West facing lanai problem?
 

We are considering buying in TV. We have heard that a west facing lanai is so hot that it is unusable in the afternoon. Do some buyers avoid a west facing lanai? Any input is appreciated.

We are on our second one. We are thinking about Cooleroo shades, available from Lowes and Home Depot and they will install them.

Beautiful sunsets.

Check out JoJo's avatar picture.

We allways buy with the back of the house facing East for that very reason. If you can't block the afternoon sun, you will roast with a west facing back.

You are right. Hot in the three hottest months, Lovely in the three coldest months.

I LOVE my front porch. I can switch.

West side will heat up

winter

http://www.solarplots.info/images/ot...er_graphic.png

summer

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I would think facing east is cool in the winter afternoons??

West facing
 

We have a west facing lanai. We installed Plantation Shutters from 48hr blinds that helps a lot. Got great service from Rick. Had Lowes install Cooleroo shades on the Lanai. They work well but had a very bad experience with Lowes and Cooleroo. They were suspose to be installed in 3 weeks. It was 6 weeks because Cooleroo sent the wrong color brackets. Lowes & Cooleroo did not care about the delay. They told us "things happen". Lowes use to be my first choice, now I go to Home Depot first. :cus:

I have friends who bought new homes and they have a west facing lanai. Nice to have a view of the sunset but terrible hot when the summer sun is beating in on the lanai.

I would not even look at a home with a west facing lanai. We have an east facing enclosed Florida room and love sitting in there both morning and evening. It is air conditioned and we also have Cooleroo blinds. Just one more advantage of buying a resale home!

Love our west facing lanai
 

We have a West facing lanai and wouldn't trade it. The sun gets around here about mid afternoon and we cannot eat dinner out here, so we ordered Coolaroo sun shades from Lowes. The should be here this week so we will see how it goes! BTW, our house faces a bit South West. As Gracie said, the sun sets are breath taking!

We specifically wanted a West facing lanai and have been in FL for 8 years.
Great sunsets!
We have a pool and would rather have some sun.

West facing lanai
 

ABSOLUTELY!! when my husband and I selected our property that was number one priority!! We knew we wanted a pool in the sun and SHADE on our lanai ALL the time.!! we took the time to find the right property and couldn't be happier. We're always on the Lanai and enjoy the Shade all the time. The back door neighbors are never on theirs because the sun is right on their lanai. But think about When you will want to sit on your lanai. Perhaps in the morning you'll be out doing activities so sun won't bother you. Or will you be out in afternoon so sun wont' matter? If you enjoy sitting outside will it be during dinner hours ? Do you enjoy dining on your lanai. sun is extremely important. I know many people have enclosed their lanai's but to me that takes the joy out of sitting outdoors, enjoying the sound of the birds, fresh air, etc.. Moving down from NY I LOVE sitting outside and not having to deal with the mosquitoes. It's fabulous. But you are right on when thinking about this. Sun Direction is extremely important. Don't let any sales person tell you otherwise.

Bring a compass when looking at homes or lots.

My #1 priority was a east to east-southeast lanai.

In summer the lanai-sunroom is much cooler with only the early morning sun and in winter the sun moves farther south and warms the back of the house early in the day. Check your house or lot for trees or houses that may block the sun. Fading of fabrics is also a problem.

Shades are great (was in the business myself) but if opaque will spoil your view. Try outdoor movable solar screen as an alternative.

I gladly trade half an hour of sunset for avoiding 4 or 5 hours of roasting summer sun.

When we were house hunting it seemed most of the houses had west rear exposures. Just a limited observation.

:wave:

YES the western sunsets are beautiful.....but dont kid yourself.....a western facing lanai is HOT and in most cases unbearable for 4-6 months a year. Highly suggest you experience this first hand to determine your tolerance to heat , humidity and sun glare BEFORE you buy your lot. If you are a snowbird, this issue is much less of a problem but if you plan to be a year round resident, lot location as well as lanai direction should be a major consideration. If you will be facing directly west, the problem can be more than just the lanai for the sun at a certain point in the sky will also come through the large sliding glass doors. In addition to the dirt and rain on the open lanai, I would guess the #1 reason to enclose a lanai with low e windows and AC would be to provide additional AND useable Square footage to you home......otherwise a western facing lanai is unuseable for a good part of the year.

I drove our Realtor crazy! I did look at some west and north rear exposure houses (willing to compromise if there was some awesome feature, like backing up to a 4-board fence/horse farm, etc.), but my mantra was "southern exposure"!!! Love it. We get a little of everything except cold....perfect!

We love our west facing lanai, and the east facing front of the house. The houses behind us block the sun during the day, and we have some high-grade shades installed, (*NOT* the Coolaroo shades). We keep the shades about 12 inches down all the time, and seldom have to lower them any more than that in the afternoon. One thing that I would say, is to definitely get some shades.