You’ve pictured it already. Morning coffee outside. A porch swing. Friends over on a Saturday night, laughing under string lights. But once you start planning the actual project, one question stops most homeowners in their tracks: should this porch be open, or should it be covered?
It’s a fair question, and you shouldn’t have to guess at the answer. We’re Crafted Decks + Porches, and we’ve spent more than two decades building decks, porches, and outdoor additions across the Upstate. We wrote this guide to walk you through both options, open and covered, so you can make the choice that actually fits your home and how you live, not just what looks good in a magazine.
Here’s what each option actually gets you.
TL;DR: Open vs. Covered Porch Value
No time to read? Here’s a summary:
- Open porches offer an airy, cost-effective outdoor space, ideal for mild weather, though they lack protection from insects and require more frequent cleaning.
- Screened-in porches extend usability by protecting against insects, sun, and rain, making them a better choice for frequent, year-round enjoyment.
- Upgrades like ceiling fans, outdoor fireplaces, and composite decking significantly increase the comfort and functional lifespan of any porch style.
- While open porches have lower initial costs, screened-in porches often provide better long-term value by maximizing the number of days the space can be used.
- The best choice depends on your lifestyle; focus on how you intend to use the space rather than resale value alone, and ensure quality construction for the best ROI.
First, Let’s Define Our Terms
Here’s where a lot of homeowners get tripped up: “open” and “covered” aren’t opposites. Both styles have a roof over your head. The real difference is what’s between you and the outdoors.
- An open porch has a roof, but no screens or walls. Think fresh air, a breeze moving through, and full view of your yard.
- A screened-in porch (what most people mean when they picture a fully “enclosed” covered porch) adds mesh screening around the perimeter, so you get the same roof and the same view, minus the bugs.
Both protect you from the sun and rain. Only one protects you from mosquitoes. That distinction matters more than most people realize, especially once you factor in South Carolina summers.
The Case for an Open Porch
Here’s what you get: the feeling of being fully outside, nothing but a roof between you and the sky, for less money than a screened porch. It’s the porch that makes your house the one people slow down to look at when they drive by.
Where an open porch pays off:
- A front porch people actually notice, the kind that makes your home look cared for from the street
- A quiet spot for morning coffee or an evening wind-down
- An unobstructed view of the pool or fire pit, no mesh between you and the action
- A style match for homes where screens would look bolted on instead of built in
Who it suits: Open porches work well for homeowners who spend most of their outdoor time in the cooler, less buggy months, or who simply want an airy, open feel without extra framing and screening costs. If your yard backs up to woods or a pond, though, be honest with yourself about the bug situation before you commit.
The catch? South Carolina isn’t exactly known for gentle weather. Our region averages somewhere in the 70 to 75 percent relative humidity range for most of the year. That combination of heat, humidity, and pollen means an open porch collects a lot more than good memories. Pollen coats your furniture in spring. Leaves and debris pile up in fall. And once the mosquitoes show up in June, an open porch can go from “relaxing retreat” to “swat-fest” pretty quickly.
The Case for a Covered, Screened-In Porch
Here’s what you get: every reason you wanted a porch in the first place, minus the reason you keep going back inside. Same breeze, same view, same shelter from rain and sun. Zero mosquitoes.
Where a screened porch pays off:
- A porch you’ll actually sit on every single evening, not just the ten perfect-weather days a year
- Family dinners, weekend hangouts, and holiday overflow without anyone getting bitten
- A hosting spot built around a TV, fireplace, or outdoor kitchen
- Poolside lounging with zero sunburn and zero bug spray
Who it suits: If you host often, work from home and want an outdoor “office,” or just want to get the most days out of your investment, a screened porch is almost always worth the extra cost. Add a ceiling fan and the temperature on your porch drops by 20 degrees or more, so even a sticky July evening feels like the best seat in the house.
The tradeoff is upfront cost. Screening, framing, and sometimes a slightly reinforced structure add to the price tag compared to an open porch. But you’re also buying more days of actual use, which matters when you’re weighing value against cost.
Options That Get You More Out of Either Style
Once you pick open or screened, the next decision is what goes into the porch itself. This is where the real day-to-day payoff comes from.
- Composite decking (Trex or TimberTech). Never sand, stain, or reseal again. It shrugs off rot, warping, and fading in our climate, and as a TrexPro Platinum installer, we back it with a manufacturer warranty that protects you long after we’re gone.
- Ceiling fans. Turn the hottest, stickiest afternoon of the year into your favorite spot in the house. One fan can drop the porch temperature by 20 degrees or more.
- Fireplaces and fire features. Keep the party going into November instead of saying goodbye to your porch the day it gets cool.
- Outdoor kitchens. Become the house everyone wants to end up at, every single time.
- Lighting and TVs. Turn family movie night into something that happens outside, under the stars, instead of on the couch.
None of these require you to choose open over screened, or the other way around. They just help you get more life out of whichever style you pick.
What Does Each Style Actually Cost?
Real numbers help. On average, a standard covered porch (roof included) runs $40 to $120 per square foot, or roughly $8,000 to $24,000 for a 200-square-foot space. Screening it in adds $25 to $120 per square foot, or about $2,000 to $5,000 if you’re screening an existing porch instead of building new. A ceiling fan or light fixture averages around $100 installed, and permits typically run $150 to $2,000.
Speaking of permits: nearly every porch project needs one, and requirements shift by county. We build across Greenville City, Greenville County, Oconee County, and Pickens County, and each has its own approval process. We pull those permits on every project, so it’s one less thing on your plate.
What About ROI?
This is the part everyone wants a straight answer on, and we’ll give you the most honest one we can: porch ROI is harder to pin down than deck ROI, because national reports don’t track porches the same clean way they track decks.
Here’s what we do know. Zonda’s 2025 Cost vs. Value Report, the industry standard for remodeling ROI, found that a wood deck addition recoups about 94.9% of its cost at resale, and a composite deck addition recoups about 88.5%. That’s strong. Exterior projects like decks and porches consistently outperform big interior remodels when it’s time to sell, largely because curb appeal sells houses.
For porches specifically, industry estimates put the return on a well-built screened-in porch somewhere around 70% to 80% of the project cost, while some sources cite an average porch addition ROI closer to 84%, depending heavily on your market and how well the porch was designed and built. Open porches tend to cost less upfront, so while their dollar-for-dollar recoup percentage can look similar, the total value added is usually smaller simply because you spent less to begin with.
The bigger factor in either case? Quality. A poorly built porch, open or screened, can actually hurt your home’s appeal. A well-designed one, built with durable materials and proper permits, tends to punch above its estimated ROI because buyers see it as a finished, move-in-ready feature rather than a project they’ll need to redo.
So Which One Should You Choose?
Honestly, it depends less on resale value and more on how you’ll actually live in the space.
If you want a light-touch addition that boosts curb appeal, fits a specific architectural style, or you’re mostly outside in fall and spring, an open porch does the job well and costs less to get there.
If you want a space you’ll use nearly every day, rain or shine, bugs or no bugs, a screened-in porch is almost always the better long-term investment. You’ll get more use out of it, and more use tends to translate into more value, both the kind you can put a price on and the kind you can’t.
Let’s Talk About Your Backyard
You don’t need to have it all figured out before you call. We’re Crafted Decks + Porches, and for more than two decades we’ve been building decks, porches, and additions across the Upstate, so we know how to turn everything you just read into an actual plan for your yard. We’re a TrexPro Platinum installer backed by a 10-year labor warranty on Trex decking, and every project starts with us walking your property in person, not a stranger reading you a script over the phone. No surprise change orders. No pressure to decide on the spot.
Give us a call or request a free estimate and find out, at no cost, whether an open porch or a screened one gets your family outside more often.