In the dog days of summer, it would sometimes help to have a tiny bit less sun when you’re trying to relax on your deck or patio. What you need is temporary shade — here for the summer, gone for the winter. You could plant a fast-growing deciduous tree, of course, but not every spot is right for a tree.
No, you need something far-shading but fast — a pergola or a retractable awning. You can even get a pergola with a retractable awning.
Both solutions will give you the temporary shade you want, but with different effects and different price tags.
Pretty and functional, garden structures such as arbors,
trellises, pergolas and gazebos can serve as architectural backbones for
the garden. Vines trail along an arbor in this garden entrance.
You may have seen pergolas on houses and called them trellises or arbors. Like a trellis or an arbor, a pergola can support vines or climbing roses. And like a free-standing arbor, a pergola can filter light with its lattice-like canopy.
But a pergola is specifically a wooden structure with upright columns that support cross beams to form a flat, open roof. They’re usually attached to buildings or built to shelter paths between a main house and a garage or other outbuilding.
The appeal of the pergola is that it’s a piece of architecture. It looks traditional and substantial, particularly when covered with flowering vines and roses. They seem made for houses with old-money European styling, from Italianate to Tudor.
They’ve become popular, too, with owners of low, California- or Spanish-style ranch houses.
But with subtle changes of the supporting columns and overhead lattice, a pergola can fit other house styles, too. La Pergola Exterior Design in Oak Park, Mich., has built pergolas that reference mission, Arts and Crafts and cottage styles.
The newest wrinkle in pergolas is to add awnings. La Pergola offers ShadeTree canopies, which are like banners that fit on tracks added to the overhead beams.
The canopies come in mesh fabrics or in Sunbrella solids and patterns. You extend them manually and maintain them by cleaning them at least once a year with a mild soap and water. They also come with a storm release for wind.
The canopies aren’t intended to protect a deck from wind or rain. Some pergola owners choose polycarbonate panels to form a solid roof. The panels come in three colors, and can stay up year-round. A translucent white panel will block about 70% of the sun.
La Pergola custom-designs and builds each pergola to fit an overall yard plan, said owner Frank Mantel, who grew up in Italy and opened La Pergola two years ago. That plan can include paved walkways and terraces, decks, lighting, water features, garden ornaments and furniture. A price for an unfinished 12- by-12-foot pergola alone is about $2,500 installed, and adding the ShadeTree canopies will cost about another $1,100. The x polycarbonate panels would run about $1,000.
But most installations are a little more than just the basics, Mantel said. He said the typical pergola installation he’s done this year has been about $3,500 to $4,000.
The pergolas are pine, which you can paint or stain.
Could you build a pergola yourself? Various websites offer downloadable plans for a handy person, but be aware that you will likely need helpers to lift the frame into place.
ShadeTree offers pergola-and-awning systems for the do-it-yourselfer, with aluminum, vinyl and traditional wood frames. A 10-by-12-foot vinyl kit costs about $1,500 to $1,800, depending on the fabric. A similar aluminum kit costs about $1,300 to $1,600. A wood-frame kit costs about $800 to $1,100, but that is for the overhead framework only.
But not everyone has the space for a pergola. Fabric awnings are a traditional way to shade a window, and with the advent of the large retractable awning, that solution can work for decks and patios, too.
At Marygrove Awnings in Livonia, Mich., fixed deck coverings in fabric or aluminum are finding hot competition from the retractable awnings, which can project 10 feet or so without upright supports.
“The trend is definitely toward the retractable awning,” said Karl Limburg, vice president of sales for Marygrove.
“Even more specifically, the trend is toward motorized retractable awnings,” added Mike Falahee, president of Marygrove.
The deck or patio awnings can be made from 5 to 50 feet wide in one of more than 150 fabrics, including patterns from Sunbrella and Dickson. They can be operated with a manual crank, a motorized crank, an integrated motor with a wall switch or a motor with a remote control.
SunSetter awnings are widely marketed to do-it-yourselfers, online and in mailings. SunSetter’s manual awnings are about $700 to $800 for a 10-foot-wide size, though, unlike Marygrove’s, they use diagonal or upright braces for support when they’re extended.
