No matter the climate or area of the country where home is, folks are gravitating toward outdoor living spaces. But sharing meals with friends while outdoors is less appealing when the sun is beating down on the party.
Fortunately, there are shade solutions available to keep you enjoying the outdoors longer, as well as to create the privacy that you desire.
“There are some very interesting ways to create privacy within your back yard, including creating small secluded garden spaces combining shrubbery with easy to install pavers, shade pergolas to create a private shaded space or the creative use of benches to section off an area for a more intimate space,” says Paul Bizzarri, Vice President of Innovation at TimberTech, based in Wilmington, Ohio.
“You can essentially create an outdoor room, small or large, to extend the comforts of your indoor spaces to the outdoors,” he continues.
“We get a lot of people wanting shade these days because the developments are newer with less mature trees,” adds Tim Stephens, owner of Archadeck of West Central and Southwest Ohio.
“Shade structure provides the feeling of being undercover and yet outdoors,” he concludes.
One very popular shading option is a pergola, built either freestanding or attached to the home or even on top of a deck or hardscape stone patio.
“Pergolas create the most amount of shade,” says Lou Maglio, president of Walpole Outdoors, formerly known as Walpole Woodworkers, in Massachusetts. It can be done naturally with plantings, creating an arbor, or with a configuration of beams on the top. He says adding an awning component to the pergola is popular, either manual or motorized, which creates both shade and protection from inclement weather.
Awnings can come in any size, though he says that 150-200 square feet is the most popular, and a sought-after fabric is Sunbrella, a cloth material used extensively in outdoor settings, as they are stain and weather resistant.
Stephens says that gazebos, while currently less trendy and more expensive than pergolas, are still an attractive option for those looking for shade. “The advantage of a gazebo, besides the look, is that we can get that ‘room’ feel. It usually has a waterproof roof, such as shingles, that will shed the water and snow.” Plus, gazebos can be screened in to guard against insects.
Material choices are a matter of both personal preference and cost considerations. While wood is still a requested material for pergolas, alternatives in wood have been growing rapidly in popularity. “This is due to their low-maintenance, abundance of colors and natural looks that strongly resemble the materials they replace,” explains Mike Gori, director of product management for AZEK Building Products. Gori also cites other advantages such as longevity, durability, weather-resistance, great looks and easy installation.
To gain that added measure of privacy, some homeowners are choosing to install fences around their yards. As with pergolas and gazebos, the most popular building materials come down to wood or solid cellular vinyl and folks may be hard-pressed to tell the difference.
“Wood is less expensive, so that keeps it fairly popular, but we see the trend that people are making an investment to put in a nicer fence, because landscaping is fairly permanent, so we want a fence to be both permanent and maintenance-free,” says Maglio.
A wood fence would require restaining after about 6-7 years; he recommends staying away from spruce or pine in a fence product as they decay much more quickly. Durable cedars and certain types of mahoganies are desirable.
Maglio cautions that one of the first things to go with a wooden fence is the post buried in the ground. Walpole has created a synthetic foundation for some of their fences, one that doesn’t deteriorate, which, he says, is…”one way to get a good-looking wooden fence without worrying about decay.” Otherwise, he suggests re-tamping the post and repacking the soil around it every 3-5 years.
“Having an outdoor room with a pergola, then coupling that with fencing that can create a privacy area, is a popular trend that allows people to enjoy outdoor living longer.”