Location: Bryanston, Sandton · System: Adjustable Louvre + Drop Blind
The brief
The tiled patio sits a step up from the garden, with a stainless balustrade along the open edge and a long open aspect. It opens straight off the house through a run of stacking doors.
Adjustable blades solve overhead sun. They do nothing about low sun coming in under the roof line, which on a patio with an open side is exactly where it comes from.
What we built
A charcoal-framed adjustable louvre roof with white blades, carried on posts at the patio edge and tied into the house at the back. Rainwater is collected in the perimeter beam rather than sheeting off the front edge onto the paving.
A fabric drop blind was fitted along the garden-facing edge, above the balustrade, operated by a winder rod. Down, it takes the low afternoon sun off the paving without closing the patio in; up, it disappears into the beam and the view is untouched.
The system itself is set out under Louvre Awnings, and there is more of our work in Sandton & Morningside.
Two controls, two different jobs
It is worth being clear about what each part does, because they are often sold as if they are interchangeable. The blades handle the sun above you and the rain: tilt them through the day, close them when the weather turns.
The blind handles the sun beside you. No roof, adjustable or not, can shade an open edge against low afternoon sun — the geometry is against it. That is a vertical problem and it needs a vertical answer.
The specification behind it
- Adjustable aluminium louvre roof — charcoal frame with white blades
- Fabric drop blind to the garden-facing side, winder-rod operated
- Boxed perimeter beam with the gutter integrated
- 95% watertight in Highveld storms, with a full all-round gutter
- 15-year guarantee on aluminium, 10-year on Chromadek®
Why we mix frame and blade colours
A charcoal frame with white blades is the most-requested combination we build, and it is not only fashion. The dark frame reads as a line against the house and holds the structure visually; the white blades bounce daylight back down into the room behind, which a dark soffit will not do.
On a covered patio attached to living space, that difference is noticeable from inside the house on an overcast day.
If you’re considering the same
If your patio has an open side that takes low afternoon sun, price the blind at the same time as the roof. Retrofitting one later means working around a beam that was not detailed to take it.
More work across Sandton and Morningside.
