Location: Lonehill, Fourways · System: Adjustable Louvre
The brief
The terrace steps up out of the lawn at the back of the house, with a run of white folding doors along the back of it and the pool a step down to one side. It is the part of the garden the house opens onto.
A terrace this size needs a cover that can be opened again — a solid roof here would shade the folding doors permanently.
What we built
An adjustable louvre roof with a charcoal frame and white blades, its rear edge running along the house above the folding doors and its outer corners carried on charcoal posts at the terrace edge. A boxed edge beam runs all the way round.
The posts land on the sandstone terrace rather than out in the lawn, so the step down to the pool and the walk round to the garden are both left clear.
If this is the shape of what you want, start with Adjustable Louvre Awnings — or see more from Fourways & Dainfern.
Covering a terrace that a house opens onto
A run of folding doors exists so that a room can be opened to the garden. Put a fixed roof over it and you get shade in January at the cost of light in June — and the doors stop being the reason the room is pleasant.
Adjustable blades keep both. Closed, the terrace is shaded and dry; open, the doors get the low winter sun they were put in for.
The specification behind it
- Adjustable aluminium louvre roof — charcoal frame, white blades
- Rear edge along the house above the folding doors
- Outer corners carried on posts standing on the terrace
- Boxed edge beam all round
- 95% watertight in Highveld storms, with a full all-round gutter
- 15-year guarantee on aluminium
Where the posts land matters more than how many there are
Clients usually ask how many posts a roof needs. The more useful question is where they come down, because that is what you live with.
On a raised terrace the answer is almost always on the terrace itself rather than off it — a post founded out in the lawn needs its own footing, interrupts the mowing line and puts structure between the seating and the garden.
If you’re considering the same
If your patio has a run of folding or stacking doors along the back of it, say so at the site visit. It is the single detail that most often decides between an adjustable roof and a fixed one.
See more Fourways, Dainfern and Lonehill work.
