Pergola Ideas

[MusicMum80s]

We have a north facing garden that is actually quite sunny beyond the for 2.5m from the house. We have large glazed doors at the back and also sky lights so despite being north facing it gets a reasonable amount of light. We are quite overlooked though and were thinking of installing a pergola on the patio as a screen.

As the patio is already shaded do you think this would reduce light into the house or it would be fairly neutral. We are thinking it would be a slatted roof in any event with some plants growing on it.

Yes of course it will reduce light.

I think it would make quite a difference to the light levels.
The back of my house faces northeast, and we've got a conservatory open to the back of the kitchen.
The difference to the light in the kitchen was very noticeable when the conservatory was built.

Although presumably your sky lights won't be blocked at all?

We have a new facing garden,but because it's a bungalow the sun comes over the roof. DH made a pergola,it doesn't have any kind of top,it's 4 pillars,a surround round the top,metal brackets screwed into the slabs.grape vine one side, plants in pots, climbing scented rose, but not too tall.

@Chasingsquirrels that's right, the sky lights wouldn't be impacted. There are two of them near the patio doors and are each so 2 sqm so about 4sm each.

As the entire patio is already in shade from the over hang of the roof I didn't think adding a slatted pergola would increase the existing shading too much for the glazed doors but its interesting to hear your experience

Thanks, we'd want a slatted roof but our house is three stories to the patio area adjacent to the house is always in complete shade. Past the patio though its very sunny. Almost too hot in the summer.

It is 21 years since it was built, but I was remember being quite surprised how much difference it made, given the conservatory is mostly glass!

If the patio is already in shade then I doubt it will make much difference but it will to the house.

on a separate note, I don’t understand the point of pergolas. We put a gazebo in. So a full roof, it’s invaluable. Not only does it provide full shade, we can sit under it if it’s raining. Much more practical. I’d recommend.

anything from a quick shower, we don’t need to rush inside, to having sat under it on a full in thunder storm with a glass of wine, watching the rain pelt down and the lightening. We have dinner under there regularly, both as a family and with friends and we don’t need to worry about the weather.

ours looks like this, we bought ours from dunster house, our friends built it with my husband and then we got a local roofer to ceder shingle tile the roof and then an electrician added a power point, so we have lights.

Autumnalfun,that looks expensive. We have a summer house with an overhang,you can sit in there in the rain. The pergola well,to break up the patio which was 40,x36 feet, enormous and to grow a grape vine initially,it does provide some shade,is nice to sit under.

I don’t understand the point of pergolas. To provide shade. A shady walk, or a shady sitting place. The shade is from climbers rather than trees, so it takes up less space. And you get the shade without the considerable loss of light that you get with a gazebo. We have both.

I think I’m going to test it by pulling a temporary shade over the current patio where we’d build the pergola to see the difference. I know it will make zero difference to the patio, it’s just the indirect light to the glass patio doors. As the light via glazed doors is indirect as it’s North facing I’m hoping it’s not that dramatic

Yes that’s valid there is less light, for me it’s offset with the fact I’ve proper shade and can sit under in a rain shower. Our patio is south facing though and it gets hugely hot, so a pergola wouldn’t do. I think it’s why a lot of people put plastic roofs over their pergolas to make it more practical. Plus it takes a long time to grow enough greenery to give proper shade..

@Nannyfannybanny not as expensive as you’d think, my husband and two mates put it up over a weekend, it was the one below, and the roofer charged us 3k inc materials to ceder shingle it. So 5k in total. Which I get is a lot of money, but if someone had built it from scratch for us it would likely have cost double and then some.

Plus it takes a long time to grow enough greenery to give proper shade.. Depends on what greenery. There's a good reason why Greek tavernas grow grape vines over theirs (and I don't mean the grapes).

I think it’s why a lot of people put plastic roofs over their pergolas to make it more practical. I think a lot of people like the idea of a plastic shade they can put up in case of rain. while having it completely open to the sky most of the time. But if you have a removable cover, you can't easily row climbers over it.

The other point of a pergola that you can have scented flowers as the roof, which is rather nice. If you're in a part of the UK that doesn't regularly reach the 30s in summer, then being able to sit under scented wisteria or roses compensates a lot for not sitting there in the rain.

and the roofer charged us 3k inc materials to ceder shingle it. Was that a roofer or a general builder? We had a quote from a builder/woodworker to re-roof ours, and are trying to work our whether it was a "I don't want this job" quote or a "here's an elderly couple ripe for milking" quote.

It was actually a carpenter whose company builds gazebos to spec. The actual roofers no one was interested apart from one who gave me a price for double that, and he wanted to use the blue label ceder shingles, not the red label ones, which are more expensive and last for decades.

I'd start by working our which plants would thrive in that aspect, in my experience even shade suited climbers will veer in to areas of more light so you might find you have extra pruning and tying in to get them where you need them.

We used to have a nice pergola that my OH built.
After a few years it was pretty well covered in ivy & Jasmin and really reduced the light into the rear of the house, pruning was regularly required.
Took it down and had our beautiful conservatory built (high class roof) and even with roof blinds it let in far more light.

New house and a glass roofed veranda is now our preference.

Sorry and obvs meant that the other way round, he wanted to use red instead of blue 😀

I didn't even know there was red and blue so I've learned something!

Yes red and blue label 😃

I have a 6m long pergola overhanging our garden studio. It’s got two egg chairs hanging from it. Last year I planted a £2 passion flower from Morrisons in a border a few metres from it, and started training it towards it. This summer it covered the whole pergola. I’m talking really thick, green canopy from end to end. Amazing return for £2 plant. I’m going to have to chop it back or it will get too big. It’s not the most attractive climber (I would like to eventually replace it with star jasmine and clematis Montana) but it’s not invasive, it’s pest free and the flowers are lovely.

Sitting in a hanging chair with my morning coffee, and the green leaves and flowers above me - heavenly.

I can’t imagine wanting to sit outside in the rain, so a hard roof would be wasted on me.

Clematis montana will take over just like a passion flower. I’d go for Clematis alpina

@MereDintofPandiculation , but it will be evergreen…and the flowers are lovely…

Sorry I meant armandii! Not Montana.

I’ve had c Montana for years and the growth is nowhere near passiflora.

You could have fewer slats but angle them, brise-soleil style. This would let in light during summer mornings and evenings but reduce being overlooked.

I watched one work its way up a neighbour's house and over their roof. Mine is up into the tree tops - gorgeous to see it cascading down in flower., but I think it's gone a bit too far now.