Take cover! Roof awnings and pergolas

Awnings and pergolas are outdoor structures designed to provide shelter from the sun or rain. The difference between them is that an awning is attached to the house while a pergola is a more permanent attached or detached structure with posts, beams and rafters. Traditionally, awnings have always had roofs, while pergolas can have rafters only, so they provide shade but not shelter from the rain.

Until recently, the choice between sheltering or not sheltering windows and patios has always been a compromise. As summer approached, you started to wish you had installed an awning above that window facing the sun. When winter rains started pouring down, you wondered why you installed an uncovered pergola instead of a roofed pergola. Today, you no longer need to compromise.

Retractable roof awnings

One of the most important elements of passive solar design is shelter. An ideal awning blocks sunlight during the hot summer months but allows it to enter the house in winter, when the sun is lower on the horizon. The drawback to a fixed passive solar awning is that it has to be a specific depth in order to allow sun to enter in the winter. What happens when you don’t want shade in the summer or want more shade on a winter day?

Made from lightweight materials, retractable roof awnings have greater reach than traditional awnings. This flexible and waterproof roofing material can be extended or retracted manually or at the touch of a button. Even better, modern retractable roof awnings are a stylish addition to your home. Dollar-for-dollar, they can be one of the best investments in your home you can make.

Modern pergolas

The traditional pergola consists of support posts, beams and rafters only. For shade, the rafters might be placed closer together, but part of the traditional pergola’s charm is that it doesn’t make you feel like you have a roof over your head. That’s fine in the summer, but not so great when it’s raining.

Modern pergolas give you the benefits of traditional pergolas without their drawbacks in two clever ways:

1. Lightweight fixed polycarbonate roofing allows UV filtered sunlight to pass through. You get filtered natural sunlight, but cooler temperatures under the cover of your pergola.
2. A retractable pergola cover can give you as much or as little shade as you like. It can provide full shade or be made of a material that allows filtered or UV blocked light to pass through.

Thanks to lightweight but strong aluminium building components, a modern pergola or roof awning can span a greater distance without the need for more support posts. You can cover a wide area with nothing blocking traffic or forcing you to arrange your outdoor furniture around a support structure.

Modern roof awnings and pergolas give you the best of everything. Ideal for today’s indoor/outdoor lifestyle, they give you the protection from the elements you need. At the same time, they keep your indoor and outdoor living spaces light, bright and airy. What more (or less) could you ask for?