The benefits of owning a patio canopy

Posted on 23rd June 2016 | Posted in Home & Garden

As the official start of summer kicks off with the longest day of the year, our thoughts inevitably turn to our gardens. Could this be a season of blissful afternoons spent on the patio and evening barbeques shared with friends?

Will this be the year we can actually invite family over for a get-together and enjoy their company and conversation outside wiling away the hours over some delicious food and a glass of wine or beer?

Well, there’s one addition to your home that could make this much more of a reality – a patio canopy.

Providing shelter and shade

Lots of homes have a patio or terrace area outside, providing a great outdoor extension to the living and social area of a house. They’re perfect for the summer months, whether it’s breakfast outside, a mid-afternoon break from gardening, or evening drinks in the setting sun.

But a patio area without any kind of shelter or shade is exposed to the elements, and we all know what the British summertime can often be like. If there isn’t scorching hot sunshine, there’s likely to be sudden downpours.

A garden canopy can be just the solution to provide that extra bit of protection, in one way or another, to your patio or outdoor space. It offers a useful cover which you can retreat under if the weather turns too wet or too hot, and gives you an extra area outside to store garden furniture without worrying about the rain!

Encourage Your Children (or Grandchildren) to Spend Time Outdoors

A patio canopy can help to persuade your children or grandchildren to play out in the garden, rather than sitting in front of the TV, using smartphones or playing video games. A study recently found that 74% of UK children spend less than 60 minutes playing outside each day. Astonishingly, this equates to less time outdoors than prison inmates. This means that children are missing out on vital benefits of outdoor play, such as physical fitness, intellectual stimulation and social skills. The negative impacts of increased time indoors for children of the modern world include increased anxiety, risk of phobias and being prone to fear, a rise in cases of ADHD, obesity and even rickets. As well as reduced physical and mental advantages of outdoor play, less time in natural sunlight means a reduced amount of vitamin D, which is essential for healthy bones, teeth and muscles.

The study also found that children spend twice as long playing on screens as playing outside. It has been shown that extensive amounts of screen time delay cognitive development in children, which harms their capacity for concentration and their communication skills. This can harm their ability to make friends and puts them out of touch with the real world.

Protection from the sun

Patio canopies can also offer you and your family some much-needed protection from the sun when it gets too powerful over the summer. For example, our canopies are all coated with Melinex gel, which allows natural light to permeate through the shelter but filters out those harmful UV rays.

This means that children can play underneath the canopy and be protected from the sun – reassuring for parents who worry about too much exposure. Our gel coated systems also prevent garden furniture and fabrics from fading in the harsh sunlight.

Free from obstructions

All our canopies use a cantilevered design system, which means you’ll get the maximum benefit from shade and shelter without any obstructions on your patio or garden terrace.

The canopies are entirely self-supporting, which eliminates the need for any large pillars or posts to hold up the roof. Not only does this mean you’ll retain the same amount of space outside, it also ensures there’s nothing for children to bump into or fall over when they’re playing in the garden.

Flexible size and design

This cantilever construction also means that the patio canopy can be fitted to the side of your house in exactly the size and design you’d like. Each canopy is bespoke to your individual needs, meaning you can customise it to your home with a variety of styles and colours.

If you wanted a walkway around the side of your house to offer additional shelter from your backdoor to your utility room or garage, for example, a canopy can easily be designed to run continuously around the side of your home.

Take a look at our selection of patio canopies, and then request a free survey to find out how one could enhance your outdoor space.