Expert: Bruce E. Johnson - 6/20/2010

Question
I am wondering how much work it will take to make a bedroom out of our covered back patio.  Our home is brick so there are two brick walls in the covered portion of the patio with two sides open.  The outerwall to the patio is the living room with a fireplace - so the new bedroom would have the outsidebrick portion of the fireplace explosed in the room.  There is a an overhang in place.  The ceiling is finished out and is 8.5 feet high.  The patio is approximately 13.5 feet wide and maybe 28 feet in length.  The flooring is cement.  We are planning on using the existing french patio doors that lead outside and move them to the new length of the conversion.  Can you share thoughts on if this is a good way to add an extra bedroom to our ranch home?  Thank you.

Answer
Hi Jean, enclosing a covered patio is a good and relatively inexpensive way to add living area to your home provided you recognize a couple issues involved.  1. Is the roof covering the area a complete roof system and part of the existing house's roof and roofing system with its own structural support?  Or is it just an aluminum pan roof built to keep the elements from the patio with a couple of wrought iron grillwork holding it up?  2. Patio floors are sloped to encourage water to drain away from the building.  This will need to be addressed somehow by either repouring the slab level, pouring a leveling slab on top of the exsiting patio, or building a level floor system on top of the existing slab.  3. Patios slabs are normally built with a thickened edge of concrete, however, some only have footings to support roof columns and the remainder of the slab is merely 4" thick including the edge.  Dig around near the edge of your slab and verify it has at leaste an 8" thickened edge where you will be adding your exterior walls.  If it is  only slab thickness then you should dig a trench around the edge and try to under pour additional concrete to help stabilize your slab edge.  Adding just wall weight to a slab edge isn't putting that much weight on the area but if you plan on making this a permanent addition to your home, a reinforced slab edge will probably be required by local building authorities.  And yes, I have moved many a sliding glass door and reused them in different locations.  I hope this information helps, please feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com