free standing brise soleil

[marmic]

morning everyone,

 

Anyone have any experience of building a cost effective free standing brise soleil please?  Needs to be free-standing as too much to cantilever off building (from wind loading too) and need a gap to access gutters etc for cleaning and maintenance (regular cleaning crucial as we have full on RWH!).  With required gap will obviously need to be higher than head of windows.

 

Brise soleil manufacturer with reasonable costs???  ppc metal fins would be nice but probably cost prohibitive.   We have cladding left over but unless it has significant support its going to be curly!

 

I've just started thinking about kee klamp posts/supports (or scaffold tube painted?) with vine wires and deciduous climbing plants.  Possibly single row of posts with crosspiece at top.   A long narrow pergola effectively!  Possibly a temporary canvas /  bamboo screen on wires whilst plants growing.

 

thoughts / ideas please gratefully received     

Edited 12 hours ago by marmic

[Gone West]

1 minute ago, marmic said:

thoughts / ideas gratefully received

I've got a vague recollection that @JohnMo built a freestanding covered area with timber louvres.

[JohnMo]

We have a sail thing which covers a seating area outside. But it does provide shade to a set of french doors also.

Whole sun exposed front of house has a large roof overhang, depending on time of year, time of day is quite good other times not so good.

[marmic]

for the kee klamp/scaffold with vine wires idea thinking maybe even at an angle to reduce width required at top? dumb idea or not?  thoughts appreciated - as brutal as you like !!

 

other ideas too please??  I do like to break the norm  

 

can't be the first person with this dilemma!

 

 

[ToughButterCup]

49 minutes ago, marmic said:

...   

A long narrow pergola effectively!  Possibly a temporary canvas /  bamboo screen on wires whilst plants 

...

 

Selected with care and a view to the long term, plants are the best shade. But they weigh much more than I thought they would.  

[marmic]

10 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

We have a sail thing which covers a seating area outside. But it does provide shade to a set of french doors also.

Whole sun exposed front of house has a large roof overhang, depending on time of year, time of day is quite good other times not so good.

thank you JohnMo - i have been toying with something like this as nice and simple - how does it get on with the wind?  off the shelf item? Or kee klamp type tubes etc?

[JohnMo]

We are very exposed location and if high winds expected I remove the sail.

 

Off the shelf item from local garden centre. Thin wall tubes rock about in the wind. Have thought about changing the steel work for some thicker walled and more robust.

 

How about a strip of double glass PV panels on a free standing wooden frame to provide shade and electricity? Double glass look the same from top and bottom (black glass). Add a flat narrow walkway near house for doing your gutters?

Edited 11 hours ago by JohnMo

[marmic]

26 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Selected with care and a view to the long term, plants are the best shade. But they weigh much more than I thought they would.  

Ummm   good point. Moreso when wet. And thinking further more leaves for the gutters!  So maybe not such a good idea! Exmet??

[Russell griffiths]

If it’s for those 3 windows in your pic I would go for shutters on a sliding rail above the window 

like an old barn door sliding mechanism thing. 
I think it would fit that exterior perfectly. 

[MikeGrahamT21]

After this last heatwave I’ve got some fabric samples of outdoor UV stabilised shading material, of two grades, and am considering making some fixed awning/external blinds for the windows which bring in a lot of heat in summer, an attach them with neodymium magnets, one stuck to the frame and the other sewed into the fabric itself. Originally I was going to get outdoor roller blinds until I costed them, about £600 each for the bigger windows 😬 

 

fabricsUK is where the samples are from and it looks good quality, around £20/m and 2.67m wide

 

if I decide to make them I’ll post about it on my blog.

 

I’ve got the external blinds on some of my velux windows and it knocks a good 10C off of the centre pane temp of the 3G ones, I think they were about 1-2C above air temp compared with about 12C of the non covered in same position. 2G ones that effect is even greater (showed around 50C with inside and outside blinds closed, without outside blind I seem to remember they got closer to 80C)

[Gone West]

7 hours ago, JohnMo said:

We have a sail thing which covers a seating area outside. But it does provide shade to a set of french doors also.

 

Found it. I was actually thinking of your pergola, which I think is excellent.

 

[JohnMo]

Forgot about that, mkII version would get slightly closer together angle plates in the roof.

[marmic]

7 hours ago, JohnMo said:

We are very exposed location and if high winds expected I remove the sail.

 

Off the shelf item from local garden centre. Thin wall tubes rock about in the wind. Have thought about changing the steel work for some thicker walled and more robust.

 

How about a strip of double glass PV panels on a free standing wooden frame to provide shade and electricity? Double glass look the same from top and bottom (black glass). Add a flat narrow walkway near house for doing your gutters?

nice idea - but pricey and we're already generating more we can use from PV on roof!  Probably some fins out there with pv too - like the stuff tata offer as option on standing seam??

[Nickfromwales]

I made this in a week, which works well for a freestanding solar pergola / carport. Used to take it on the weekend shows, and there was lots of interest in a timber offering tbf.

 

 

[marmic]

3 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

If it’s for those 3 windows in your pic I would go for shutters on a sliding rail above the window 

like an old barn door sliding mechanism thing. 
I think it would fit that exterior perfectly. 

Also a door, and 2 more windows, 1 larger, 1 smaller - going to get costly as would need to be bespoke, probably aluminium louvre panels. I too think potential to look smart particularly if same colour as windows - but having now measured / visualised going to look too much on the elevation!    

[marmic]

2 hours ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

After this last heatwave I’ve got some fabric samples of outdoor UV stabilised shading material, of two grades, and am considering making some fixed awning/external blinds for the windows which bring in a lot of heat in summer, an attach them with neodymium magnets, one stuck to the frame and the other sewed into the fabric itself. Originally I was going to get outdoor roller blinds until I costed them, about £600 each for the bigger windows 😬 

 

fabricsUK is where the samples are from and it looks good quality, around £20/m and 2.67m wide

 

if I decide to make them I’ll post about it on my blog.

 

I’ve got the external blinds on some of my velux windows and it knocks a good 10C off of the centre pane temp of the 3G ones, I think they were about 1-2C above air temp compared with about 12C of the non covered in same position. 2G ones that effect is even greater (showed around 50C with inside and outside blinds closed, without outside blind I seem to remember they got closer to 80C)

whilst clearing the jungle in the neglected veg garden area this afternoon had a similar thought, but not as elegant!  I was thinking fabric/sailcloth of some sort made to measure to work with reveal liners with eyelets - with hooks / screws / pegs of some sort into liners.  can still open the window a bit and hopefully the gap would dissipate heat further before hitting glass.  I like the magnet idea though.  But don't want to stick anything to aluclad windows.............  

[JohnMo]

2 hours ago, marmic said:

but pricey

Not really all DIY, 2x 500W panels cost £60 each, inverter £150 and an  isolation switch. Wood not that expensive and brackets.

[marmic]

12.5m elevation, not just the 3 windows!

[Thorfun]

We just got back from a holiday and the apartment we stayed in had one of these. 
 

 

thought it was a great idea and something we’re thinking about building. The good thing is the wood beams are far apart so removing the fabric in the winter will still allow the solar gain whereas the tight spaced pergola fins would probably still reduce solar gain in the winter as well.