Purchasing a Patio Cover, Awning,

MyPatioPro.com  uses only licensed contractors. We are a family owned business that has been building Sunrooms, Patio Covers, Patio Awnings, Patio Enclosures, Garden Rooms, Solariums, Glass Rooms, carports. It has always been our goal to help home and business owners find the perfect solution for their needs.

Please see our testimonials page to see what our customers have to say. We look forward to helping you find the perfect solution.

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• Patio Covers
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Considerations and Tips for Planning to Build a Patio Cover

With any construction addition to your home you will need a well laid out plan. Adding a patio cover is no different. Patio covers can make a great addition to any home or yard. We are general contractors with over 30 years experience. When laying out your patio cover plans you need to address the reason why you need the patio cover, a design to fit the budget, a budget for the project, a plan for the construction of the patio cover, and the required specifications laid out to legally build the patio cover. In most cases Permits are requiered, and varry from city to city.

Problem / Solution

The first thing to think about before making your patio cover plans is what you need the patio cover to do for you. Are you planning to cover a grilling area or a patio table? Are you planning to get protection from the sun or rain? Are you planning to lower your monthly cooling and heating costs? Or even a combination of needs? You should first take some time to write down everything you want your patio cover to do for you, and placement of the patio cover. This will help narrow the planning process to fit your exact needs.

Patio Cover Design

The next step in creating the patio cover plan is the patio cover design. Patio Covers, Sunrooms, and awnings are fully customizable to perfectly compliment a yard from the various different colors that are available, down to the exact shape of the patio itself.

• Tip: When planning for a patio cover, Sunroom or an awning design you need to know how colors affect the outcome of your Sunrrom, patio cover or awning. While bright colors offer the feeling of openness, it tends to show more dirt that builds up from the elements. While darker colors hide the dirt more effectively, they can make a space seem smaller. Taking these considerations into mind will help you choose a color scheme that will be best suited for your situation.

You can choose to match your patio cover plans to a modern house or even a log cabin. Once you have a plan for the patio cover design you are ready to lay out a budget for the project.

Budget Plan

When you are making your patio cover plans you need to take your budget for the project into consideration. Ideally a fully aluminum patio cover would be the most eco friendly, durable, and least amount of maintenance needed for a patio cover. Aluminum, however, can be costly when planning for a project of this magnitude. To make the patio cover plan more cost efficient we recommend using a combination of different materials. It is best practice to make the top strictly from aluminum. This will help protect the rest of the structure that is not aluminum. Now you can consider using a different material in your patio cover plan. Either wood or steel would be cost effective and ideal for the supporting posts. Steel is very cheap and will be protected by the aluminum top. You also need to consider how many beams that are needed to be used. The less you use the more cost effective it is. However, you need to plan around wind and snow load specifications laid out by what city you are in (this we will get into later) which may require a certain amount of posts.

You also need your patio cover plans to have the most fitting color scheme for your home or garden. Standard colors will be cheaper than custom colors; however, custom coloring might be necessary to make the patio cover picture perfect.

Obtaining Official Patio Cover Plans

Now that you have some details about what you need the patio cover for it is time to obtain official building plans. After reviewing your specifications, we can determine if your patio cover plans require a generic or custom set up.

This is important because having a generic set up will be cheaper than a custom set up.

When the plans are submitted to the city for construction this is what they will be most interested in. The design is a minor detail. This will give you a much higher chance of success when getting a plan approved, maybe even over the counter. This will depend on the city you live in.

Patio Cover Plans for the Elements

While creating the engineering plans we will also consider snow load and wind load. These are figures you can obtain from your city officials (building department), and considerations we will take when making your patio cover plans. These details will vary depending on where the patio cover will be constructed. For example, a customer from California and a customer from Texas could have the exact same patio cover plans but will both be still very different. A Customer from Houston is going to have to construct the patio to withstand more wind pressure than a customer from San Diego. Another example is a customer from Sierra Nevada will have to construct a patio cover to withstand more snow weight than a customer from Dallas.

Technical Patio Cover Plans

The final stage in planning your patio cover is the technical detail needed to determine the length, width, and height of your patio cover. The more projection that your patio cover has the more shade it will produce.

Too much projection, however, and you will lose more of your backyard view. An expert here can assist you in deciding the perfect combination between projection and desired amount of view.

Another consideration to take into account is the height of the patio cover. The higher the patio cover goes, the less area underneath it will cover. This is important because the higher the patio cover is built, the less protection from the elements it will produce.

• Tip: It is recommended not to have a patio cover lower than eight feet because it will create a cramped feeling. Likewise, it is not recommended to construct a patio cover past 10 feet because it will start to eliminate the protection from the elements. The standard size for builds to is 8 ½ feet high.

These tips are best practices put forth by our experts, not necessary requirements. We will build the patio cover to a length, width, and height you desire.

Summary

This guide should give you some insight to the requirements of making your patio cover plans. Start by writing out the function you want your patio cover to fulfill. Whether it is for a garden, to cover your hot tub, or to cover a grilling area, we can customize a patio cover for you. After you detail your needs it is time to start with the patio cover plans.

• First, write up you patio cover plans and preferred design you would like your patio cover to be, detailing the shape, size, and color of the patio cover.

• After you write up your patio cover plans, now it is time to budget for the project. Knowing what materials you need, color, amount of posts, and size for the patio cover should give you a reasonable estimate for your project.

• Next, bring us your plans.

This step by step guide should help you get your patio cover plans in motion.