As temperatures in their renovated home consistently ran unpleasantly high during the summer, Peter and Stephanie decided on retrofitting the property with sun protection screens and a terrace awning.
In 2015, Peter and Stephanie had their 1960s home thoroughly renovated. They thought of everything: excellent insulation, a new facing brick and large glazed sections around the back of the house. “We had hoped that the sun screen windows would keep out the heat”, says Stephanie. “But since 2015 we’ve had nothing but hot summers with indoor temperatures running up to well above 30° C. And once the heat gets inside, there’s no way of evacuating it. It was getting unhealthy, especially for our 18-month old daughter.”
Storm and rain
Peter and Stephanie realised a solution was needed. They decided on a combination of sun protection screens and a terrace awning, in exactly the same colour as the exterior joinery. Peter: “We had the sun protection screens fitted onto the non-moving windows. For the sliding window we went with an awning, as the two combined give us shadow on the terrace and sun protection for the window. We went with an awning as it is even more robust than a sun shade canopy. Even in case of stormy weather, our Versuz won’t move an inch. The canvas remains nice and taut at all times. And in case of mild rain, we can simply stay outdoors.” “The installation went without a hitch”, Stephanie goes on to add. “For the support poles of the terrace awning, they had to drill holes into the terrace’s poly concrete. We were afraid this would cause cracks but thankfully that wasn’t the case.”
Outdoor people
Since having their sun protection fitted last summer, Peter and Stephanie’s quality of life has greatly improved. “We’re very much outdoor people”, Peter says. “We just love spending time sitting on our terrace. It is now 10°C cooler indoors during the summer. We have no need for an air conditioning system. I’m not a big fan of this kind of artificial cooling effect indoors as it is. A nice added bonus that comes with the sun protection screens is that it makes things nice and homely indoors. You still get the full and unfettered outside view but without anyone being able to look in. I find we tend to pull down the sun screens more often than I originally thought we would.” Is there anything they would have done differently with the benefit of hindsight? “Yes, and that would be to go for built-in sun protection right away as we were renovating the house. Although I should add that the colours and the sleek materials used do a great job of pulling everything nicely together. But I would certainly advise friends and colleagues who are entertaining plans to renovate their homes to think of sun protection right from the get-go.”
