I agree. If we wanted another room, we would have looked for a 4 bedroom or an extra "den". We enjoy the lanai as a lanai.
Don & Kaz

Kahuna

I dont follow your reasoning..if I enclose my lanai with glass windows there should be no flooding on the former lanai....unless the lanai slab was always getting flooded to begin with , If that were the case you should raise the floor 2-3 inches as you said or build a block "kneewall" to place the glass sliders on. HOpefully the homeowner would alert the contractor of the potential problem he/she is trying to resolve.

This may have been true 7 years ago, but not today.

Because of changes in the laws, either glass or acrylic can be installed without affecting your real estate taxes.

If you install glass, you are not required to install heat and A/C.

If you do choose to install heat and A/C, this will increase your real estate taxes.

Additional electric is not required today. What is required is an outside light near the passage door that leads to the outside. Typically today a solar powered light is installed because they have become so very affordable.

When we purchased our pre-owned home I loved most everything except that the lanai was enclosed with glass. Couldn't for the life of me understand why someone would do that and had all intentions of ripping it our and putting the screen back...UNTIL we started sitting out there (yes in the dead heat of summer)and realizing that even when it rained we were fine and nothing got wet and stayed relatively clean. So we have now put up solar shades to block the morning sun and have found with the windows closed, the ceiling fan running and the slider from the house kept open we have a wonderful outdoor living space! We did expand the small grill area expansively and put up a railing so we have a wonderful outside area when the weather gets cooler. Bugs haven't been a problem this summer (quite honestly I don't think they are allowed in TV) and we'll see when temps drop if that holds true. Feel like I have the best of both worlds - an indoor/outdoor living space in the heat of summer and a true outdoor space when the weather gets better. Loving TV and all it has to offer - have only been here coming up on 3 months and it has absolutely exceeded my expectations.

Started with screens, always cleaning. Enclosed with acrylic sliders, a/c. . . wonderful

champion6 - is it true for lake county, too, that there is no increase in taxes upgrading to glass - no air?

still have screens and like them

It's very helpful reading what you have all done with your lanais. For those of you who have enclosed your lanai and have raised the floor to the same level as the house... Do you have a cement slab for your grill? And, if so, do you step down from the lanai to the cement slab? What would you recommend.

We have kept our pre-owned home lanai screened with the acrylic film "windows" and a smallish grill slab in the as-built condition (about 2001). The lanai is about 4 inches higher than the grill slab in order to keep any rain water out of the lanai. If you renovate and elevate the lanai pad to be equal to the floor of your main house AND expand the grill slab slightly, you probably should keep the outdoor slab lower than the lanai floor just to guard against rain water flowing inside the door.

Thank you. That makes a lot of sense.

Ours are still ok but starting to look aged. What ballpark dollar figure are you looking at for replacing the acrylic windows? Our lanai is 10 by 30 feet.

We almost enclosed ours but decided to leave it just screens. In retrospect we are thrilled that we did. Why would we want more enclosed living area? Part of the reason for being in a warmer state is to take advantage of the outdoors. We love spending time in our screened porch and being outside without the elements. Even with the best window system you'll have at most 50-60% of the exterior walls be open. My advice is to live in the house for a year before you decide to do anything. An eastward facing lanai is perfect. Additionally, if you keep it screened it helps to have a stone/straw/mulch bed up against the lanai to keep the weed whackers and lawn mowers further away and most importantly hire a mower service that bags or at least deflects the clippings down. I was horrified to see our former mower come around blowing the grass and dust all over the place- the beds, the house, the lanai,etc. That was the last time they mowed for us! Since then its been easy to keep the lanai clean.