Do's & Dont's Of Veranda Design

 

Do build to the area you are in

Look, my view is you’ve got to build to the area that you are in. And it all depends on the house you are attaching to; if you are attaching to the house. And you can’t do any design on any house because all houses are different

You can’t read a catalogue and you try to morph whatever is in there unto your house. Chances are it is not going to work. So it is the recommendation of the company that you take the opportunity to talk to one of the design consultants. Collectively we have had more than 40 years experience in this, so it is not like we don’t workshop these things through

Do fit your Budget

So it is not just that. Sometimes you’ve got plan A, plan B, plan C. And perhaps the client’s budget comes into what we are doing.

Do take into account light, heat, and height 

What I like to guide clients on is how much light they want into their home, how much heat gets in there. And I think an important factor is the height of the veranda. The higher they get, the more wind they suck in.

Don't make it too high

And if I could say just Rocky, sometimes if your veranda is too high it has an inhuman aspect to it. Like we are moving to a large cathedral and the roof is right up there you are just not feeling comfortable. It doesn’t feel like you are in a room.

Do build within permit requirements

I think the big note too is building within permit requirements. Because all of a sudden you are doing what could be a simple structure, but a small adjustment here or there will soon make it a very clean process when doing permits. Otherwise it could just drag out forever and a day. A lot of money can be spent for very low gain.

Do take into account each person's desires

To me what a lot of people are worried about is the light and I think if you design something without taking into account each person’s desires it will be awful having a structure go up and they are upset about it.

Do take into account future plans

It’s not about just now, it’s also about future plans. Because if you go and put something that becomes a corner stone. And I guess if you have big elaborate plans I guess it is always important to look at the bigger picture

Do be careful of laser lights on a west facing area

Not just light, but controlling heat as well. A lot of people actually have said they get upset because it is west facing. But if you want to block out the heat a simple thing most people do to do is actually put up laser light. But that could be very hot on a west facing area.

We have newer technology that we can let in light without heat. One thing that is probably the most problematic product in the past, weather-plast

Inevitably we’d go out to a client’s house and they’d say we hate this veranda, it is just too hot. And often on the other side of it we are receiving a call from someone who wants to put in a laser light veranda. In all but very few cases, most of the times, laser light will radiate heat. What I don’t like about laser light is it doesn’t stay looking new for long.

Clear laser light, frosted laser light is another product.

Don't spend money on things you don't need

I always try and save the client money where I can. If they don’t need to spend the money, I am not going to ask them to do it. A small well- planned space is far better than a big space that does nothing.

I am a strong believer in saying don’t do more than you need. Otherwise it becomes a storage area.

It should be to scale. You know simple is usually best.