TikkaShooter said:
Screen porch owner here...
They are a BTCH to keep clean.
I'd highly recommend retractable screens so you can raise them up, grab the power washer or blower, and really get the place clean.
Once you "close in" the porch with screens, you now have another space - and a much more exposed space - that requires sweeping and or mopping to stay nice.
If I did it again... I dont think I would.
This. Our house had a screened area built on and we ended up taking it down for a few reasons.
Primarily, as Tikka stated, it was very hard to keep clean. I'd pressure wash the concrete and push the water into the drain areas, and within a couple of months, you couldn't tell I had done anything. Black/green concrete and it made it to where we didn't want to really go into it.
When it was clean, we'd go out in it and try to enjoy it, but the airflow through it just wasn't that great, which is probably why it was always dirty/mildewy. Even on nice fall/spring days, it would get stuffy in there, and when we'd walk out of it, it felt like walking into the AC after walking from a parking lot in July.
We ended up taking the thing down a year or so ago and we've enjoyed the area much more since. Yeah, the bugs suck, but those can be mitigated in different ways.