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  • California Smartscape
  • CA# 1033262
  • San Diego CA
  • (619) 913-2350
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Category 07 of 12

Patio covers

Shade is a structure, which means it is permits, footings and posts.

How much sun a cover blocks is the first question and the least interesting one. The ones that matter are what it is made of, whether it needs a permit and an engineered footing, and what it will look like in fifteen years — because a cover is attached to your house and is not something you swap out on a whim.

Louvered aluminium patio cover with string lights over a wood-look plank tile patio
A dark louvered aluminium cover over wood-look porcelain plank.

Filter

6 ways to narrow this down. Combine as many as you like — they stack.

Type

The family the material belongs to.

Shade it gives
Built from
Cost band

Relative installed cost, not a price. Same three bands as the pricing guide.

Upkeep

Wood is beautiful and it is a maintenance schedule.

Style

7 of 7 patio covers in this category

  • Covered outdoor room with an open-gable wood ceiling, herringbone tile wall and plank floorOpen pergola

    Wood pergola

    Posts, beams and rafters in cedar, redwood or douglas fir, open to the sky. Warmest-looking option here by a distance, and the one with a standing appointment for cleaning, sanding and re-finishing.

    • Natural cedar
    • Stained walnut
    • Painted white

    Signature cost band

  • Louvered aluminium patio cover with string lights over a wood-look plank tile patioOpen pergola

    Aluminium pergola

    The same geometry in powder-coated extruded aluminium. Longer clear spans, no refinishing, and some systems carry a convincing wood-grain coating. It will never smell like cedar.

    • Bronze
    • Black
    • White
    • Wood-grain coat

    Signature cost band

  • Louvered aluminium patio cover with string lights over a wood-look plank tile patioLouvered & adjustable

    Louvered aluminium cover

    Aluminium blades that rotate from open to closed, so one structure gives you dappled shade at noon and a rain roof in February. The most mechanically complex thing in this category, and priced accordingly.

    • Black
    • Bronze
    • White

    Bespoke cost band

  • Solid-roof timber patio cover with exposed rafters over a seating areaSolid roof

    Solid-roof cover

    A real roof: rafters, sheathing, and usually tile or composition to match the house. Full shade, rain protection, and the only option here that lets you hang a fan, a heater and a television without qualification.

    • Stained timber
    • White painted

    Bespoke cost band

  • Steel-frame pergola over a bar and grill area beside a linear gas fireplaceOpen pergola

    Steel-frame pergola

    Welded steel, which buys you the thinnest members and the longest spans of anything here. Fabricated off site for one yard, which is exactly why it costs what it costs.

    • Matte black
    • Bronze
    • Corten-look

    Bespoke cost band

  • Fabric & retractable

    Shade sail

    Tensioned fabric on posts or building anchors. The fastest and cheapest way to put real shade over a patio, and the one most obviously temporary — the fabric is a consumable measured in years.

    • Sand
    • Charcoal
    • Terracotta

    Essential cost band

  • Fabric & retractable

    Retractable awning

    Fabric on an arm that rolls back into a cassette on the wall. Shade when you want it, open sky when you do not, and nothing standing in the middle of the patio when it is put away.

    • Sand
    • Grey
    • Striped

    Signature cost band