Tag: Glass Verandas

News Blog

Side Screen Added Protection

It’s the new accessory product which has been around for years! Pull out side screens, traditionally used with patio awnings, are proving popular accessories for glass verandas too.

These side awnings for terraces protect you from sun, the breeze and views of your neighbours; so you can enjoy breakfast on your patio better enclosed and undisturbed. Elegant glass rooms can be fitted with powered vertical screens, meaning that these simpler devices would not be applicable, but for veranda roofs (structures without glass sides) a pull-out side screen can further develop your outdoor space creating more of an outdoor room. That feeling of bringing indoors outdoors!

Waterproof and tear resistant, the hard wearing high density fabric resists sun fading, mould and mildew. It is pulled out manually by hand, with sizes up to 3.5 meters, latching onto its own ground post or the veranda leg post. Both types of mounting are highly stable. A spring loaded auto-winding mechanism makes it easy to retract away when not in use, rolling into a wall mounted weatherproof cassette. Please do ask about sizes and fabric options.

We have these in stock now ready for fitting.

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Victorian Traditional Verandas

Our fabulous new range of traditional glass verandas is now available, featuring period-style posts with optional Victorian ornate castings, perfect for traditional homes or to complement a cottage-type garden.

Our new traditional glass verandas are ornately designed to sit well with a traditional garden, a period style of home, or simply for the traditional-minded. Designed with past-times features, lending a tastefully eclectic look, these traditional verandas suit Victorian and Edwardian homes beautifully. Even on a non-period property, this century-old styling offers all the glass veranda outdoor-living benefits yet with a charming period touch. A distinct statement, provocative of the past, perfect for architecturally suited facades.

Elegant traditional verandas come fashioned with corner-contoured leg profiles, avoiding the contemporary nature of square cornered posts. The lower legs of these verandas have rounded period bollard bases, creating the look, and we make the option available to also include ‘antique’ ornate castings at the leg tops, enhancing a Victorian appearance. It should be noted that this range is intended for veranda roofs only and that traditional verandas are not suitable for developing into glass rooms because their ornate leg profiles are not accommodating of glass door additions. That said, we can include fixed glass side walls for the ends (left and right), should you so wish.

Engineered from high-grade, powder-coated, extruded aluminium with parts of stainless steel, at Elegant we custom design your traditional veranda, fully made to measure, enhancing your home for years to come.

For more information Request a Brochure or Get a Quote or visit our new Traditional Verandas page!

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Healthy Outdoor Living

Did you know that spending time in an outdoor living space can be good for you! Regularly enjoying Al-fresco relaxation improves our overall mood and can be good for health.

On average we spend too much of our life indoors, and as we get older we become less inclined to venture out. Adding a garden leisure feature, such as an outdoor-living glass veranda or glass room, home owners will naturally spend much more time outside. Not only about fresh air, the sun is a natural source of vitamin D, and when we enjoy time outdoors we can soak it up. Spending quality time in your garden environment can combat stress and depression and have you feeling happier almost instantly.

Physically, an outdoor living and entertaining space helps get people moving around and exercising a little more, often without them even noticing. But it can offer mental health benefits too. Ecotherapy encompasses a wide range of outdoor activities connecting with nature, whether it be spending time in the garden or the wilderness. By concept it is based on exposure to nature improving our well-being, with regular exposure even increasing life-span. Connecting with nature can have lots of positive health benefits, making more regular use of your garden can see an increase in both physical and mental health, this including an improvement in sleeping habits and better anxiety control.

There are countless benefits to enjoying time outdoors, dining Al-fresco, eating barbecue cooked food from your outdoor kitchen, and unwinding with a view of your garden. With a glass veranda from Elegant you’ll soon be adding more sunlight and more of the healthy outdoors to your lifestyle!

News Blog

Veranda Colour Choice

It needn’t be white! Garden designers use colour and imagination when transforming outdoor spaces, hence at Elegant we offer a broad range of frame options – from muted to vibrant.

Choosing a glass veranda or garden glass room colour can be just like choosing a colour for inside the house. You don’t grab the first option you see, or might think of, instead look at the colour of the patio, plants and features around your garden, and consider what might tone or contrast. If you have a warm-coloured brick wall, then a cooler grey might contrast well, or if you have a white render, then stronger, punchier tones can make a statement. Exploring the many options which we offer at Elegant can be fun, and it needn’t simply be white – even if your windows are.

Our French Grey and also our natural stone shades are on trend right now, toning your new veranda or glass room with the natural feel of weathered stone or silvered wood. Earthy deep yellow or terracotta tones can harmonise with brick or clay tiles, or one of our natural cream shades for Cotswold dry-stone walling. A modern gunmetal dark grey can work in stunning contrast with traditional homes and with traditional garden elements, giving the look of an architects touch. Of course, white is still popular, it is traditional and classic. But with the wide range of options we offer at Elegant we can work with you on design helping to explore your possibilities.

Discover what others have done in our veranda gallery.

News Blog

Outdoor Living For The Ideal Home

Glass Verandas and Garden Rooms make the ideal showpiece for your home. Bespoke made to order, fully installed for spring, a competitive quotation is free quick & easy to arrange.

Look no further than your garden for an ideal getaway this summer, with outdoor living from Elegant transforming your patio into an oasis of relaxed tranquility. Using beautiful yet functional materials, our innovative products open up the possibilities – creating contemporary outdoor living spaces to perfectly suit your lifestyle. Elegant Bespoke Verandas make the ultimate patio canopy, a modern glass patio roof providing year round protection and enjoyment. While our stunning Glass Rooms include sliding glass doors to protect from the sides retaining a frameless clear view of your garden.

Just like any other part of the house, outdoor living provides another option for spending time at home. However big or small your outside space, and whatever your taste and budget, Elegant are experts at designing Alfresco situations, whether for enjoying a quiet pm drink, maybe somewhere comfortable to lounge, or perhaps an area that will accommodate the whole family for barbecues. Added home living space is what we offer – with the emphasis on “living”.

Very much in vogue, the increasing emphasis on outdoor relaxation and entertaining has generated a boom in interest for our quality garden structures. Weather sheltering havens providing protection from the elements, creating a better protected environment in which to relax and enjoy Alfresco. Yes, it’s more sophisticated than garden living in the past, but don’t think for one moment that you’ll lose any of the old charm or simple pleasures – the reality is that you’ll get to enjoy it more!

Here’s to extending the summer season in 2018, call us on 0800 078 7247.

News Blog

Without A Plan it’s Just A Wish

Don’t be fooled by January temperatures! If you’re planning a veranda to revamp your outdoor living, and want it ready for the season, it’s time to start the process now.

Planning a glass veranda or garden glass room can take longer than expected. Here are a few tips to get you started, finding the right product ahead of the fast approaching season.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK
Make research into the different types of veranda designs available, their pros and cons according to your requirement. For instance, is how it looks important to you? Looking closer at different brochures and websites, some brands have noticeably bulky front gutters, or broad/chunky legs, less appealing to the eye. Also look for colour variation. Do you see the same three colours repeated in photos – suggesting that design is less of a factor? At Elegant we make design and good looks a priority. Much can be gleaned taking a closer look at different companies photos, seeing the best of what they’ve done for other customers, whether their profiles look boxy or ‘elegant’ and if their output represents what you most want for own your home.

HAVE RESEARCH INSPIRE YOUR DESIGN
While browsing inspirational photos look for ideas about layout and proportion, intended use and furniture plans, and at colour ideas (it needn’t be white even if your house windows are white). Look at what other people have done and why. When it comes to size, your house doors and windows will usually suggest a good width (it is rare a veranda stops part-way across a window). Desired furniture arrangements can suggest an outward size, modest table seating requiring 2.5m projection, while larger or generous outward sizes can be closer to 4m. Dry access is an essential consideration, looking at our veranda gallery you’ll see that every installation takes in a house door – allowing passage from the home without stepping into rain.

LOCATION, LOCATION
Browsing our ‘before-and-after’ examples (projects) notice how most glass verandas and glass rooms tend to be built over an existing patio table area, spanning existing patio doors. Popularly, they cover the previously established space for a garden table and chairs, whatever spot was already deemed convenient for patio seating and outdoor dining. It is rare that customers will define an all new site, away from the house, or relocate their al-fresco gathering area to another door window or wall. Improving the status quo tends to be more the theme, not changing the established familiar routine.

Doing a little research before talking to companies can help you to speak the same language. And, when finally meeting a representative, having a better idea of what’s available and of what you want will help you to make more informed decisions.

News Blog

Outdoor Living Fireplace

Fire pits may be all the fashion right now but let’s not forget about chimeneas – the original patio fireplace. Outdoor heating that’s a fun veranda accessory as autumn approaches.

Our customer Mr Spedding, in Surrey, highly recommends his chimenea. He loves his new Elegant glass veranda, of course, and on being invited to visit him after installation we learned some useful advice about how he heats his terrace during frequent garden parties – outdoor entertaining his friends and neighbours late into the evenings. The glass veranda in point is featured in the photo above, a contemporary gunmetal gray replacing Mr Spedding’s previous wooden structure. The new veranda installation even includes a drinks fridge – plus his faithful chimenea sitting center stage.

Getting-Started Advice

Clay models have the best combustion and will burn fuel to a fine ash. Place outside of the glass veranda – you’ll feel the heat just fine, and be sure to pour a few inches of sand in the bottom of the chimenea before adding fuel. A sand bed protects the clay from cracking and should remain in place.

Mr Spedding, Derek, recommended Heat Logs for fuel – widely available including online order from Amazon or in DIY stores. Environmentally friendly heat logs are made up of wood from managed forests and recycled timber, cleverly compressed into handy logs. They are easy to light, they burn hot, are clean to handle and burn clean and smokeless – meaning guests won’t smell like a bonfire!

Use only dry wood or heat logs, not coal or charcoal which burn too hot damaging the chimenea. When not in use apply the chimney lid, keeping rain out, and use a protective cover over winter. Avoid water logging the clay and don’t light your chiminea if noticeably water logged, allow it to dry out naturally under the veranda. Always note manufacturer advice and use common sense with children.

Derek says that just two or three heat logs are enough to warm your glass veranda and adjacent patio during an Alfresco drink or short barbecue, this costing just a couple of pounds. A very long evening might use ten or twelve logs, maybe £7 or £8, but it’s all good fun and your veranda party guests will love it.

History

Historically made from fired clay the traditional Mexican chimenea dates back 400 years keeping families warm for hours burning only a few sticks. Originally used for both heating and cooking, outside and inside, they provided evening warmth and in the morning could be used for baking bread. Today they are purely terrace heaters and a quality model can last many years.

Thanks Derek, we love outdoor living too!

News Blog

CAD Veranda Visualisations

CAD visuals can be a great design aid – impressive photo realistic images allowing you to see your planned glass veranda installation getting the details right before manufacture and installation.

Design software for visualisation is still relatively new and can create exciting outputs of veranda projects for our customers. This capability provides static renderings able to communicate a glass veranda design, scaled to the building, simulating a finished look and feel showing the expected visual impact and enhancement to the home. These immersive artworks can prove affirming and reassuring validating the exact veranda size or chosen colour.

Helpful and informative, our veranda visualisations can prove especially valuable for customers less able to visualise in the mind’s eye, and are a perfect fit for group decisions. Very useful for design, effectively testing and giving an element of ‘try before you buy’ – seeing your glass veranda before it gets installed can confirm your decisions and get the whole household involved.

News Blog

Choosing Veranda Decking Boards

Decking options are aplenty when planning your glass veranda, wood no longer being the only choice we’ve seen a revolution in composite deck boards and new 100% plastic decking options.

Decking offers an instant terrace transformation, swiftly remodelling the ground below your glass veranda or glass room. A landscaping feature in itself veranda decking helps better define the outdoor living space and can reshape a ground layout to work better. But which deck board material should you choose? What might be best for you? It can pay to know your options and we offer the following advice to help get your veranda deck ideas nailed down.

Traditional Pressure Treated Timber Decking

Defying the numerous array of modern composite options, pressure treated timber remains the most popular choice by far with a good ¾ of new decks finished in this material. Economy will play a part in this favouritism with softwood timber boards costing significantly less than composite, although many will choose this natural material unpersuaded by plastic composite – just as they might prefer a real-wood lounge floor over wood effect laminate. Timber decking can simply be oiled to a natural finish or stained/painted in a wide colour range of anti-slip decking stains, allowing you to change colour ideas over time (an advantage not possible with composite).

Typically these boards will be made from slow grown European Pine that is pressure treated to resist rot and fungal decay for up to 15 years. Look for a premium version, 28mm thick rather than 20mm, responsibly sourced and FSC certified. Although commonly grooved, these boards can be found in a smooth finish giving a more elegant hardwood look.

Traditional Hardwood and Tropical Wood Decking

Most typically using Red Cedar, expect a hardwood deck to cost several times more than softwood timber. Upmarket and beautiful, usually smooth finished without those decking grooves, other popular wood choices include Garapa, Iroko, Siberian Larch, Ipe, Yellow Balau and Mandioqueira. Both Red Cedar and Siberian Larch give a characterful knotty finish while the others above keep a more uniform grained appearance. Hardwood decking is rated highly durable with a natural resistance to rot and decay and will often be sold as requiring no preservative treatment. That said, periodic treatment will add further protection and help keep its colour.

For time served deck purists Red Cedar will be the obvious choice for quality glass veranda decking. Simply requiring an annual jet washing and then a fresh coat of finish every few years, when first laid we’d advise a clear water repellent wood preservative then on subsequent treatments a semi-transparent tinted stain, maintaining the wood’s natural colour. If you don’t apply a stain the cedar will eventually weather to a soft silver grey.

Wood Fibre Composite Decking

Composite decking has fast grown in popularity with numerous manufacturers appearing in the market. Original ‘Composite’ was composed of wood fibers and recycled plastic, producing a material which one can appreciate is part natural while being extremely weather resistant. The appeal of using composite for your glass veranda or garden glass room is that it is maintenance free, it will never warp, split, splinter or rot. Expect quality composite decking to cost similar to hardwood but with the “fit and forget it” benefit of never requiring treatment.

Manufacturers such as Trex, with their Transcend range, produce composite boards with highly realistic deep grained textures faithfully mimicking the rich colour blends of hardwood. Trex decking boards are solid, not hollow section, they are well constructed and available in square edge design, for traditional surface screw fixing, or a grooved-edge version fixing with hidden brackets for a ‘screw-less’ appearance. At Elegant we have used Trex Transcend ourselves for quality glass veranda decking and can highly recommend.

Of course nothing lasts forever and it is still early days with composite decking; only time will tell how well different manufacturers boards last under long term exposure to UV sunlight and just what degradation or colour fade might be seen. Selecting a quality brand that has invested in research seems prudent, and for instance Trex claim a high-performance protective shell that resists fading.

100% Plastic Composite Decking

Not all composite decking boards are wood composite. Some products are entirely made of plastics including polyurethane, polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride – with no wood fibres at all. If south facing, keep in mind that under the heat of the sun these boards can become very hot (especially below a glass veranda roof or inside a glass room) so that during heat waves you can require shoes. A key appeal of this material is that nothing can ever rot, not even any wood fibres.

Manufacturer’s advice should be noted with some such deck boards requiring their support frame built with its bearers (the support joists) only 35mm apart, this due to the flexible nature of this deck board material. A short sample in your hands may not be enough to tell and you could be surprised at just how ‘bendy’ the full boards appear on delivery. Indeed, resurfacing an existing deck you could get ‘spongy’ results despite it previously feeling perfectly solid with traditional timber boards.

At Elegant we’ve installed polyurethane decking for our glass verandas and garden glass rooms and to stunning results. In particular we would draw attention to Millboard, a British manufacturer, with their unique ‘Weathered Oak’ range producing a highly realistic reclaimed floorboard style of deck. Millboard’s Weathered Oak (as pictured above) is literally moulded from reclaimed timbers for a genuinely authentic look of rustic antiquity. Special headless screws bury invisibly into the surface of these pliant decking boards, completely hiding the fixings.

In Summary

We hope that this article helps your decisions for that new veranda deck. Our simplest advice… if you have the money to spare, if you typically favour old school traditions and the thought of plastic flooring just doesn’t sit well with you, then look at hardwood – and get a carpenter craftsman doing justice to the material. If modernity is more your thing, if fully maintenance-free appeals and you don’t mind a significant budget achieving it, then look at high end composite decking such as the brands mentioned above. Or, if you simply want a deck, something solid to walk on, something that will last for many years and still cost a fraction of composite to re-board anyway (assuming that you are still at the same property after a decade) then don’t discount the humble timber option; still the No.1 popular choice and comfortable underfoot in hot weather, the economical timber option is fully paint stain-able for obliterating future scuffs or to entirely revamp its colour style over time.

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Garden Veranda vs Glass Garden Rooms

What are the differences? Offering what advantages? In this article we look at why some customers prefer their veranda roof while others favour fully enclosed glass garden rooms.

We all enjoy an Alfresco lifestyle, using the garden as an extension to home living space, evident by the boom in outdoor lounge furniture and innumerable garden living accessories. But no matter how well furnished, an exposed patio has its limitations, requiring protection from the elements if you want an outdoor living space that is always available. Not necessarily down to cost or budget, the most successful installations can be based on lifestyle and intended use, deciding just where the line should be drawn defining an ‘indoors-outdoors’ living space; be it a veranda roof alone, or a full glass room.

Garden Verandas

A garden veranda (glass patio roof) provides permanent protection in a minimalist form, creating a defined furnished spot in which to gather and relax. This option can be seen as being entirely about the garden, enjoying the open outdoor space – outside yet protected! Their fully open nature allows great flexibility with how they can be used; swing hammocks pulled in, chair and table layouts altered, barbecue pushed under, fully adaptable arrangements. Harmoniously blending, with minimal structure (just two or three leg posts) a garden veranda makes the perfect home improvement for garden lovers, barbecue enthusiasts, would-be outdoor livers, or anyone wanting to enjoy their terrace better and more often.

Glass Garden Rooms

Glass garden rooms offer protection from above and the sides, still very much about enjoying your garden they retain a frameless clear view with a real sense of light and space. Then simply roll back your glass doors to make an open veranda! Rooms create a warmer enclosed environment, warmer for evenings and extending use of your terrace throughout the seasons. Garden glass rooms feel a little more ‘indoor’ compared to a veranda, yet still feel out of the house – very much an outdoor sensation feeling fully connected with the garden.

Larger size garden rooms can enjoy multiple options with furniture layout. For smaller rooms it’s always your design but we do recommend having at least one fixed glass wall giving somewhere to place furniture. Protected from the sides, cushioned furniture can sit to the edge yet keep clean and dry. Our glass garden rooms are ideal for home lifestyle lovers, garden admirers, or anyone looking to escape that “cooped-up” feeling stuck in the house, or cooped inside a conservatory.

Which is better? Whichever best suits you! Either way you’ll wish you had added it years ago, giving you more options for how you can enjoy your time at home.