Condensation is the process by which water molecules change from a gas into a liquid. This process can only happen when two conditions are present, the first being high relative humidity and the second, cold temperature.

Insulating glass is typically made from two or three layers of glass with a spacer between them. The spacer is typically made from aluminum tubing or structural foam, which assures a gap between the sheets of glass that is filled with dry air or another gas. (more…)

Why Laminated Wood?

When considering the purchase of a sunroom, there are many decisions to make.  What the sunroom’s structure is made from is one of the most important from a practical as well as an aesthetic perspective.

Extruded vinyl or aluminum are commonly used to build the frames for sunrooms.  Both materials are very resistant to rot and require little maintenance but have the look and feel of a poor quality product.  Furthermore, sunroom built from vinyl or aluminum are “stick” built on-site with very little control over quality due to the variability of the skills between one technician and another.

Laminated wood sunrooms offer several advantages.  There is little doubt that wood looks “warmer and richer” than either of it’s competitors.  In fact, wood is literally warmer because it is a much better thermal insulator than either aluminum or vinyl.  The color and grain patterns in wood are beautiful.  Laminating wood to form the beams takes advantage of the beauty of the wood and enhances its structural qualities.  Sawn timber beams are weakened by knots and other natural variations in the wood.  When wood is cut into thin laminations and then glued together to make up a full thickness beam, the knots and other “defects” are limited to only the thickness of each lamination.  Since the natural flaws don’t line up from layer to layer, the effective strength of the beam is not impacted.

To protect the beautiful wood from the elements, the exterior surfaces of laminated wood sunrooms are clad in aluminum extrusions.  This technique offers all of the advantages of wood and aluminum.

Since wood is an easily machined material, it makes customizing the sunroom easy.  Manufacturers of aluminum and vinyl sunrooms will not customize their rooms to fit special customer requirements.  Building sunrooms from laminated wood makes customization a natural benefit.

It's pretty "clear" that Brady's Glass will let in more sun

Property values have plummeted with the massive foreclosure rate that still plagues the U.S. in this current economy. Homeowners who have had the good fortune to keep their residence are looking for ways to increase their home and property value in hopes that if they do decided to move that they might get back their initial investment. There are several ways to increase a home’s value.; A new coat of paint, better insulation, and one that seem to be growing with popularity the solarium.

The word solarium is often used when talking about tanning beds, but for this purpose, that is not the case. Solarium in this instance refers to the room made completely out glass, including the roof. The floors are usually ceramic tiles to maximize the absorption of the sun. (more…)

Brady-Built Sunrooms often recommends a helical screw foundation for the installation of
sunrooms as an alternative to a concrete pier (often called a Sonotube) foundation. What is it and why use it?

First; it is best to understand what a concrete pier foundation is. A concrete pier foundation requires the excavation of a hole large enough to accept the pier form (usually a cardboard tube).The hole must extend to below the frost line, which in most of New England is set at 48” by building code. Depending upon soil conditions and the weight of the structure that the pier will support, a flared bottom is sometimes required on the pier. This is achieved by using a plastic form under the cardboard tube form that gives the pier an upside down ice cream cone shape.The hole for this type of pier is significantly larger than a straight tube pier. (more…)

Our friends at Your Designs LLC, an authorized Brady-Built reseller in Michigan, asked us a question about sustainability and eco-friendly materials in our sunrooms. We understand how important it is to today’s families. You’ll be happy to know that Brady-Built Sunrooms are not just beautiful, but help maintain nature’s beauty so we can enjoy it with our children and grandchildren for generations to come.

The windows (Pella) that we use are energy star rated.  The glass from Guardian exceeds energy star specifications, but the NFRC does not certify window components, so technically we cannot say that our glass is energy star rated (that’s why Guardians web site is so vague).  The wood is from a sustainable source.  The aluminum is mostly recycled content.  All factory scrap glass and aluminum is recycled. Wood scraps are given away to local residents for use as fuel for home heaters.  The sawdust is given to a local farmer for use as bedding for livestock.

Below is the third article in our series addressing the choice of Lexan and Glass in your sunroom. While both have their advantages and disadvantages, Bob breaks down why some manufacturers do not measure up to Brady-Built quality.

To understand why the glazing systems respond the way they do in summer versus winter, it’s important to know one fundamental element of heating and cooling design.  The amount of energy needed to make a room comfortable is directly proportional to the difference in outdoor temperature versus indoor temperature.

For instance, if you want your house to be 70 degrees on a 10 degree day in January you need enough energy to raise the temperature 60 degrees.  If you want your house to be 70 degrees on a very hot day in the summer, let’s say it is 100 degrees outdoors, you will need only half as much energy to get it to your target temperature of 70 degrees.  This is pretty obvious when you read it, but it has important implications when selecting glass for a sunroom.

Using heavily tinted glass or plastic will help prevent the sun from hitting surfaces in the room, reducing the amount of heat generated in the room, but a significant portion of the sunlight is converted directly into heat energy in the tinted glass.

About half of this heat energy radiates into the sunroom causing the temperatures within the room to rise to levels well above the outdoor temperature.  Though this is a relatively small amount of heat, remember, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, that much less energy is needed in summer to make a big difference in comfort (or discomfort in this case).

As summer enters its last throes, the days are getting shorter and the nights a bit more chilly. Here at Brady-Built Sunrooms, we continue our work to bring the best and highest quality sunrooms to you. We have a series of articles coming up that will help you prepare for the winter months and help get you valuable information so that you can make the right decision for you and your home.

These articles were written by our General Manager, Robert Wironen, whose knowledge and experience will help guide you through some of the complexities faced when choosing a sunroom. We hope you enjoy these articles and gain helpful information.

A new structure that is to be added on to the existing structure.  Additions are often new rooms such as a family room or a conservatory or an expansion of an existing room.  Most states require a building permit for additions.

A structural or trim piece that is manufactured by forcing aluminum through a die.  Extruded aluminum is commonly used for the frame on many sunrooms and is used by Brady-Built for the exterior weathering surface of their sunrooms, making it possible to have the maintenance free qualities of aluminum on the outside and the beauty of wood on the inside.

A thin covering of sheet aluminum used to protect the exterior many wood products.