Has anyone got a pergola over their patio?

[Helpmeplease2019]

Narrow south facing garden desperately in need of some shade. We’re just finishing an extension and I’m wondering whether to add a pergola to it. It’s a Victorian terrace so we now have a middle room with no window of its own (though it is open to the kitchen/dining room which has lots of Velux windows and bifold doors). The only place I could put a pergola would be against the house and I’m worried about the loss of light.

Does anyone have anything similar? How do you find it?

I used to have a 12' x 6' pergola on my patio outside where my kitchen is. We then bought a large wooden gazebo for the garden so decided we didn't need both. When we took the pergola down I couldn't believe how light the kitchen seemed.

We have put the pergola in the centre of a smallish garden on a Victorian terraced house we are selling so away from the paved area and it is great.

We are putting up an awning, so we can extend it out to have shade when it’s boiling but have it folded away to keep the light at other times. It will shade the patio, the inside of the house and give privacy (we are overlooked) - this is how I’m justifying the cost anyway!!

A much cheaper version would be a shade sail that you’d put up in the summer and down in the winter (if only UK weather was that predictable )

That's very much what I fear IB but unfortunately we don't have the space to put something further from the house.

And that sounds really interesting minipie. It sounds like a retractable awning. Could you link to the one you're getting?

I'd try it out with something like a borrowed pop up gazebo to see if you could live with the changed light levels first?

The back of our house faces to get the morning/lunch sun and it used to become uncomfortably hot in the dining room part of the lounge with the sun through the patio doors - we now have a conservatory on that part which knocked the light and temperature levels in the rear of the house down to a nice level (MN and conservatories are a whole other topic) but it did have quite an impact (desired in our case) on the light levels in the house. It's welcome for us as the back of the house was like a bloody sauna!

Yep a retractable awning. Ours is made by Markilux, sorry not sure of the model.

Hi, I was also considering a pergola after watching a lot of Sarah Beeny recently but was ultimately put off by the loss of light and all the creepy crawlies that would inhabit it. Now looking at retractable awning too. @minipie, do you mind saying how much yours will cost? Where have you purchased it from? I’m torn between a cheaper manual one and the German electric ones.

I’ve got it from a local awnings and blinds place called Aquarius. Slightly embarrassed by the cost, it’s 4 figures! It is a large one though and all electric, supposedly top quality (better be!)

We went for a metal frame gazebo with a fabric roof. The frame is permanent but the roof comes off except in the summer. We don't mind the loss of light in the summer as it helps stop the dining room from overheating (and the fabric is pale so reflects quite a lot of light), and we still get full light in the darker months.

Thanks @minipie - I know what you mean about the cost! I did a quick online quote that came out at just over £3,000! (Without installation.) Whereas the cheaper one comes in at about £500. I’m sure yours will look amazing though.
@perspicaciaTick, that sounds cool, though we have neighbours who might object on a permanent structure. I’m trying the channel the wise words of Sarah Beeny - ‘make the space work for you’ - like the OP we are south facing and the garden gets so hot it renders it unusable.

We have one like this www.qdstores.co.uk/products/aluminium-pergola-gazebo-3-metres-x-3-metres-high-quality.html

gives us the best of both worlds as we can have sunshine or shade in our south facing garden. you can open the awning like opening a blind.

It was a cheap alternative 'just for now' but 3 years later and its still going strong