To improve the appearance and functionality of a suburban private house or cottage, you can make an outdoor terrace or veranda attached to the main building. Now more and more often polycarbonate is used for such purposes, because it has a lot of advantages compared to other materials.

Advantages and disadvantages of polycarbonate porch

The pros and cons of the polycarbonate veranda are primarily due to the properties of this material.

• Such buildings have several advantages:
• They are very light, because glass is several times heavier than polycarbonate.
• Do not miss extraneous sounds, providing excellent sound insulation.
• Resistant to shock, precipitation and strong wind.
• They retain their properties at any temperature and at any time of the year.
• They retain heat inside, which ensures comfort indoors even in winter.
• They are made of a very pliable material that can be bent as you like, creating unique architectural designs.
• Easy to handle and easy to install.
• Sufficiently resistant to fire, do not burn, melt at a temperature of 120 ° C.
• They look very attractive.
• They are relatively inexpensive.
• It is possible to choose any color suitable for a particular building.

• Polycarbonate verandas have their drawbacks:
• The material is not environmentally friendly.
• The property of polycarbonate to keep warm creates an inconvenience in the summer, because in such a veranda it will be too hot in the summer.
• With regular exposure to the sun and heat, the material expands and can even deteriorate over time.
• Dirt gets into the cells, due to which the appearance deteriorates, and the quality decreases.

Which polycarbonate is better to choose

When you need to choose polycarbonate for the construction of the veranda, you must consider the following characteristics:

• strength;
• resistance to temperature extremes and the effects of snow and wind;
• thickness and density of panels;
• resistance to ultraviolet radiation.

Important! To shade the veranda made of polycarbonate on a hot day, it will be enough to sprinkle it with chalk solution. And to remove the shading, you just need to pour water on it from the hose.

Polycarbonate for roofing can be multilayer or cellular. It is usually opaque. It has good thermal insulation characteristics and an elegant appearance. But how glass is used is transparent monolithic material. It is more expensive than cellular, but is ideal for windows, doors and transparent panels.

In addition, in both of these cases, polycarbonate must meet the following requirements:

• it cannot contain secondary plastic impurities;
• mandatory is the presence of a special protective layer from ultraviolet radiation;
• the section of the walls and partitions of the sheets must comply with GOST and international standards.

Did you know? Monolithic polycarbonate was invented in 1955, and it was used at that time in the defense and space fields, as part of parts of military equipment, aircraft and spacecraft.

If the climate is temperate, panels with a section of 8 mm are suitable for covering small verandas, the area of ​​which is from 15 to 25 m². But in snowy and windy regions it is necessary to choose a thicker material - about 16 mm. Such polycarbonate is also suitable for buildings with an area of ​​50 m².

Preparatory work

Each construction should begin with preparatory work, even if it is a veranda that needs to be attached to the house. At first glance, it might seem that it is very simple and quite easy to execute. But in order to avoid problems during the construction of an attached veranda for a private house, you need to calculate all the moments in advance, prepare tools and materials, and also choose the most suitable place.

Layout and drawing

Before proceeding with the construction of a new building, it is necessary to develop a detailed project and plan for future work. This is very important, because you need to take into account all the stages and nuances, as well as calculate the estimated cost. The planning and creation of a detailed drawing can save you from errors in further work and from problems associated with surplus or shortage of materials.

Site selection and preparation

First you need to decide which side the veranda will be attached to. It is very important that the exit from the house is convenient, and also that the new room does not block the windows, because of which one or more rooms may become too dark. In addition, it is imperative to check the quality of the soil so that it does not sag, which can cause cracking of the walls of the veranda. Taking into account the characteristics of the soil, they decide on which foundation to make.

Did you know? Polycarbonate is heat-resistant and safe for human health: that is why it is used in the manufacture of dishes for hot food.

Necessary materials and tools

In addition to polycarbonate sheets, which are selected separately in accordance with the requirements, for the construction of the veranda, you will definitely need such auxiliary materials and tools:

• adhesive tape for end surfaces;
• self-tapping screws with rubber gaskets;
• electric jigsaw;
• hammer;
• plane;
• hacksaw;
• screwdriver;
• water level or plank;
• concrete mortar for pouring the foundation;
• sealant filling voids;
• wooden bars or metal pipes.

Construction stages

Like any other structure, the veranda begins with a properly poured foundation. Further, after the concrete has hardened, a frame is erected, the roof is mounted, and then all this is finished with polycarbonate. At the final stage, windows and doors are installed.

Foundation

The polycarbonate porch itself is quite light. But in order for the design to be solid and last as long as possible, it is necessary to make it correctly, following all the rules. First of all, you need to create a very reliable and strong foundation.

Important! Be sure to install polymer gutters on the roof for rainwater drainage to extend the life of the polycarbonate veranda.

Most often this is the foundation of the tape type, the device of which consists of the following stages:

1. Trench preparation. It should be located around the perimeter of the future building. Its depth is about 50 cm. But the thickness depends on the dimensions of the frame material and the building itself. As a rule, it is no more than 40 cm.
2. Creating in the trench a kind of pillow made of sand and water. First, sand is poured with a layer whose thickness is 20 cm, and only then it is watered with water.
3. Assembly of formwork for pouring concrete. It is knocked down from the boards so that the foundation is about 20 cm above the ground.
4. Foundation pouring. Before proceeding to this stage, it is necessary to lay a net for reinforcement or reinforcement from below, and then pour concrete.
5. Drying. When the foundation is flooded, do not rush and proceed to the next work. It is necessary to wait for its complete drying, because the quality of the entire structure depends on the strength of the foundation. This will take one to two weeks.

Frame erection

The construction of the frame must be approached very seriously, because it must be strong enough to hold the structure of which the veranda will be composed. For these purposes, metal pipes and a wooden beam are excellent. Their thickness and dimensions are selected individually, depending on the weight that they will have to hold. After installation, pipes must be primed and painted so that they do not suffer corrosion over time, and it is advisable to treat the wood with an antiseptic.

The frame is erected in stages, performing the following actions:

1. Mount the bottom profiles to the foundation.
2. Fix the corners between the adjacent parts of the frame.
3. Install wall, corner and top profiles.
4. Mount vertical profiles so that you can later install windows and doors.

Flooring

The floor in the annex can be made of tiles or decking. Both of these materials are very durable and look good. In addition, they are resistant to wear. The only drawback of the tile flooring is its low resistance to shock, so when heavy objects fall on the tile, it can crack. But the wooden floor often does not stand the test of high humidity. But since the veranda is closed, the occurrence of such problems is unlikely. In addition, you can treat the boards with special varnishes or oils to protect against moisture.

Did you know? Due to its incredible strength, polycarbonate is called "plastic metal".

Roof mounting

Of great importance when choosing materials for the construction of the frame is the proposed shape of the roof. After all, if it should be in the form of an arch or dome, it is better to choose metal pipes, and those that can be bent, giving the roof the desired shape. In other cases, it will be easier to make a frame of timber. Installation of rafters for the roof is carried out according to the drawing, which necessarily takes into account the structural features of the roof and its shape.

Separate elements must be placed at a distance of about 10 cm from each other. Moreover, the thinner the polycarbonate sheets, the smaller the gaps between the rafters. They should be placed in such a way that the sheets are connected between them, slightly overlapping each other (about 1.5 cm).

Frame and roof trim

The thickness of the polycarbonate for the walls is chosen depending on what time of the year the extension is planned to be used. If the veranda is intended only for summer relaxation, it will be sufficient sheets whose thickness does not exceed 10 mm. But if this is a full-fledged part of the house, which should be convenient and comfortable throughout the year, you need to choose a material no thinner than 15 mm.

The whole process of finishing the frame consists of the following stages:

1. Training - cutting polycarbonate sheets with a circular saw or electric jigsaw according to the dimensions indicated in the drawings.
2. Fixation. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarity of the material to expand under the influence of elevated temperatures, therefore it is imperative to leave seams about 4 mm thick.
3. Installation. The polycarbonate is fixed to the frame using screws with washers and rubber gaskets.

Video: lining the porch with polycarbonate

For the roof, as a rule, they choose the same type of plastic as for the walls. But if the walls are made of monolithic polycarbonate, and you don’t want to heavily weight the roof, you can take a cellular one for it, which is also called a cellular one.

The sheets are mounted on the roof in the following order:

1. The panels are cut, given that the stiffeners should be directed downward in the direction of the ramp. This is necessary so that condensation does not collect.
2. They begin to sheathe the roof with sheets. This is done so that on the upper side there is a protective layer from ultraviolet radiation.
3. Drill holes for screws at a distance of 50 cm from each other.
4. They fix plastic with washers, and special profiles are installed at the joints.
5. Joints of sheets are closed with special H-shaped detachable and one-piece profiles, due to which installation becomes easier.
6. For better tightness of the ends use a special tape, and then set the profile.
7. At the very end, all joints are treated with sealant.

Windows and doors

Before glazing with polycarbonate, it is necessary to determine how it will be more convenient for you to open the windows.

According to the type of opening, window systems are divided into two types:

• based on the lifting-sliding principle;
• based on the parallel-sliding principle.

Important! When using polycarbonate, the probability of damage is reduced by 200 times compared with glass.

It is also possible to install metal-plastic windows with a single double-glazed window for such a veranda. The main thing is that they are not too heavy and fit well into the overall exterior. Doors are selected according to the same principle. They should be lightweight and not burden the structure.

Arrangement and decoration

After the completion of the main construction work, you can begin to equip the veranda. It can be furnished with armchairs, chairs, tables. You can put a sofa, if size allows. Flowers in flowerpots on the floor and on special stands will not be superfluous. The final and very important element will be curtains that protect from the sun in the daytime and successfully complement the interior. All that remains is to make a suitable backlight, install the lamps.

Making an attached polycarbonate veranda is not difficult. The main thing is to preliminarily develop a detailed plan of action, create a project and a drawing, on the basis of which it will be possible to draw conclusions about the cost of work and materials. And already at this stage you will be able to understand whether you need the help of specialists or whether you can cope on your own. During operation, you must not forget that the right materials are very important. That is why polycarbonate, which has gained popularity among builders and designers, will help you create a veranda that is ideal in all respects.