colorbond Vs polycarbonate pergola roofing

hi ivan

i would have to disagree with barry .

last year i got a large 30m2 dome patio installed out the back. i would never use colourbond for a patio roof as personally i think it looks cheap and tacky and it blocks out all the natural light ,which can be a big issue if your house is quite dark to begin with and the patio will be covering a door or window .

i went for a heat stop poly cab and the colour was called ice it is translusent but not transparent , and it is not hot to sit under in a 30 degree day . one issue i am worried about is that i have a tree that over hangs part of the patio so that some lefts fall on the patio roof and in the old days i remember poly cab getting stained by rotting leaves .

Also there is a new product that has two rows of trapped air cells in it that is supposed to be the best at letting the light through but not the heat .it looks great to but it is very expensive .

rob

one thing i did to improve the air flow was to have to have the patio higher than standard hieght .

Rather than Polycarbonate or Colorbond I would suggest an insulated roof on a patio if possible. No only do you have the advantage of being able to sit under it on a hot day, you don't get condensation under it possibly dripping off in winter.
I wish I had used it on my deck roof instead of Colorbond which gets uncomfortably hot. NO way I would use Polycarbonate for all the above reasons!

well barry sorry for having a opinion ,

But you with all your year of knowledge must agree that each product has it's pros and cons .And that the application to which each product is applied will depends on it's success .

hence the reason people ask for advice ..

i thought this forum was to help people that where asking the questions not to bag the people that are trying to help..

rob

Re polycarbonate roofs

The biggest disapointment for these are the clear ones -which were hugely popular about 10 yrs ago, and I have seen plenty of them ripped out since, but these days most of the polycarbonate I see is the ice or opal colour whcih transmits about 50% light, 50% heat. Now anybody expecting a product so well labelled with its heat reflectivity and expects something different deserves any disapointment..

However, when you compare it to colorbond, its about the same as any of the dark colours in colorbond, only 10 to 20% worse than shale grey, and a about a 30% gap to off white. Given most people will match to their existing roof, the question of whats better comes down to the indivdual situation, though clear should only be considered very carefully.

With correct selection, and due thought, either product is suitable, and both are unsuitable without thought and selection. I for one would spend 5 times as much time inside a house than under a verandah, so light levels inside are an enormously important consideration, and given I dont sit outside in the heat of the day, the lighting transmittance is more important than shade.

FWIW, I'm just about to install a 1.5m window eave with opal poly on top, with opal acrylic panel on the underside, which should give me about 25% light, and slightly better shading

Originally Posted by Barry_White

I have found over the years that people that have put polycarbonate up put up with it for quite a while rather than admit they made a mistake in using it.

I agree with you Bazza.

I roofed the BBQ area with polycarbonate and it let through way too much heat and light in the summer.

After a few years of putting up with it I covered the polycarbonate with heavy duty shade cloth and this has worked well together with 2 ceiling fans.

If I was to do it again I would use colour bond, insulate and line the ceiling.


Peter

This is a timely discussion because today I got and accepted a quote for a wood framed pergola (about 6 m X 5 m). Our intended use is primarily in the seasons other than summer. Because neither of us can take much heat (I am 75 and have put up with excessive heat for a lot of my life) we will be inside with the airconditioner on during the worst of summer.

The polycarbonate sheet normally used by this builder is Ampelite Solarsafe and he gave us a chart of light and heat transmission numbers. Clear lets in 90% and 85% respectively whilst Dark Tint has 25% and 30% respectively, with a range in between The pergola will be fully open on the north side, partially open on the east and south sides, and against the house on the west, so the glasshouse effect will be considerably mitigated. The height of the roof has a bearing on this, of course, and this one will be about 2.3 under the barge.

A consideration for many will be how much light will be blocked by having solid roofing material over windows that normally admit light to the house. In our case a solid roof would excessively shadow the 2.6 M wide kitchen window.

It's horses for courses. The advantages and disadvantages of both solid and translucent roofing have to be weighed up and a decision made accordingly.

No worries barry ...

It people like you and your wealth of knowledge that make this forum so great , and look what are disagreement has done for this thread ....

""The problem is when companies sell a product they only tell you the good things about their product. It is the unsuspecting that have to find out the faults with it after living with it. "

how right you are .....

saying that what is the colour life on colourbond as the darker colours seem to fade in direct sunlight after some time ,

Also what would you say is the major factor in the transferrance of heat . i think the only reason i find that i do not feel the heat under the patio is that the lowest piont is about 2.6m high and the patio is open on three sides so that the air flow is quite good ,and the fact that domes tend to have a lower pitch than gables may help ...? would there be any truth what so ever in that statement ?

rob

Thank you everyone for all your feedback, and certainly an enlightening discussion!

Our structure will be 8.2 x 4.9m with a gable roof being 2.6m high at it's lowest point.
The east side (long) is enclosed, with north partially enclosed, and south up against the house, and just over half of the west side available to catch the southwesterly breezes. We are having a ceiling fan installed, but unfortunately do not have much (make that any) shading available in the summer.

The polycarbonate colour we're looking at is silver mist which has, to use Bleedin's terminology, a LT of 20% and SC of 22%. There is a 'twin wall' product available but it will add about another $4-5K. And yes, it would be good to get the radiant heat details of both ... Hmmm, it's looking like maybe a combination of colorbond with a few polycarbonate panels for light perhaps.

Didn't know about the colorbond fading though. This may be a stupid question, but just on the outside you mean?

Thanks again

Ozzierog

Oz
Lysaght's used to make a version of Colourbond with aluminium foil stuck to the underside.
expensive, but it was brilliant at stopping heat transfer
when I worked in the bush, we build a 40 x 10 x 8m workshop in Tibboburra clad with the stuff.
The only ventilation was a series of vents along the ridge line.
It was cooler in the building than under a tree outside


ian

'Ozzi
And yes, it would be good to get the radiant heat details of both ... Hmmm, it's looking like maybe a combination of colorbond with a few polycarbonate panels for light perhaps.'

Hi All,
Just been reading on the post and finding heaps of helpful thoughts re what material to use for my up and coming DIY extension. Just wondering if Ozzi did go ahead with a mix of polycarb and colorbond in the end and how it turned out?
I have spoken with Stratco and they advised me that colourbond was the way to go as I am looking at putting in either of the above materials on an existing structure (5.3 X 2.5)in the back of the house which originally had shade cloths.
Could the Polycarb be rivitted to the colourbond or would there be a different installation requirements?

Hi IceTea

Would you believe we are having our pergola installed tomorrow! After much deliberation and conflicting advice, as our pergola runs north south, we have decided along the eastern side to install polycarbonate (in grey mist) to catch the morning sun, and colorbond along the western side for the afternoon sun. In winter, with the height of the pergola, the afternoon sun will becoming in under the pergola anyway. This way we're hoping to get the best of both worlds with heat reduction in summer and light in winter.

Even though our record heatwave has finished I'm sure there'll be more on the way before winter is upon us, so I'll be sure to keep you posted as to whether we're happy with the result or not!

Cheers

Ozzi

Hi ya fellas,
Thanks for the advise and yes, please keep me posted. I can't wait to see your end result with the pagola.

CHeers,

Hi Guys,

I've been trying to figure our what to roof the owner builder home I'm planning and was gravitating towards something I saw in "Natural Home Builder" magazine - flat panels which were referred to as 'refrigerator panels' which were colorbond on the outside then 100 mm of insulating foam sandwich (maybe polystyrene?), then colorbond again on the inside. One of the attractive features was an unsupported span of over 5000 mm.

Would this be the same stuff mentioned in Barry's post below?

Originally Posted by Barry_White

David

The insulated roofs are great the only thing you have to be careful about is some of the companies making have had problems of delaminating with the glue holding the foam to the roof material failing from the contraction and expansion with the heat and the cold.

I'm also having no luck getting pricing out of Bluescope despite three online requests for a price guide.

I plan to harvest rainwater from this roof and wonder if anyone has suggestions regarding this.

Cheers

Ingolby

Originally Posted by Barry_White

Ingolby

Bluescope don't manufacture that type of roofing.

Here is what you want. http://www.paneltech.com.au/roofing.htm

Cheers for the link Barry.

I think that must be the stuff.

I got confused by the use of the term colorbond which I understood to be a Bluescope proprietory product name.

I will look for their warranty regarding delamination.

Thanks again

Ingolby

Ingoldby, we used the sandwich cool room panels, 4" foam etc, as a roof on our houseboat. Great stuff, spanned the whole width, and best benefit of all, it mad ean excellent sunroof.

Only thing you have to watch out for is water leaking through the t&g joins between the sheets, but if done properly with stacks of Sikaflex then there is no problem. We didn't have any leaks over all the years we had the boat.

Had to go out and buy an air operated caulking gun, after 2 or 3 cartridges my hands were killing me!

Thanks for that Big Shed,

I've just got a price on those panels

50mm..maximum ceiling span 3000..1200wide.$ 32.50/ sqm + GST
75mm..maximum ceiling span 4500..1200wide.$ 34.00 sqm + GST

Thats a shade over $ 200 bucks each for the larger panels which come in at 5.4 sqm.

Seems really cheap.. I could create a great kitchen / dining / living room flowing onto a covered deck with say 16 panels (8 on either side of the roof) for less than three and a half grand.

I guess they'd be best supported on a light steel frame or maybe with featured bush poles out at the deck end.

Thanks for your help guys.. really appreciate it!

Excuse the hijacking...

I'm in debate on weather or not to use Poly or Colourbond...

I'm leaning towards the colourbond but am wondering how much heavier it is than poly? The reason I ask is I have run a beam over a 4m span which is boarderline as far as the span tables go. It would be fine if it was a continuous span, but this beam is a single span....

Hi Barry
Do you know if there is any information on the light and heat transmission levels on colorbond so that I can compare correctly against the polycarbonate products
I am totally betwixt and between in deciding whether to put up colorbond or PC sheeting on an existing wooden pergola structure. From reading all the posts on this forum, it seems that Colorbond and PC are equally as bad as each other, in terms of heat under the sheeting, and that the best option is an using and insulated prouct like Thermaspan, hoever I am not sure of the pricing, but suspect it would be quite expensive.
Our structure is 2.4 m high and is north facing, with the longer 7m side attaching to the house (covers a sliding door off our kitchen and eat in area), and 2.4m depth from the house. We want something to protect against rain and extend our living area, whilst giving some shade, but not blocking out light totally.
My other dilemma is whether to replace the entre current wooden pergola structure with a new colorbond structure. We have had a quote to sand down and re-paint the pergola, and then attach the sheets at the top, however as there is no pitch, the handyman that has quoted us will have to create some pitch by adding a beam at the back which will raise the roof sheeting just over the house gutter, however this will only give us 5cm pitch, and not sure if this will be enough

Lastly, if we did go with colorbond, we would be using the cream colour for the underside, but not sure whether the top side is better in the grey unpainted finish, or the cream colour, same as the underside
Much appreciated if you could let me know your thoughts
Thanks
Renata

Renata,

I wouldnt let someone just whack a beam to give you a 5cm drop. For custom orb profile it is recommended a 5 degree drop, this is a bigger issur for you. Put some thought into this as you sound like you need a redesign otherwise it could be a disaster looking at a "tacked on" extension. One option would be to put trusses over the top meaning you will have to bulk up the outside beams put in a skylight and plaster the underside. I have a skillion roof of to East side of my house and I used wonderglass and colorbond combination.
Unfortuantely any plastic/polymer will deteriorate over time, nothing is meant to last forever.

Originally Posted by ozzierog

Hello all

We are about to have a pergola built. I have been trying to obtain information as to what roofing product will be the better way to go with regards to heat and light transference. Our builder is recommending a product called Solasafe HR1 polycarbonate by Ampelite but I am concerned about how much heat will be transferred as opposed to using colorbond? Or is it much of a muchness? If we do go colorbond, we would need some polycarbonate panels to allow light into a kitchen and double sliding doors of a rumpus room anyway.

Can anyone please shed any light on my dilemma (pardon the pun)?

Hi there

I am in the same dilemma as yourself, and just wondering what you eventually went with and if you are happy with the outcome. Many thanks
Renata

Originally Posted by barney118

Renata,

I wouldnt let someone just whack a beam to give you a 5cm drop. For custom orb profile it is recommended a 5 degree drop, this is a bigger issur for you. Put some thought into this as you sound like you need a redesign otherwise it could be a disaster looking at a "tacked on" extension. One option would be to put trusses over the top meaning you will have to bulk up the outside beams put in a skylight and plaster the underside. I have a skillion roof of to East side of my house and I used wonderglass and colorbond combination.
Unfortuantely any plastic/polymer will deteriorate over time, nothing is meant to last forever.

Hi Barney, thanks for your comment, and like yourself I am concerned that we do not have enough drop. Some of the Polycarbonate companies I have contacted have indicated that for a 2.4 meter depth pergola that I would need a 30cm fall, which I certainly do not have, however we have had a couple of handymen quotes, and they do not seem fussed about only being able to raise the pitch by 5cm. Their quotes have included a back channel ,side flashings, guttering and a downpipe to connect into our stormwater drain, so they aseem quite knowledgeable, however I am concerned about what the overall look will be like. We also had a very reasonable quote from a licenced builder to replace our entire structure with a new colourbond stucture, and colorbond roof sheeting with some light panels. This particular guy did not seem to think that adding sheets to our current structure was viable, however on futher investigation I have concluded that this may have been related to the minimum call out fee that they include in their quote to do any job...
All very frustrating to know what is the best.
If a farily solid colour polycarbonate and similar colour colorbond perform very similar, then I guess I need to think of what is the best material in terms of overall look, durability, strength etc. I am concluding from what I read around that this would be colorbond. Would you agree with that?
Thanks
Renata

Originally Posted by Renata

I am in the same dilemma as yourself, and just wondering what you eventually went with and if you are happy with the outcome. Many thanks
Renata

there are roughly 3 or 4 main manufacturers of polycarbinate roofing - suntuff, laserlite & another whose name escapes me at present.

for the most part, the saying "you get what you pay for" holds true.
most of the manufacturers have more than just the basic product, they have ones with reflective coatings which allow different % of heat & light respectively.

for aus conditions, i'd strongly recommend you go for one which doesn't necessarily let all the light in & has strong heat reflective.

we did here, when renovating, replacing an older shadecloth, heaps cooler & much more livable underneath.

they all have suppliers with showrooms, suggest you go look at them (better yet, pick a warm day & stand under them ).

Renata,

I am more confident you will make a better choice than first thought. The handyman/ builder that thinks 5cm dro is enough, is only good enough for them to get the tick to do the job, but when the water starts getting into the ceiling cavity etc the cost to repair will be huge and the handyman will be no where to be found.
Still not sure of the oreintation of the structure but anything Nth facing will get heaps of sun if its dierectly Nth then dont worry about any extra light you might think you need as you will be suprised at colorbond can get quite hot underneathe (no insulation) as it is. As far as light is concerned, the electric stuff seems to be capable to handle any extra requirements.

Cheers,

Barney

If you can post a couple of pics of the pergola it would go a long way to getting some more responses. I will say that a company recommending 30cm fall over 2.4m is the funniest thing i've read on here in a while.

Here are some pics of my current pergola structure. Interesting that in this past week I had another quote from a pergola company that does re-sheeting as well as full colorbond stuctures and the guy strongly recommended keeping our current structure, as the wood is in good condition, no dry rot, and just needs sanding and painting. He is quite a wood lover and even recommended using some wood trellis at the top to finish it off. He sketched a really lovely picture, however when his quote came through, it was as much as we have been quoted to replace the entire structure.
I have spoken to the handyman again who quoted us a very reasonable price to do what this pergola guy just quoted, and he will be doing pretty much the same job.

Would love to hear some further comments on my structure as well as what type of sheeting. The pergola is north facing
Thanks
Renata

That structure looks solid so your half way there, the roof is the easy part. In the same situation i would simply have descending battens on top of existing rafters. First one being alongside existing gutter with enough height so the roofing sheet can go over gutter with approx 100mm overhang, this will ensure any water that goes over the back will only end up in the gutter. 2 more battens at approx 800ctrs, no need for a batten on the beam edge, just use the beam itself. Its not a complicated job at all.

In a situation like this fall is hardly an issue, as the water has only two places to go and both pose no threat to house or otherwise.

I will stay out of the roofing debate, i think its more a personal preference then a matter of "the best" materials. They all have good and bad points.

Originally Posted by john0

That structure looks solid so your half way there, the roof is the easy part. In the same situation i would simply have descending battens on top of existing rafters. First one being alongside existing gutter with enough height so the roofing sheet can go over gutter with approx 100mm overhang, this will ensure any water that goes over the back will only end up in the gutter. 2 more battens at approx 800ctrs, no need for a batten on the beam edge, just use the beam itself. Its not a complicated job at all.

In a situation like this fall is hardly an issue, as the water has only two places to go and both pose no threat to house or otherwise.

I will stay out of the roofing debate, i think its more a personal preference then a matter of "the best" materials. They all have good and bad points.

Thanks John
Appreciate your feedback. What you have described is what the handyman has advised he will be doing, so I think all should be pretty safe with that

hi all

Well it's been about two years since my dome patio was put up and i am big enough to say .
i was wrong .
Thanks to a tree from over the fence that is impossible to trim the polycarb roof now looks like crap .And i was for ever removing leaves from the roof before i moved which is now an even bigger problem as it is rented out .

I now believe that if you have no tree in a 2km radius and the roof hight is about 3m and you are desperate for the light that the polycarb roofs provide use it .But if not it use colorbond .

regards Rob

Greetings all,

This thread has been very interesting. I need to replace the old (20 years +) green fiebreglass corrugated roofing on my small (3 x 4 m.) deck. We'd like to let in light, keep out heat as much as possible and am thinking of laserlite xpt satin cream. I can't find info comparing the shading ratio/light transmission of the old fibreglass sheets with modern poycarb products. Any thoughts/advice? Many thanks!

And here's a picture of the skylights that I installed in the adjoining family room:



hello
i did a skylight like you in my dining room in polycarbone, but i notice now in winter i get condensation and few drip of water drip drop down.
do you have this issue?
thanks

Hi there, we had Laserlite XPT Satin Cream roofing on a pergola at our last house. It's a wonderful product. We did a lot of research as it was important not to cut out too much light from our kitchen and family room, both of which were adjacent to the deck/pergola. We also wanted good shade during the day. The XPT did a great job keeping the deck cool but the real benefit was the gorgeous filtered light. It really was quite lovely in the late afternoon.

We've just extensively renovated a place in Blackburn Victoria and had to use Ampelite wonderglass for our pergola. I specified XPT but the architect said we had to use Ampelite because the fall was less than 5 degrees. Apparently it's a better product too...Whatever! To be honest, I preferred the lovely filtered light the XPT provided.

I am still thinking about our future pergola design but for me, deciduous vines or a removable roof (e.g. sail) are close to the top of the list.

Does it get cold in winter where you are?

Bare in mind that by blocking the sun from coming in your windows, you are blocking about 1 kilowatt per square metre of heat you could be making use of.

That's great in summer but really sucks in winter.

Plus there's nothing better than natural light .

If it's north-facing, the other thing you can use is angled slats designed to give maximum shade in summer (sun high in sky) and minimal in winter (sun low in sky). Not an option for me though. More info here

Your Home Technical Manual - 4.4 Shading - Part 1

I really like the idea of a polycarbonate roof with removable colorbond cover, if such a thing could be engineered. Dry all year, warm in winter, cool in summer. Great place to hang your washing in wet weather when not entertaining.

P.S. If hellbent on optimising the structure for summer and considering insulation under colourbond, why muck around with thick foam etc etc? It's radiant heat transfer you're trying to block so just use foil laminate. It will also act to prevent condensation.

Hi team and thanks for all the advice on this great forum

We just built a 5 x 6m freestanding pergola/awning. We agonised over the poly or colourbond, but went with poly in the end as we needed the light in winter. It was the Laserlite 300 Platinum product that has highest heat and light blocking according to the brochure. We are loving it and it is definitely cooler to sit under than steel
.
We also have a freestanding colourbond carport almost next to it and we have measured the temperature several times under each. It is always between 1.8 and 2.1 degrees cooler under the new laserlite. There may be other factors I guess but we are happy with the poly.

cheers

Dave from Lake Mac (near Newcastle NSW)