Interview: Sunspace Business: Changing with the Times

"The fad years are over, but the market's still strong for spaces that enhance a home's design, are easy to heat and cool, and add usable space."

Prefabricated sunrooms used to be about 80% of R.W. Chew's business in Barrington, R.I. But Robert Chew saw a change coming—a lowered demand for solar-style sunspaces. Unless he changed the nature of his services, Chew's business wasn't going to survive, let alone thrive. He decided to diversify. Today, Chew and his partners, Ray Silva and Katie Remington, install few sunroom kits, but now they remodel kitchens and sitebuild room additions. They also sell design services. They still erect or build about 24 sunrooms a year in homes in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Chew and Silva talk about the changing role—and the changing design—of the sunspace in the 1990s, and about the changes dealers must make to overcome lower demand. JLC: How