during the daytime but at night it works in reverse, you can't see out.

We didn't add any AC or heat and for the most part that works for us. We have sliding doors into the living room which we had before.

So far I'm very happy with the work on the lanai. In the future we may add AC and heat but for now we're just staying put.

John

[lightworker888]

Good to know about tinted glass. We need to see out at night, as we have 2 little dogs that we need to watch when we put them outside at night. When you added electricity out to the lanai, did that increase your taxes? Thanks again

LW

[784caroline]

We also have a dog and she enjoys laying on the small bed and looking out the glass transom window(s) which the Glass sliders sit on.

[LittleDog]

Originally Posted by lightworker888

Good to know about tinted glass. We need to see out at night, as we have 2 little dogs that we need to watch when we put them outside at night. When you added electricity out to the lanai, did that increase your taxes? Thanks again

LW

The electrical outlets didn't raise taxes. We originally had electrical outlets along the interior wall but these extra outlets were installed on the exterior walls. We couldn't have outlets on those walls before because the acrylic windows went from floor to ceiling.

John