Positioning your patio
How to position your new patio
One of the biggest challenges in designing your new patio in Brisbane is getting optimal daytime use out of it in regards to heat, light and ventilation.
Heat
As all us Brisbanites know, we cop a lot sun, especially during the summer months. The sun rises in the east, goes overhead and sets in the west. The morning sun isn’t too much of an issue for us but come midday we all know it can get a bit horrendous. If you choose to go down the road of an insulated patio this will block the midday sun from transferring the heat directly under the patio, where as a single skin patio heats up and will transfer it directly to you and your friends and family sitting underneath it. There are a few companies who will make outlandish claims to you about having special heat reflective single skin roofs, while they may be a degree or two cooler underneath than a standard single skin roof this is only enough for them to make this claim and not get in to trouble. Having had over 20 years experience in building this type of roof I can guarantee you that an insulated roof, and only an insulated roof, will stop the transfer of heat to you and your family underneath. While you will still get sun coming in from the sides we can overcome this for as long as possible by using what we call an overhang, where we extend the roof further than your patio areas foot print, this is just one of the tactics we can use to make sure you’re as cool as possible under your new patio. I make sure I train all my staff in these tactics, other examples of ways to battle the sun is; if your patio faces west we can lower the front as much as possible so we can give you more shade, If it faces north or south we’ll put in extra overhang on the roof or more often than not we’ll put a timber slat wall on the sides for extra shade protection.
Something that I find most patios designers fail to take in to account is what effect the sun will have on your patio during winter time. In the winter the sun is a lot lower in the sky which puts sun into the patio, in winter this isn’t a bad thing as we all know it’s far, far cooler sun and it will help to lighten up the whole area. If this is going to be an issue for your particular house we can leave the north face open as this will let the sun in as it travels through the day or in some circumstances we can even fall the patio back on to your house, this will let in loads of light and winter sun. There is always a way to make your new patio as useful and effective as possible all its take is a bit of thought. All of my staff are highly trained in patio positing and design, I do this to make sure when we come to quote you we are optimising your patio.
Light
Getting light in to a patio is really important for two reasons. Firstly, you want to be protected from the heat without the cost of creating a dark space that you don’t enjoy sitting under and secondly you want light in your new patio because this will put light in to your house instead of blocking it out. The most common misconception I’ve come across when people are trying to get light in to their new patio in Brisbane is that a skylight is their best option. While this will put light in to the patio it puts virtually none in to the house, they also draw an enormous amount of heat in the summer which makes them not very practical. The best way we can get light to your patio, and your house, is by using a flat white ceiling and as much height as we can, as the more height the more light. At Additions Building Company we build a lot of insulated flyover roofs , all with the appropriate overhangs to stop the sun coming in too much in summer. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of patios designed by our competition with no overhangs to save you money, while this is great because it’s cheaper for you and will let as much light as possible in to the patio, this is a false economy because you’re really limiting the time throughout the day where you can actually use it. A badly designed patio can really only be used about 30 percent of the daylight hours where as a well designed one should be able to be used 100 percent of the time.
Ventilation
Summer in Queensland is incredibly hot, especially the summer we are going through right now, even if you have an insulated patio without proper ventilation it can be unpleasant. I teach my staff to make the most of the opportunities your house and your yard can present us with. For example the ultimate patio that I would build is one that faces the prevailing winds in summer, with a pool in front of it using an insulated flyover roof. We’ve built a lot of patios along these lines and you really get to see how they work, the house roof heats up and creates a draft from the coolest spot, which is the patio, this in turn pulls air across the pool and on a hot day the pool will cool down the air flow, pulling cold air up and through your patio. This is exactly the type of patio I have planned to build on my next house, although the pool will actually be a large fishpond with lilies and native fish as my days of pool maintenance are over. I have seen this concept so many times now and every time we build this style everyone is extremely pleased with the results.
If you’ve decided you need a patio positioning expert to come out and give you the best option possible why not visit out patios in Brisbane website or call me directly on 0438648689
– Gordon
