Vinyl sunrooms in West Covina CA - a bright room tied in tight to your house

A sunroom in the Los Angeles area usually costs about $16,000 to $120,000 per project, and that's the area's going rate, not a price from us. Larger rooms that need a foundation and get heating and air conditioning fall at the high end of that range, so a smaller room on a patio you already have usually lands lower. I'll give you a figure for your own house once I've seen it.

Yes, but plan for it from the start, because a heated or cooled sunroom needs windows that meet added requirements for water leaks, air leaks and heat performance. A sunroom that's open to the house and designed to be heated or cooled counts as real living space, and California's energy code treats heating or cooling it as an addition to the house. That's why it's one of the first questions I ask.

Choose them for the weather your house actually gets, because window energy savings vary by climate and a feature that helps in one place can do little in another. In one study, non-metallic frames like vinyl let less heat pass through than aluminum frames did. For the glass, the two numbers to compare are U-factor, how fast heat passes through, and solar heat gain coefficient, how much of the sun's heat gets in.

The city handles them, and applications go through its One Stop Building Permit Center, not by email. The city says the permits you need depend on the kind of improvement, so if you're unsure, its Community Development department is the place to ask. One thing I look up early is whether your address is on the city's fire hazard zone map, since the State Fire Marshal sends owners to the city with questions about a specific property.

Keep the door and window tracks clean inside and out, and keep the weep holes, the small drain openings, clear so water can run out. One sunroom maker's owner guide says to use pure silicone spray on the tracks rather than oil-based lubricants, because oil tends to pull in dirt. Go by the guide from your own room's maker, since that's the one that applies.

For home improvement work, the state licensing board caps the down payment at $1,000 or 10 percent of the total contract price, whichever is less. Any other payments have to be listed in the contract and based on work completed or materials delivered, so read that part closely before you sign.