Planning a garden veranda you will actually live under
Most disappointing verandas are not badly built, they are badly placed or slightly too small. A metre of extra depth is the difference between a table you can walk around and a table pinned against the wall, and an aspect chosen for the view rather than the sun can mean shade in the morning and glare all evening. Before spec sheets, spend an hour thinking about where and how big.
Siting: follow the sun, not the back door
The default is straight off the patio doors, and often that is right. But if the back of the house faces north and the sun lands on the far corner of the garden at six in the evening, a freestanding veranda over there will be used far more. Spend a weekend noticing where you naturally sit, and put the structure there instead of where the plumbing already is.
Size, worked backwards from the furniture
A six seat dining table needs roughly three metres of depth once chairs are pulled out and someone walks behind. A sofa arrangement needs more depth than length. Measure the furniture you own or intend to buy, add circulation, and only then look at what the wall or the garden allows. Verandas that feel cramped were almost always sized to a budget rather than to a table.
- 1Lay out the furniture on the patio with tape or chalk
- 2Add 700mm behind each seat for pulling chairs out
- 3Add a walking route that does not cross the table
- 4Check the resulting depth against post positions and drainage
Wall mounted or freestanding
Attached to the house, a veranda uses the wall to carry one side, which means fewer posts and lower cost, plus shelter from the building itself. Freestanding needs four or more posts and its own drainage, but it can sit anywhere and it never involves drilling the house, which matters on some period and rendered properties.
Bring us a rough idea and we will make it a plan
We will walk the garden, check the sun through the day, measure honestly and show you where the structure earns its place.
Making it usable beyond summer
The three things that extend the season are light, heat and shelter from wind. Integrated LEDs make the space usable after dark, infrared heaters warm people rather than air so they work outdoors, and side glazing or zip screens stop a breeze from ruining an otherwise pleasant evening. Fitted together they turn a summer patio into a space used most of the year.
Run the cabling during installation even if the heaters come later. Retrofitting supply into a finished frame is the most avoidable cost in this whole product category.
Ground, drainage and what is underneath
Posts need solid bases, and an existing patio is not automatically one. Where the slab is sound it can often be used, where it is failing it is cheaper to fix now than to relevel a structure later. Water off the roof needs a route to a gully or a soakaway, not a puddle at the corner of the lawn, and that route should appear on your quotation.
Finishing touches that get used
Power sockets under the beam, a light switch inside the back door rather than out in the weather, and screens on the prevailing wind side. None are expensive. All three are the things customers tell us afterwards they are most glad they specified.
Questions people ask us about this
How deep should a garden veranda be?
For dining, around three metres of depth is comfortable once chairs and circulation are allowed for. Shallower works for seating and shelter by a door.
Can a veranda be built away from the house?
Yes. A freestanding structure needs its own posts and drainage, and it lets you put the cover where the sun actually falls.
Does the patio need replacing first?
Not usually. A sound slab often takes the post bases directly. Where paving is loose or sinking, we would rather correct it during the build than work over it.
Can heating and lighting be added later?
Yes, and it is far simpler if cabling and fixings are prepared during installation, which costs very little at that stage.
How long will it last?
Powder coated aluminium and glass is a long life combination, and structural frames are covered up to 10 years.
In short
Site a garden veranda where the sun is, size it from the furniture, decide wall mounted or freestanding early, and prepare light, heat and drainage during the build.