[Darn210]

OK, we have a screened-in porch that has just been there for the seven years we have lived in this house. Last fall we bought some nice wicker furniture to put on it. Now we would like to actually use the porch. The previous owners put down some hideous blue-green indoor-outdoor carpet over the plywood flooring. We discussed whether we would try to turn it into a sunroom or three season room and have ruled it out. We like it as a screened-in porch . . . but we need to do something about the flooring. My husband would like for it to look more like an "inside" room versus an "outside" room (if that makes sense). He was thinking some kind of tile. This floor is not insulated at all and I think tiling would result in cracked tiles/grout.

Anybody have a situation similar?? What kind of weather-proof flooring did you use? We live in the midwest . . . it can get up in the 90's in the summer and below zero in the winter.

[captaincrab55]

Darn210, on Aug 30 2009, 07:57 PM, said:

. The previous owners put down some hideous blue-green indoor-outdoor carpet over the plywood flooring.

First, you need to know what condition the plywood is in?

[Lisa16]

For tiles, here is what you need to do:

Screw down concrete backer board over the plywood (assuming it is in good shape.) Then you can lay any kind of tile you want onto that using thinset. The grout will not crack this way but if you put it directly onto the plywood then it will happen.

One cool thing you might consider is to lay heated pads under the tiles so you have a heated floor. That way you can still use the porch when it gets cooler. The orange mesh type ones from home depot are hard to install-- shop around if you go this route.

If you want references for natural stone tiles, I can give you one that I used. The tiles were really nice and the marble was about 1.25$ a square foot. I did it because it was about the cheapest option and it was so nice. I actually laid my own pink marble floor in a big living room by myself (girl power!)

Good luck.

[Lisa]

Here is something cool. We use it around here because it's bomb-proof and bug and moisture resistant. IPE is a wood composit. You can also get it in simple planking:

http://www.swiftdeck.com/