No longer just simple shade structures, today’s modern outdoor living spaces can be customized with full outdoor kitchens, interactive theaters or virtual golf ranges. They can feature dynamic adjustable louvered roofs that allow you to control the sun/shade balance, or fixed-roof designs for full-time shade. They can also be outfitted with modern amenities that bring the comfort of indoor life to the outdoors.
These elevated pergolas are made possible in large part by the evolution in modern building materials and techniques. Pushing that innovation curve has been the improved ability to mold and contort advanced aluminum. So, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of aluminum in outdoor living design.
Aluminum offers immense structural strength while limiting the overall weight of an outdoor structure. While steel or wood can be leveraged in outdoor designs, both are extremely heavy which limits where a structure could be located. For example, a wooden pergola on a roof deck would be limited in size unless the roof supports were augmented. Leveraging a lightweight-yet-strong material in pergola design also means the structure itself can be more dynamic, particularly the roof. Unlike wood or steel that must remain static, our modern aluminum pergolas feature motorized adjustable louvered roofs that open and close at the touch of a button. This gives you complete control over the sun/shade balance on your roof deck patio.
Over the past decades, outdoor living spaces like pergolas, cabanas, etc. were often fabricated from wood which requires annual painting to avoid rot. More recently, small pergolas like those seen in DIY kits at the local box store, have relied on vinyl construction. While very lightweight, vinyl damages very easily as well. Aluminum pergolas, though, are very durable and, with the proper exterior coating, resist corrosion very well. All of the pergolas our manufacturing partner, Azenco, crafts to our custom specifications are powder coated to our individual specifications. These high-quality powder coatings can also be color matched to any color imaginable, or even coated with wood grain for a rustic look. We also back up the promise of durability with 15-year warranties on both the aluminum pergola and the exterior powder coating.
The strength, weight, durability, and corrosion resistance of aluminum combine to make it a pergola designer’s dream material. The structural strength of the material allows pergolas to scale while minimizing the needed support columns, which means you are treated to more unobstructed views from your roof deck. The all-weather durability also makes powder coated aluminum the perfect material for the tropical climates here in South Florida. Knowing your new pergola will stand up to the extreme heat and blazing sun, as well as heavy rain and winds, makes the material an easy choice.
For example, if you wanted to add a covered outdoor kitchen to your beachside home’s roof deck, building it out of wood would add extra cost to the project to sure-up the roof supports, and guarantee you were replacing the structure in a few short years. Select a contractor, like SYZYGY Global, crafting advanced pergolas from high-quality aluminum, and your pergola will last a lifetime. With aluminum construction, we can easily raise the pergola height to allow more expansive views and better ventilate the grill station or fire pit. Additionally, the hollow frame and support columns of an aluminum pergola allows us to hide unique features like an internal gutter system, embedded LED lighting, hide-away retractable privacy screens, and cooling systems like patio fans.
Another unique advantage of fabricating outdoor living rooms from aluminum is its sustainability. At the end of life, a wood structure is bound for the landfill. Not only is high-quality aluminum going to last much longer, but at the end of its life, the aluminum is 100% recyclable. When you choose to work with SYZYGY Global, choice of raw material is just the beginning of our commitment to sustainability. Our manufacturing partner, Azenco, also audits its manufacturing processes to save, reuse and recycle in order to limit the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process itself. At its Miami manufacturing facility, Azenco continues to invest in green technologies adding new precision aluminum cutting machines that reduce wasted material, and captures and recycles all of the bits. It has revised its product packaging to be more sustainable, and even reinvented its logistics operation to limit the miles delivery vehicles travel.
We promised you both the pros and cons of aluminum in crafting outdoor living spaces. There are a lot of upsides to the material, but the only potential “con” is really a matter of relativity. Sometimes, the initial aluminum louvered pergola cost will be slightly more than a similar structure built from wood. That said, the slight increase is absolutely outweighed by the increased longevity, elimination of annual painting, as well as the dynamic features that aluminum enables. The sustainability advantages of aluminum are truly the icing on the cake.
Today’s modern aluminum pergolas are some of the most dynamic outdoor living structures on the market. When evaluating the pros and cons of aluminum, the Pros truly do outweigh the Cons. If you are considering adding a luxurious outdoor living space to your home, please contact our design team today to see how our custom pergolas will unlock your absolute best life.
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