Cathedral Design Tips

Cathedral – A cathedral style sunroom is probably the style that almost everyone prefers.  It is sometimes also referred to as a gable style sunroom.  Although beautiful and more attractive than a studio option, the cost can get significantly higher rather quickly with options and more difficult installation requirements.  But with a vaulted ceiling, top custom trapezoids on the front wall and some creative decoration, the cathedral style sunroom will quickly become your only destination.  Some people argue all they need other than their cathedral sunroom is a bathroom and a kitchen.

Cathedral sunrooms looks their best when they are wider rather than longer.  Although not as bad as a square studio style sunroom we still recommend that you avoid them.  Square sunrooms of any style make allocating the space inside the sunroom very difficult and wasteful.

Cathedral sunrooms are typically built with a 10’ peak and 8’ side walls and the pitch is adjusted accordingly to make these sizes work.  A wider sunroom is typically going to have a smaller pitch.  You can ask the company you are working with to increase the overall height of the peak, but you run the risk of drastically increasing the cost.

Roof attachment can be tricky for a cathedral sunroom if you do not have a flat house wall that goes up at least 2 stories.  But do not worry if you have a ranch house or other overhang that slopes down where you want the room to go.  A company will install a saddle to attach your cathedral sunroom to your house.  Think of a saddle as an extension of the cathedral room until it runs into your house.  Good companies will completely remove the overhang, put down new layers of water/snow/ice shield and then flash and shingle the roof.  In almost every case, when done right, the cathedral sunroom with saddle looks like it was always meant to be a part of your home and will provide no service headaches in the future.

Some additional options that you can add to your cathedral sunroom include top and bottom glass transoms.  These areas are the panels directly above and below your windows.  You will not have bottom transoms beneath your sunroom door obviously.  Most companies will charge the same price for either bottom or top transoms for your sunroom.  On a cathedral sunroom you do get another option which is custom trapezoids on the front wall to fill out the peak.  Since this glass is custom cut and there is waste from the glass maker, you typically pay a premium for this.  It is very important that you understand how they will be doing the front glass trapezoids on your cathedral sunroom.  Some companies will put rectangular transoms below the trapezoids so that there is a linear uniformity with the rectnagular transoms on the side walls.  Other companies will use an entire transom on the front wall no matter what.  Make sure you understand which style works best for you on your new cathedral sunroom.

Adding a sunroom to your home is one of the greatest things you can do to add value and increase your family’s togetherness.  Whether that sunroom is a cathedral style sunroom is completely up to you.