Screened porch with composite flooring
It’s a real challenge to get just the right amount of natural light inside your home. If you live in one of the many houses that has a south or southwest facing yard, the sun can really beat down on the back windows during the summer, forcing you to use the blinds all day and into the early evening. It’s a peculiar problem: having so much sun that you need to keep things dark. One solution is to build a porch or pergola in the yard. You then get the dual benefit of having a fabulous new outdoor living space and being able to welcome a moderate and more comfortable amount of sun into the rear of your home.
When you add a Kansas City covered or screened porch to your house, you are creating a hybrid space that is neither indoors nor truly outdoors. You benefit from sun and rain protection and open up a world of possibilities in terms of adding outdoor amenities like ceiling fans and entertainment systems. You may also realize a benefit from reduced cooling costs in the summertime thanks to the newly created shade.
If you want to protect the rear of your home from the sun’s harshest rays, but are concerned that there might be too much shade, let us know during the design process and we will design to accommodate that desire. We can easily use a gable or skylights to alter the amount of light in the porch area and, ultimately, the usable interior light in your home. Homes that 
face the east or northeast rarely have the harsh lighting environments I’ve described. Don’t worry if you don’t know your home’s orientation. Making recommendations based on your home’s layout is a key part of our design consultation.
Pergolas are a smaller scale project and investment. They will be less expensive to build and often don’t need building permits. Pergolas can be freestanding or attached to your home and can be oriented in any direction. They are extremely flexible in terms of size, shape, style, and the building material used.
If you want a Kansas City pergola built specifically for its shady qualities, the orientation of the pergola and the kind of rafters it has will be critically important. For more shade, you will want to increase the number or size of the slats. You will need to tweak the spacing between the slats and pick an ideal angle. As the sun moves across the sky each day, the amount of light filtering through will change. We are happy to design a pergola to account for all of these variables and achieve the desired effect for you home and yard.
Bonnie and Dan Hall, Archadeck of Kansas City Owners
If you’re considering the addition of an outdoor fireplace – or a deck, porch, patio or other outdoor living structure – to your Kansas City area home, don’t wait. Give us a call at (913) 851-3325 for a free consultation or email us at kansascity@archadeck.net. We look forward to your call.