Polycarbonate veranda with their own hands

Quite often you can see country houses having a veranda. This room creates an additional living space, and also decorates the architecture of the cottage or mansion. In addition, on a hot summer day, it is so good to hide from the Sun on your own veranda, and in the evening there is a table there and admire the sunset during dinner or tea drinking. In this article, I would like to bring some tips on the construction of this building using a minimum of time and money.

What are the veranda?

There are two types of these structures: built-in and attached verandas. The first is erected simultaneously with the house on the basis of the foundation and under the united roof. The attached verandas are those that are constructed as a supplement to an already ready mansion. Such structures have their own separate base and shelter.

In shape and form, the design data is very different: in the form of a classic square or rectangle, with original rounded or beveled edges, in the form of a polygon or the whole house of the structure. Materials for construction can choose the most different, today we will look at how to build a veranda of polycarbonate.

The main characteristics of polycarbonate

By choosing this material for the main part of construction, you need to learn about its positive and negative properties. The advantages include:

1. Strength. Polycarbonate 200 times higher than the glass on this indicator. No matter how much you have dropped it - it will never break.
2. Flexibility is another positive quality. First, it makes it possible to easily transport sheets of material by turning them with a roll. Secondly, due to flexibility, from polycarbonate you can create original and complex architectural forms in the form of an archer or cylinders.
3. A good ability to skip the sun rays, due to which the veranda of polycarbonate will always be brightly illuminated.
4. Small thermal conductivity that allows you to hold the desired temperature inside the construction and reduces the cost of heating. According to this indicator, polycarbonate exceeds the glass 4 times.
5. Easy assembly. This quality of this material will allow you to build a building for a very short time. In addition, it is easily cut by an ordinary knife.
6. The price of polycarbonate veranda will be rather low due to the relative cheapness of this material.
7. Another positive property can be considered ease that allows you to easily transport the sheets of building materials, and also makes it possible to build a design without a massive foundation.
8. Fire resistance - another significant advantage. The veranda from cellular polycarbonate is safe for living, because this material has the property of self-effect, it does not melt during the fire and does not release caustic smoke.

Before making a veranda of polycarbonate, except for the advantages should be taken into account and the disadvantages of this building material:

1. Bad resistance to mechanical stress. Polycarbonate sheets are very easy to scratch if, for example, use metal tools during cleaning. A large amount of such damage reduces the light-effect material of the material.
2. Aggressive chemicals, such as alkali or acid, can also harm the design.
3. When the ambient temperature changes, the polycarbonate has a property to change in size. This feature must be taken into account when installing sheets, using silicone sealant in construction and making some stock in the dimeter of the holes for fastening elements.

It is due to the fact that the advantages significantly exceed the shortcomings, a polycarbonate can be considered excellent material for the construction of small architectural forms.

Polycarbonate veranda with their own hands

The construction of this building can be represented as a sequence of actions:

1. The first thing is laid the foundation. Given the rather small weight of the design, you will not need to do a heavy and capital base, you can easily do the lightweight belt option. The foundation is built in accordance with the finished project, in the process, the necessary elements are fixed to mount the veranda framework. Wooden bars with a rectangular cross section can serve as fixing racks. In order to ensure that the structure was stable and durable, the upper and lower strapping must be made from the same material.
2. When the foundation completely freezes, a carrier framework can be built on it. Wooden bars are pre-impregnated with refractory compositions, and aluminum or steel pipes are first processed by primer, and then color.
3. Polycarbonate sheets are attached to the finished frame. Electric jigsaw can be used to separate the material to the desired fragments. Since the polycarbonate has a property of changing in size under the influence of temperatures, during its installation, refine heat gaps of at least 4 mm wide.
4. For fastening elements, screws, washers and rubber gaskets are used. Holes for fastening elements should have some margin in diameter - so linear expansion during the temperature difference will not cause material deformations.
5. When the walls are completely prepared, you can make the roof of the veranda. For small buildings, the design is quite suitable in the form of an arch, but the pitched roof is most often found.

Polycarbonate veranda, photo:

Polycarbonate Care Rules

The veranda at the cottage from the polycarbonate involves the knowledge of some rules for the care of these materials:

1. When installing the design, be sure to read the information on the package on which side of the sheet is applied ultraviolet protection - it is this side that should be outside.
2. It is necessary to transport material in a horizontal position, it is impossible to step and walk on sheets in any case, it is also impossible to store polycarbonate in the rain or straight sunny rays.
3. While cutting plates on fragments, you should not remove the protective film from them. For the separation of thin sheets, a regular knife with a retractable blade is suitable, and for thick you need to use a circular saw with an emphasis. When cutting, well lock the plates to avoid vibrations.
4. Make fragments need to be made through the channels.
5. To purify the surfaces, it is necessary to use a wet sponge or a rag of soft tissue.
6. Detergents, which contains acids, alkalis, aldehydes, chlorine, solvents and other aggressive substances, apply contraindicated.
7. Since it is quite easy to leave scratches on polycarbonate sheets, it is not recommended to use a knife or other sharp cleaning items.

How to mount polycarbonate is shown on this video: