HISTORY OF SUNROOMS

Families, friends and neighbors have always enjoyed getting together outdoors. Whether it’s relaxing on the front stoop, rocking on the porch, or lounging on the back patio, it’s nice to get out of the house. But when the challenges of wind, rain, and bugs spoiled the atmosphere, homeowners began to look for other ways to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors with indoor comfort.

The evolution of sunrooms began with screened–in porches, some with removable windows for the cold weather season. The challenge with screened porches was keeping the inside clean of dirt and pollen. Then someone thought of mulling storm windows together. This solved the dirt and pollen problem, but always looked like an "add–on" to the home.

The patio enclosure was first marketed in the 1960’s, meeting the needs of the thousands of single family suburban homes that had gone up since World War II. Families found so many uses and so much enjoyment from these enclosures that a market demand for better looking, higher quality, and well-engineered products was created.

As a leading manufacturer of quality products for home improvement since 1946, Craft–Bilt Manufacturing Company began to manufacture engineered roof panels designed especially for use in patio enclosures, Florida rooms, patio covers and enclosed porches. Lightweight and strong, Craft-Bilt’s panels were sold to home improvement companies under the trademark "PanelCraft®" beginning in 1962.

In 1986, Craft–Bilt designed a complete sliding glass wall system and, along with their existing roof system, introduced Betterliving® patio rooms. These fully engineered, high quality three season patio rooms were fully warranted and made available to the public only through trained, authorized and exclusive dealers. In time, Betterliving added additional products including insulated glass, and then developed its 4 season vinyl sunroom. All Betterliving patio room and sun room components are quality controlled and tested in our engineering laboratory to meet the structural requirements of local and national building codes.

Over the years, Betterliving has become a national sunroom leader, well-known through extensive television coverage and tens of thousands installations. Craft–Bilt Manufacturing Company works constantly to improve the design, performance, and structural properties of our Betterliving sunroom components. We offer a 50-year non pro-rated, transferable manufacturer’s warranty on all Betterliving Patio and Sunrooms.