Patio Covers / Clear Panel
Clear Panel Patio Covers in Cowlitz and Clark County
The reason to build a clear cover has nothing to do with the patio. It is the room behind it. A solid roof over the back of a house takes the light out of whatever kitchen or living room looks onto that patio, and in this climate you do not have light to give away.
How I build it
Posts: Pressure-treated 6x6 on standoff post bases.
Footings: Poured concrete piers, or anchored to an existing slab.
Beam: Glulam or built-up beam, sized to the span.
Rafters: 2x8 or 2x10 at 24 inches on center.
Purlins: Spaced to the panel manufacturer's span table, not to habit.
Roofing: Multiwall polycarbonate with the UV cap layer facing out.
Fastening: Oversized holes with washered screws so the panel can move.
Wall connection: Ledger flashed under the siding and counterflashed.
A north-facing back wall with a solid cover over it goes dim year round, and people notice it in November rather than in July when the cover went up. Clear panel keeps the rain off the table and the door and leaves the room behind it lit. That is the whole argument, and if the patio does not sit against a window it is probably not the right roof.
The panel is the lifespan. Multiwall polycarbonate with a UV cap layer, installed with the cap facing the sun, holds up for years. Cheap acrylic and uncapped panel hazes over, goes yellow and turns brittle enough to crack when something lands on it. The two look nearly identical in the store and nothing alike in five years, and it is the one place on this job where the cheaper material is a different product rather than a lesser one.
Polycarbonate moves a lot with temperature, far more than wood or metal. Every hole gets drilled oversized and every screw gets a washer so the panel can grow and shrink without binding. That single detail is why the big-box kits start rattling in the wind and weeping at the screws in their second season, and it is also why the purlin spacing comes off the manufacturer's table instead of whatever spacing the rafters happened to land on.
The honest downsides: it is loud in rain, it traps summer heat more than a solid roof does, and you look up at it, so every leaf and every bit of moss shows from underneath. Enough slope for it to shed and self-wash helps, and it still wants a rinse a couple of times a year.
Included
Pressure-treated 6x6 posts and standoff bases
Concrete footings or slab anchorage
Beam, rafters and purlins
UV-capped multiwall polycarbonate panel and closure strips
Washered fasteners set for panel movement
Flashed and counterflashed ledger at the wall
Permit drawings and permit application
Not included
Concrete patio slab, if there is not one already
Electrical, including fans and lighting
Gutters and downspouts, quoted separately
Ongoing panel cleaning
Removal of an existing cover, quoted separately
Want this cover on your patio?
Call for a free estimate, or send photos and get a Project Sketch first. Call (360) 431-9382.