This is what the sunroom project looks like today. The beaded board ceiling is in place except for one last (corner). That opening was left so that insulation can be blown in next week. The plumber is due to put in the two water pipes for my potting sink and the sink drain/trench drain going out into the yard.

The concrete framing is in place. Concrete will be poured up to the French doors threshold so that when the tile is laid, it will be level with the rest of the house. That's about 4" thick at that brick wall. There will then be a 2" step-down where the glass/aluminum framing meets the patio and then that concrete will extend 6-7' past the existing patio. I think you can see how the framework will allow one solid pour of concrete, and where the step-down will be. There is a gradual slope from the house to the border of the patio so that water will always flow away from the house. Thus, the new concrete will cover all of the existing tile and existing patio.

There will be a trench- drain (also called a channel-drain) about 2' inside the glass wall, and it will be about 30' long. That trench-drain will be covered with a decorative metal mesh (grate), and the covering will be level with the new tile. The grate will be removable in sections in order to clean the drain out as needed. The trench drain will empty out into the lawn, as will the sink drain, and there will be an underground gravel pit some distance away from the patio/sunroom to collect that waste water. The gravel pit will allow the water (there will never be much volume) to percolate into the clay sub-surface.

I asked the contractor to salvage the walkway stones (they are expensive) and I will use those piled-up stones to extend the walkway to the outside edge of my greenhouse on both ends. Right now the walkway ends at my double door opening and approximately the same at the other end of the greenhouse.

The upper right corner shows an opening so that insulation can be blown in.


The concrete will be level with the top of that 32' long 2x4. It will then be able to flow under that 2x4, forming a step down, and will continue to that 32' long 2x6 forming the outside patio edge. All this concrete slopes 1/4" for every 2'. Since my yard slopes away from the existing patio down to the raised garden, no grass had to be excavated for the concrete and that 1/4" per 2' slope. There will be approximately a 2 1/2" slope from the house to the outside patio edge. Having this slope plus the addition of the trench drain and the step down, assures there will be no issue with water in the sunroom.

There are three piles of stone pavers that will be re-used to extend the walkway on both ends of the greenhouse.

Everything looks well thought out, Ken! This should be really lovely and wonderful to use when done!! You have enough room to give your wife a nice (and small ) Bistro table surrounded by some of her favorite Orchids to keep her happy too!

We already have the table and it is an antique, 3'x3' that is expandable to 3'x5'. With a room that is 18'x32', there's plenty of room for that table. We are going to fight about the plants though. She reminded me yesterday, after I posted a couple of pictures on FB, and hinted that I could now grow some larger plants, that it was NOT a greenhouse. I never mentioned "that word" but got in trouble regardless.

Ken, you can grow a lot of Orchids and other plants in a WINTERGARDEN!! And always surround her with some of her favorites, this way she won't notice that much whatever else you stack in there, neatly of course!

It is always good to see progress.

Jim

Anything that she paints (many dozen now) are her favorites, Ursula. Since I have to grow my "mother" fiddle leaf ficus inside fall and winter, I am thinking about hanging some of my mounted orchids all over her. She won't mind (the fiddle leaf, not my wife). Rather than stacking all my large, extra, clay and ceramic pots on top of the potting/packing cabinet, I could put a dozen or so orchids in 5" pots. She says I can have that 20% space to do whatever I wish (within reason and with her acceptance of course). Time will tell.

One major unknown is whether I will need any shading or the other side of the coin, whether the treated glass blocks so much sun that I need supplemental lighting. Now that (supplemental lighting) would be a problem. I am quite sure my wife wouldn't stand for fluorescent lighting in (her) sunroom.

So jealous, Ken!
Still in limbo. I'm making doll clothes lately to keep sane. And of course I still live in Nirvana...

Thanks for the great info on the indoor lights. I still have a giant sodium bulb but it would be over the top. We named it Chernobyl years ago.

That's a pretty good name for a sodium light. It probably would not be good for your eyes. I don't really know what its lumen output is or the Kelvin range. The color emitted is weird.

What progress has been made, Kathy? Any plans drawn up or options presented?

The carpenter has finished reinforced the frame for the concrete and is now preparing the trench/channel drain. He should finish everything in preparation for concrete this afternoon and can then begin to remove the double window/trim and begin the process of putting in the French doors. He should be able to finish those doors tomorrow.

The plumber came early this morning, discussed what needs to be done with the contractor, and his crew is supposed to be here tomorrow morning to do the pipes and drains. I am going to have him attach an outside faucet to the cold water pipe because I am losing the faucet that was on this side of the house. That faucet will remain but will be "dressed up" for use in the sunroom if/when necessary. The contractor was going to have that existing faucet capped off and covered but I told him it might be handy when I am flushing out that trench drain. He agreed. I think it will also be used to water plants inside the sunroom.

Concrete is due to be poured at the end of the week (hopefully).

I hope the glass goes up a whole lot quicker than all this tear-out and prep work.

A little progress today. The French doors are now in (still to do the trim/brick), the water lines are run from the attic, drain for new AC/heat unit is in place, and the trench/channel drain and sink drains are in place. The AC folks still have to run the copper tubing going from the AC/heat unit (which will be mounted on the brick wall) to the condenser outside. All these lines that are near the porch/deck will be covered in concrete and the lines running down that column will be covered when the column is cased in. The corner of the ceiling was left open for the plumber and to blow insulation over all the beaded board.

Lots of progress there, Ken. I'm impressed. The OC took 6 months to build.

Jim

Looking good!

My greenhouse was started in May and the greenhouse panels were up in two days. What took until early September was the rest of the stuff, like the heating system and electrical wiring and the addition of the deck.

Everything now waits on the concrete to be poured. And though it is only 600 sf., it is a little complicated, having to taper everything away from the house, then another taper adjacent to the trench drain, then a 3 3/4" step-down, and then a final taper to the edge of the patio. Maybe this is why we can't seem to line up the concrete finishers. Oh, and then there is how do we get the concrete to the porch/patio? You can't drive a truck into my back yard, can't even get any closer than the driveway, and that's at least 150' away. I don't know whether the concrete truck can even use the driveway. We may have to move the concrete from the street in front of the house, and that's probably 200'. Oh well, I am sure the professionals that do this, deal with these kinds of problems all the time.

They can either pump it or wheel it. I would vote for pumping it.

Jim

Not my decision, Jim. I just want that concrete poured so that we can get going with the Florian glass structure. That should be interesting. Florian has 45 pages of instructions on its fabrication.

I've been stalled on all fronts. If I go with Florian, I will just do a south wall and roof (no end wall) and a sliding door. If not, I will use skylights in the roof. But nothing can be planned till we sell.
Question: Do either Ursula or Ken have auto vents in the glass roof? I sure would like something that doesn't require my constant monitoring (needing to be home).

Also, Ursula, do you have recommendations about your UV screening on the inside. How is it set up? The Florian guy talked about making it so it can slide like a curtain across a wire. Trying to picture that.

Kathy, my roof does not have a vent. I have a really strong fan high up on the South wall vented to the outside. It is connected to a thermostat. Works very well.

Not sure what you mean about UV screening on the inside? I shade the greenhouse in Summer by installing Aluminet into the ceiling. I could never do that in a full greenhouse, the way I have set that up with bars attached below the ceiling and threading the panels through that, I only use that in Summer, when all the plants are outside.
I don't need any other screen, I want as much light as possible in Winter. I would have to look it up on florian's website, they list the types of glass they are using, I don't remember exactly which one we have , but it does cut some light. ( My transition lenses still get dark in the greenhouse! )
Florian offered one time to mount a retractable awning outside over the greenhouse, to be opened and closed with a push of a button. If I ever keep my Orchids in the greenhouse over the Summer I would probably consider that. But, if they have nowadays a better solution for hot Summer days, that might be even better.

Ursula has the advantage of actually having her greenhouse up and going for several years. Since I don't have a single glass panel in place, I have far more questions than answers right now.

Keep in mind, Kathy, that I am building a fully climate controlled sunroom. Thus Ursula's room and my room will function differently. In many/most instances, those two French doors at both ends will remain open. Thus the space will be a heated/cooled space, just like the rest of the house. There would be no reason to have the space vented, as that would work against my central AC/heat. Of the original three ceiling fans, I will keep two fans, but am upgrading to high-efficiency fans. Those fans will be sufficient to move the cool air/warm air so that the entire 600 sf. room has a uniform temperature. At least that's my plan. The glass I am using filters out 90% of the UV and gives me 50-60% shading, depending on whether it is the side glass or roof glass. I will have to see what sort of shade-cloth I'll need in the summer months. That's one of my big questions and only time and experience will give me that answer. But as Ursula has stated, I would probably want all the light possible during the fall and winter months.

Ken and Kathy, I should really stress the point that here in NJ I don't strive to cut the amount of sun light in the greenhouse, heh I grow my Orchids in Summer outside with minimum amount of protection for most of them. But Summers are simply hot here, we have lots of sunny days in the nineties, so I am looking to not cook the place, since it is part of the house. I switch off the air condition in the Summer in the greenhouse ( otherwise it would just stay on all day, that is not necessary, since it is empty then) but turn it back on in September for still occurring hot days.
My greenhouse is tied in with the heating and cooling system, Ken, but that fan still takes the top of the heat on warm Fall and Spring days, mostly. I have set it to jump on at 85 degr F.
It probably would have been a good idea to give the greenhouse its separate AC.

I just pulled out my old folder containing all the Bills and lists pertaining to building the greenhouse, installing the heating system and electrical wiring.
Now looking at Florian's Bill, it states that we used glass panels with a heat repellent rating of 4.7. I seem to remember something like a 17 % UV reduction. If one looks closely, the glass panels have a very faint grayish tint.
Kathy, is this the info you are looking for?

Apparently, Florian lists a lot more glass factors now than when you got your glass, Ursula. I don't see any number than relates to your HRR of 4.7, but these are the numbers that fit the two glass types I am using. Many these numbers are basically percentages compared to what a standard, 1/8" pane of clear glass would transmit.

Roof glass (double the cost of the wall glass) Side (wall) glass

Shading coefficient - 27% (allows 27% of the solar gain compared to single pane glass) 40%
Relative heat gain - 32 (BTU per hour) 81
Visible light transmission - 47% (I assume this is like having a 50% shade cloth?) 69% (30% shade cloth equivalent?)
UV light transmission - 10% 14%
Inside glass temperature in winter - 57F (when the outside temp. is 0F and inside temp. is 70F) 57F
Inside dew point - -8F (the outside temp. that will cause condensation when inside temp. is 70F) -8F (based on the inside relative humidity being 60%)
Winter U-value - .25 (heat transfer through the glass due to differences in outside/inside temp.) .25 (the lower the better....single-pane glass is 1)
Winter R-value - 4.0 (resistance to heat loss, based on single-pane glass being 1) 4.0 (the higher the better....4X better than single-pane)

Many of the numbers mean little to me. I need to be an engineer. What is the (practical) difference between Winter U and Winter R-values? Basically all this means is that the glass is extremely well-insulated, having clear tempered over clear tempered safety glass which is dual sealed.