[easydog]

The advantages to having the lanai "glassed in" is significant.
Protects it from the often torrential rains ... helps keep out dust and pollen.

I'm an advocate for enclosing..

Thanks
Ed Wingham village of McClure

[Canewbee]

Well for me the lanai is for outdoor living. You have your house for indoor and A/C
Consider what way your lanai is facing on how much sun you will get.
My opinion east is best

[Just jimmy]

Originally Posted by bowlingal

try to make sure that the lanai does not face west. North or east is much better....no sun in the afternoon

Our lanai faces west and we love to watch the sunsets. It’s screened and would never enclose it.

[charmed59]

It depends on how big of a house you want. If you want more indoor space that is clean, dry, and mostly bug free you want a glass enclosed lanai. It will give you two living rooms, and one will be much brighter than the other, so the interior room can be used for the TV.

If you want covered outdoor space you want a screened lanai. It gives you a space for the morning breezes and to watch the storms come thru, and saves on air conditioned space.

My house is more than big enough, with a TV room and living room already, so the lanai is our outdoor space.

[PJackpot]

We enclosed ours to make it more usable. Was tired of it getting drenched during rain storms. It is now the one space we use most.

[Lynnesail]

You answered the question I was just about to ask, I would like to enlarge our lanai. But I wonder what the current building cost would be given the huge increase in building supplies.

[DeeCee Dubya]

Only thing i would suggest is endeavor to get a home where the
Lanai is facing north or northeast. You won’t have to contend with the afternoon sun.

[LizzieBorden]

Our home was new to us 16 years ago. A year after we bought it, we added a bird cage and made it larger than the lanai. Then 6 years ago, we added a canvas cover for the birdcage, and 4 years ago we added an outdoor kitchen in the birdcage. The back of our house is southern facing which means the sun rises on the left and sets on the right. We absolutely love it and spend a majority of our time out there. We have really nice comfy chairs with end tables, lamps, etc and then pole lamps and over head lighting for the outdoor kitchen…we use this after more than any other area. I love having my morning breakfast out there after we come back from playing pickleball…Is it hot, yes, somedays it is, but we have an overhead fan in the lanai section and another floor fan in the birdcage. We also enclosed the bottom portion all the way around of the lanai and the birdcage with the same siding as we have on our home. This keeps a lot of the dirt out that use to flow into the lanai/birdcage area and made a huge improvement. When it rains, we pull in the chairs close to the house to keep the cushions from getting wet. When we got north for the summer, we bring all that furniture into our home and put the dining table and chairs in the corner of the covered lanai. It works…and we love it. I think it is all personal preference. We like being able to sit outside with guest at night, having our cocktails and dinner..etc.. its so peaceful in our backyard….I dont think I would ever change that. We had a party before covid out there and was able to seat in chairs all around about 25 people. It was the best….

[KRMACK55]

Originally Posted by bandsdavis

Just our 2 cents, of course, but we hardly ever use our basic screened in lanai. Once in a while in the evening in the late fall/winter/early spring months, but that's it. We bought a preowned home and the owners had made the former lanai into a fully interior Florida Room. Windows and a slider on 3 walls so we can get as much airflow as we want when the temperature is right, and it's fully under air on the same system as the rest of the house. We spend all of our time in this room, other than cooking and sleeping of course. I don't know how much it cost, but it is the reason we bought this house. By the way, our house is an At Ease model (although not the same layout as the At Ease models they are building now). Hope that helps and good luck.

What is an At Ease model never heard that expression before

[Alicat5977]

Mine is enclosed and I wish it was a screened lanai. PS also from CT ,
Manchester/Vernon area

[Dgodin]

We have a south facing Lanai and use it year round. We have never considered enclosing it. We also recently added a small uncovered patio out front and are starting to use that in the evening.

[damille]

Originally Posted by ComingfromCT

We are looking at preowned homes and we aren't sure if we would be OK with just a screened in lanai or if it needs to be enclosed. If it should be enclosed what should we be looking for? Some homes have nicely enclosed lanais but they are more expensive. Some say you need acrylic windows and some glass and .......... on and on.

Is there some good basic wisdom from you all?? I know everyone is different but is there any general consensus? I would think that due to the heat that we would need an enclosed lanai to be able to spend time out there most or all of the year. I know I sound like such a rookie but we really are perplexed. Thank you in advance!!

If you buy a home with an East facing lanai, you might just need a fan for cooling. However we bought a West facing lanai and the afternoon sun was unbearable and we couldn't use the lanai. We ultimately had the lanai glassed in and with curtains and a Mitsubishi Mini Split air conditioner, we now use the lanai more than any other room. Good luck.

[bakon]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

Lanai vs. Florida room is apples & oranges.

Only enclose if you need the square footage.

I would never have a West facing lanai..........hot late afternoon sun.

But great in morning till afternoon even in July. Squares in evening till sun goes down. To each his own...

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Our lanai isn't insulated, but it has very sturdy acrylic slider windows that go almost up to the ceiling from around 2 feet off the floor, with pet-screen material on the outside of the windows (since we have an indoor cat who is not happy to learn that some neighbors have outdoor cats). From around mid-September through April we keep the slider from the inside of the house out to the lanai open for cross-ventilation and to enjoy our morning coffee, and relax and watch the neighborhood.

When it's warm out, it's way too hot out there even with the windows open. We get the morning, mid-day, AND afternoon sun beating down on the lanai so it gets pretty brutal. If the walls and ceiling had insulation I'd definitely enjoy having the slider to the house kept open. But it's not efficient to have the AC running into that room at all the way it is now.

[Kelevision]

Originally Posted by KRMACK55

What is an At Ease model never heard that expression before

It’s the name of one of the house models.