3-Season Vinyl Film Porch Enclosure in Livery Stable, Matthews NC

From Underused Open Porch to a Year-Round Retreat in Livery Stable

This project is a great example of what we do for homeowners throughout Matthews and Mecklenburg County. The family in the Livery Stable neighborhood had a perfectly good porch that was just sitting there, going unused for most of the year. The original porch had a railing around the perimeter and was otherwise completely open to the elements.

That meant every spring pollen season, every muggy Carolina summer afternoon, and every rainy fall evening turned the porch into a place to avoid rather than enjoy. The homeowner's goal was straightforward: they wanted to use the porch for more of the year, and they wanted a real living space out there, not just a pass-through.

Our solution was a 3-season vinyl film porch enclosure using the Sunspace WeatherMaster 200 Wall System. This is an all-aluminum wall system designed to work with the existing structure. We installed stacking vinyl-film windows around the perimeter, which allow the homeowner to open the panels up and get a full cross breeze on a nice day, or drop them down to keep out rain, pollen, and bugs when the weather turns. Because of the height of the header on this porch, we also added transoms above the stacking window sections to fill the wall properly and give a clean, finished look all the way up.

Details That Made This Project Unique

One decision that shaped the whole design came from the homeowner themselves. Rather than replacing the existing porch railing with a glass knee wall or a framed knee wall panel, they wanted to keep the railing. It matched the railing running along the exterior stairs, and they liked the consistent look it gave the home. So we worked with that constraint and inset the vinyl-film window panels between the posts, sitting on top of the existing railing. The result is clean and intentional.

There is one narrow wall section on this porch where a stacking window simply would not have fit the width. For that section, we installed a fixed vinyl-film light that matches the height and transom profile of every other section. It holds the visual consistency of the wall system without forcing a window into a space that could not accommodate one.

For the flooring, we installed Lagunna Oak LVP throughout the porch. This added warmth and made the space feel like a true room rather than just a covered deck. We also installed a tall swing door on one wall that leads out to a landing and down to the patio below, so access to the yard is easy and the door proportion matches the height of the surrounding window sections.

By the time we finished in June 2023, the homeowner had already set up the space with a sectional couch, a TV, and a small table for morning coffee. It has been over four years since installation and the system continues to perform exactly as intended. The homeowner is very happy with the result and the consistent use they are getting out of the porch year after year in Matthews.