Having a roof over your terrace means you’ll have an extra space in which to enjoy your home. It’s also a way of avoiding sunburn during the summer months. Here are a few modern solutions for elegantly shading your terrace.
The awning, the ideal shelter for a terrace
The awning fabric is perfect for shading a terrace. Above all, it’s a tailor-made thermal shield that filters UV rays and reduces heat. This equipment is essential on a south-facing terrace. You can find at least three types of awning fabric on the market, for example on this page of the osyla.com website: microperforated fabric, polyester fabric and acrylic fabric.
Microperforated fabric is very strong, with a grammage of 360 g/m². It is particularly resistant to warping and tearing. The micro-perforations on this fabric actually limit heat absorption and provide better ventilation. Acrylic fabric (250 and 270 g/m²) filters out an average of 80% of UVB and UVA rays. The advantage of this water-repellent fabric is that it is rot-proof, which reduces the risk of mildew or damp stains. Finally, polyester fabric has the lowest grammage (between 240 and 270 g/m²), but still protects you from the sun. To add the pleasant to the useful, choose your canvas in a color that matches your home’s decor. There are also fabrics with stripes or colorful patterns.
In addition to the fabric, you’ll also need to consider the type of cassette you’ll need to choose a cane awning model that’s right for you. Some models have an integral box, others a semi-box. The box is the accessory that protects the mechanism and fabric of your awning from the elements. If you want complete protection, the full-case awning is the best choice.
What’s more, for this solar protection to be effective against oblique and grazing rays, make sure that the surface area of the awning is greater than the size of the area to be shaded. If you have a large terrace, an awning 4 m high and 6 m wide is generally ideal. On the other hand, for a small terrace, you can be satisfied with an awning 2 m high and 3 m wide.
Shade your terrace with a pergola
A pergola is a dismountable structure that can be installed on a terrace to provide shade in summer. You can choose between a freestanding pergola or a lean-to pergola to shade your terrace.
The freestanding pergola requires no support (wall or facade), as it has 4 legs. It can be easily moved to suit your needs, and adapts to any exterior. There are several different types of freestanding pergola on the market:
- wooden pergolas
- steel pergolas
- aluminum pergolas.
They’re all durable and add a touch of elegance to your exterior.
The lean-to pergola, on the other hand, must be attached to a facade or wall. It is equipped with two pillars to be fixed to the ground. This type of pergola blends in well with any facade.
Opt for a shade sail
This fabric is stretched between the walls of a terrace to create a shaded area, and measures between 2 and 8 m on average. There are two main categories of shade sails: perforated shade sails and water-repellent shade sails. For a relaxing moment on a terrace, for example, an openwork shade sail is perfect, because here UV filtration is very good. On the other hand, a water-repellent shade sail offers better protection in both dry and rainy seasons.
Whatever your choice, all these sails are commercially available in a wide variety of shapes: triangle, square or rectangle. Hexagonal or pentagonal sails are very original shapes if you want to stand out from the crowd.
