Check Out Our Most Cost-Effective Screen Porch in Bethesda, MD

Outdoor living spaces can transform your home. They give you extra square footage for relaxing, entertaining, and maximizing your home and property. But they’re often a significant investment. (Check out how much a screen porch costs for a better idea.)

If you’re interested in adding a screened-in porch to your property but want to keep the budget down, check out what a baseline custom screen porch project from Design Builders looks like and includes.

Baseline (but Far from Basic!) Bethesda Screen Porch from Design Builders

We completed this screen porch project on Persimmon Tree Lane in Bethesda, Maryland, and it’s a great representation of our most cost-effective baseline option.

Even with this most straightforward project, check out everything you get when you opt for a Design Builders screen porch.

1. Clean, Beautiful Aesthetic

No. This screen porch does not include hundreds of intricate custom details, but everything that is there was chosen, designed, and installed carefully and with a lot of thought. The end result was a project that looks clean, simple, and timeless and will serve the homeowners for decades to come.

2. Longevity

When you’re designing something simple, every detail matters. Every design choice needs to be selected with three characteristics in mind:

• Utility
• Versatility
• Return on investment (ROI)

Every material, layout, and design choice in this build was considered for its long-term value. 

Take the flooring, for example. The homeowner chose to install TimberTech AZEK composite decking. This isn’t the cheapest decking on the market, but a product like that proves its value over time. When you take into consideration the ease of maintenance, the durability, the lack of repair or replacement costs, and the resale value, that initial price tag starts to make a lot more sense.

3. Fit with the Existing Home

When you’re investing a significant amount of money into a new outdoor living space, the most disappointing end result is that it looks like a design afterthought. You never want a new screen porch or outdoor kitchen to feel like it’s simply been tacked onto the existing home.

This is one of the biggest priorities and specialties of Design Builders. We put a lot of time and effort into ensuring the new construction blends seamlessly into the home that’s already there. We do this by:

• Matching or complementing finishes
• Making strategic style and design choices
• Matching architectural features, such as roof lines

4. Slate Gray Flooring

Slate gray was chosen for this project’s flooring color, and that one design choice accomplished a lot of objectives.

• It was a standard AZEK color, which helped keep the project budget down.
• Slate gray doesn’t retain too much heat, so it would remain comfortable to the touch—even during hot Maryland summers.
• The color doesn’t show a lot of dirt. This keeps the time (and expense) of upkeep and maintenance low.
• It’s a stunning, neutral, timeless design choice. (No looking back in a couple years wishing they’d selected a different color!)

5. Economical Handrails

The handrails in this project were vinyl with an aluminum insert. This ensured the product was durable and could withstand anything the external environment threw at it. And it offered all this at a price point that wasn’t prohibitive.

6. Minimal Frills Ceiling

The ceiling is a place where many project budgets can start to inflate. This project kept the cost down by opting for a simple stain and very limited electric. (The only electric element was a single ceiling fan with a light.)

Don’t forget, you can always talk to your design and build firm and figure out a way to add a stop point to your project. This allows you to keep the expense low at the beginning but leave the possibility of easily (and economically) adding more extensive electric work later.

7. SCREENEZE Exterior

SCREENEZE is one of our go-to products for screen porches. We love it for a lot of reasons, and the homeowners on this project agreed it was the natural choice for their screen porch.

• The product offered unimpeded views of their property.
• It made upwards of twenty-foot spans (without any posts) a possibility.
• SCREENEZE is incredibly low maintenance.
• You don’t have to worry about the screens sagging over time. Their system ensures everything stays as tight as the day it’s installed.

Interested in Building a Budget Screen Porch for Your Northern Virginia or Maryland Home?

Just because an outdoor living space is custom and you get access to design and build experts doesn’t mean the project is necessarily out of financial reach.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to create a high-quality but budget-friendly screen porch for your Northern Virginia or Maryland home, don’t hesitate to reach out.

We’re always happy to give you a free quote or to discuss tactics for keeping building costs as low as possible.