Putting a corrugated roof over laundry drying area of garden

[united4ever]

So, we moved from a flat to a house with a nice, private garden. We have a Pergola at the side of the house which we haven't got much use for right now. We also don't like tumble drying clothes and my wife hangs them up in the house which causes condensation problems. We don't want to buy a dehumidifier because my wife likes humidity for her skin.

Solution: I want to put a corrugated plastic roof over part of the Pergola so that we can hang up laundry there even if there is a chance of rain. I get that it's not going to dry much in winter but I guess 300 days a year it would get enough sun if we hang it up first thing in the morning (going to put the washer on timer so it starts at 5am, then hang up about 6 or 7 am.

Would this work and dry clothes effectively? No the prettiest use of the pergola but for day to day life I think would be more useful and it's not in a very visible part of the garden.

I don't find it works too well in the damp.
And the dog pees up it (well it is outdoors.......)

Mind you.if you have no dog its probably a good idea.
At least it may dry the clothes some, and they get out in the nice fresh air.
Could try finishing them off in a room with the door shut and window open.
Or door shut and dehumidifier.
I do sympathise -we have both damp and condensation problems!

yes, the last place we lived got mouldy because of the way we dried clothes and don't want to go down that route again. Also our house is small so I don't like having dinner surrounded by hung laundry - the place would seem much bigger and obstacle free if we use the outdoor space better.

I'd give it a go, then, tbh.

I would get a dehumidifier too though -having said that, look at the environmental/financial cost of running that compared to a tumbke drier...

And use an extra spin on the machine.

When i lived in Russia everyone seemed to hang washing out on their covered balconies all winter long. The winter is much dryer than ours though, it is the damp that gets us. However when i tried it i just ended up with frozen clothes and went back to hanging it off the hot water pipes.

a dehumidifier in one room with the door shut to dry washing isn't going to affect the whole house.

How much wind does that area get? It's at least as relevant as sun. I'd go for it. I've just come back from Japan, where line drying in the teeny-tiniest of spaces is the done thing, and I saw the corrugated roof thingy done quite often.

I really want to do this too! Winters are too damp for clothes to dry properly but they do dry a bit, and if you iron them afterwards it's fine. That's November till February, the rest of the year it should be ok anyway.

Ha ha, yes, I used to live in Japan which is where I got the idea from.

We have corrugated plastic roofing over the space outside our back door so we can get to our outside utility room without getting wet. I dry the laundry inside, in the utility room, which doesn't have heating.

Things you may want to consider:

when it rains the sound is very loud on the plastic - worse than on a conservatory

rain doesn't come down straight - unless its a very big area, things underneath still get wet

in the winter, things don't get dry in my utility room, they just stay damp for ages and go mouldy. This maybe the lack of air movement in there, so a proper covered outside space might work.

My SIL does this. She has a lean to/convered patio and hang things there. Once they are almost dry she moves then to conservatory to finish off.

you need wind more than sun, although sun helps. Make sure the roof isn't blocking the wind. If there are only two of you then you don't need to do that much washing and if it is the UK, there should be enough dry days to get it done.

please stop wrecking your house by drying washing indoors. And your wife is not an amphibian and so does not need humidity for her skin.

We don't have a tumble drier and have two kids (one still in cloth nappies). Now the weather has turned, getting things dry is not going to be as easy.

We have a great line in the garden so the washing goes out whenever it is a dry day, and if it is windy then we might be able to get two loads done. Still, winter days are almost worse than useless to get things dry - there just isn't enough power in the sun which is why you need the wind. You're are likely just to get rid of some creases after hanging outside on a still day and then need to bring them inside to finish off over the radiators or iron them dry.

So, like everyone else, I would doubt your idea of putting a roof over the pergola will actually do much unless it is a wind tunnel and there's plenty of air movement.

What I tend to do in the autumn and winter is spin the clothes on as high a spin as possible (usually 1600rpm), get them out on the line if dry. Bring them in as soon as I get back home (before the dew makes them damp again) and then finish off on the radiators or iron. If it is set for rain, then I just suck it up and have to iron them dry.

If they can't do a high spin, can't be ironed and it is wet outside, then they get hung on the clothes horse stood in the bath, with the bathroom door closed and the window open.

We're in the process of doing this, not for washing but for covered bike/trailer/welly storage.

Once it's done I'm going to buy a Lakeland heated airer and try it out there (already have outdoor electricity supply and we've put plywood sides on a big enough area so the rain won't get in sideways), might that be possible for you?

One of the campsites we go to has a laundry drying thing that works in wind and rain, a Shieling Dryer but I suppose it wouldn't work as well in a sheltered garden as it would on Mull

I really like the shieling duet but £350?

My MIL has this set up, it is brilliant

Hopefully the washing will dry enough to take the worst of the wetness out of it so there is less water going into the air in the house.

I tend to stick our washing out as long as it's not going to rain and then finish it off on the heated airer in the conservatory. In the middle of the winter we do end up with washing on an airer in the dining room but I've never yet had problems with damp. We do though always have windows slightly open on the latch upstairs and I open the conservatory window whenever I can.