Patio Canopy Roof 5.57M x 3M

We were going to build a traditional wooden roof over our patio but that kept getting put off so we did this instead … and I’m so glad we did! It was up in 1/2 a day, has been through several storms with zero problems, and - added bonus - softly reflects the lights at night! I also love the sound when it rains. This is my favorite “room” in the house.

Ok but wind pops out the twinwall and replacements are 80 each. Not covered under warranty.

General Points:

- Prompt delivery of a dark green kit set rather than charcoal grey as described on the website, but that didn't bother me a great deal.

- Reasonable quality for most components* and consistent with the price asked.

- Excellent and thorough instructions provide good assembly guidance, but careful checking of each assembly stage pays dividends.

Now to my two pieces of advice:

1.* Part # F1, the 5-40mm long self-tapping Philips head screws that screw into the circular channels of the frame are rubbish! I found using a battery-powered impact driver or a conventional hand-held screwdriver will only drive the screw 25-30mm of the required 40mm before friction causes the impact driver to wreck the crossed slots, or have a conventional screwdriver ride out of them. $10 bought a packet of 50 10Gx38mm zinc-plated Pan-head self-tapping sheet metal screws from Bunnings which worked perfectly.

2. For understandable reasons of ease of construction the instructions advise building the roof frame upside down, and with the right and left sides reversed. Page #14 then requires the inversion of the roof frame by rotating 180 degrees from left to right to have the roof's topside uppermost, and right and left components sitting on their correct sides of the centre. This may be OK for a small 3x3m unit, but rotating 5.7m of flimsy framing 180 degrees vertically, when the rear ledger rail (parts #4R & 4L) are only marginally braced at their centre join in one plane, is inadvisable. I provided additional temporary bracing to this join for the rotation by attaching a length of wood with heavy-duty vinyl tape. However, it makes far better sense to initially build the roof frame inverted as instructed, but with the left and right parts on their correct side of the centre, but laid out back-to-front reversal where the frame that joins the wall is on the open side, and the frame that carries the spouting is nearest the mounting wall. To get the roof's topside uppermost as required by page #14 only needs a 180-degree front-to-back rotation of 3m vertically, rather than 5.7m vertically in a side-to-side rotation. Even so, I would still add some temporary bracing to the join of Parts #4L & 4R.