4131 North Perryville Road Loves Park, IL 61111
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The History of Louvered Roofs
Home Owners Move Outdoors
Finally a solution – Louvered Roofs
First Generation Louvered Roof
Coming to the USA
Designs
Center Pivot Design
The center pivot design comes with a full perimeter gutter to catch rain water from all sides and direct it where the customer wants it to go.
The louvers are easily connected to a pivot bar which rotates the them to open and close all at the same time.
Bottom Pivot Design
The bottom pivot design allowed for louvers up to 24’ long supported by and connected to rafters beneath every 3 to 4 feet. The louvers on this design are typically only 4” which restricts more natural light plus they can only open a little past 90° so they are unable to shade and catch light beyond that point.
The bottom pivot design makes the louvers top heavy so that when they close passed the 90° point the weight transfer creates as much as 500 lbs. of stress on the motor and mechanism.
Because rafters are needed every 3 to 4 feet the look of the bottom pivot design is less appealing. The louvers sit on top of the rafters and the rafters sit on top of the beams giving a stacked look.
The mechanism to open and close the louvers is internal in each of the rafters and hard to get to with mechanical problems. When this happens all of the louvers must be removed to gain access to the mechanism.
New Generation Louvered Roofs
The new generation louvered roofs have quite a few improvements. These are directed toward allowing the customers even more time spent on the patio as well as taking advantage of new technologies and improved strength in structure design.
There are several new generation louvered roofs now manufactured in countries across Europe including Spain, Belgium, and Italy and 3 manufactured in the USA. None of these manufactures have elected use the bottom pivot design.
Improvements
Here is a list of some of the improvements these company have in their designs:
- All have the flat bottom tongue and groove louver design which is more appealing to customers.
- Some have a larger gutter to improve water flow in heavy rain storms as well as clog-prof leaf and debris screens.
- Some have ball bearings at each end of the louver to provide a low friction longer lasting mechanism.
- All have integrated the new electronics technologies with the motor and control box.
- Some have a designer gutter look for improved aesthetics.
- Some have a much stronger louvers design for improved snow and wind loads.
- Some have bearings in the pivot bar which connects all of the louvers allowing them to move together without stress.
The Sundance Louvered Roof is the only new generation louvered roof having all of these improvements to see the 14 Advantages flyer click here
