Stylish Entertaining - How to Select the Best Roofing for Your Pergola
Pergolas and formal stylized outdoor entertaining areas have been a mainstream trend in building construction in Australia over the past few years. New and existing homes are adding style and ambiance to their outdoor facades so friends and family can easily entertain all year round. The traditional 'Aussie' barbecue has become much more sophisticated with emergence of gourmet cooking outdoors with chef like barbecue kitchens. The need for our outdoor entertaining areas to become more stylized and functional has been the result.
When planning and designing a new pergola one of the main construction considerations is selecting the type of roofing material you want for your pergola in line with your needs. There are a number of different types of roofing available including polycarbonate, colorbond steel, tiles and opening roofs.
The first point to consider when making your selection is that the more light you let in, the more heat comes in. The catch being of course, that you need more light in winter and less in summer. There are a few ways around this problem, firstly you can use a combination of polycarbonate and colorbond steel incorporating 2 or 3 sheets of polycarbonate inserts and having the rest of the pergola roof in colorbond steel. This will effectively still let the light in that you need and the pergola climate underneath will remain comfortably cool. Another alternative is to have colorbond steel on the west side of the pergola and polycarbonate sheeting on the other, if the pergola has a gable roof.
With the polycarbonates there are a number of different qualities and light/heat factors available. Some polycarbonates let more light in and others less heat. Within the Laserlite range, there are over 20 to choose from. Polycarbonate also comes in many profiles such as Greca, Roma, Trim deck and Multi-wall System.
If you have a larger budget then an opening roof may be ideal, in this instance you can control how much light and heat you let in. In winter you can get all the winter sun by angling the open blades towards the sun and in summer just close the roof off. In the event of rain whilst you are out, the rain sensor will automatically close the opening roof for you.
Another style of pergola roofing to consider is an insulated roof with polystyrene in the middle, a colorbond roof at the top and a stucco finish on the bottom. With excellent insulation properties this style of roofing is often used for cool rooms. Of all the pergola roof coverings this one will keep out the most heat. The only downside is that it's extremely hard to install light panels into this type of roofing.Depending on the type of materials and roof design of your pergola it's often possible to change or reposition some of the roof sheets if your pergola is too dark or too hot.
Tips to Roof Repair and Roof Replacement
Repairing of a roof or its replacement can be a good cause for a bad headache. But it is something that just cannot - rather should not be kept pending. After all it is the roof above our heads that separates us from the harshness of the open sky. Once that is in place, man gets time to think. The first thing is to choose the best quality material of roofing and the quality of expert help needed in installing so that the headache does not recur too often.
It will be pennywise and pound-foolish to opt for anything but the best as regards quality of goods and content of work. The usual process is to get quotations from some neighbouring contractors who will submit the estimate. A local person will be more accountable rather than someone distant even though the latter may be more renowned.
House owners must learn to read in between the lines and thoroughly scrutinize the papers. No two estimates will look alike depending on the type of work and the group doing it. The work may be varied - patching up a hole, replacing a shingle bank or demolishing and fixing up the entire roof work. However some rules are common when going through the estimates and offers.
The first thing is to compare papers concerned with the same type of job. Therefore before asking for the quotations the house owner should sit down and make a detail account of the job required to be done, including the timing - onset of the work and its duration. The individual's own preferences of material need to be mentioned. If copies of this outline of the work is given to the different concerned bodies then it will be easier to compare, point by point.
The next thing is to ask for quotations only from contractors who have a name and not be taken in by glib sales talk. Some digging into the past of the candidates is necessary. Roofs may be tiled, rubberized or metal. Accordingly there are different experts in each field. A general contractor dealing with conventional roofing will lack in specialized skills, devices, tools and knowledge in these singular types.
After having honed down to a few choices it is now time to sit down and talk with each contractor separately. Often a face to fact chat opens up certain channels of view that are otherwise blocked and makes it easy to take a decision. This is known as the gut feeling and it is something over and above hard facts and impersonal figures. It is this factor that bonds the businessman with the client for mutual satisfaction.