Door canopies
The canopy is the smallest product in this section and the one asked about most often. There are exactly two mistakes to make: too short a projection, and fixings chosen without looking at the wall.
How a canopy holds on to the wall
Structurally a canopy is a cantilever. The bracket bears on the wall at two points, a brace or tie rod carries the load higher, battens hold the roofing, and a drip edge with an outlet runs along the front. Everything that lands on the canopy ends up in the anchor points.
Hence a rule that saves rework: establish what the wall is made of first, and only then draw the canopy. Aerated concrete and hollow block will not hold an expansion anchor at all — there it is resin with a mesh sleeve, and the joint comes out larger than it would on concrete.
Six variants
- On brackets — simplest and cheapest; the brace runs down and bears on the wall below the door.
- On tie rods — the load goes upward and nothing is in the way above the door; the wall joint works in tension.
- Arched — polycarbonate on a curve, and the snow slides off by itself.
- Gabled — to match a pitched house roof, where the canopy must not argue with it.
- With side panels — shelters from driving rain; needed where the entrance has no walls around it.
- Flat with drainage — the water goes into a pipe rather than onto whoever is leaving.
Where the water goes
The commonest fault in off-the-shelf canopies is that water runs off the front edge exactly where a person stands. A drip edge and a gutter cure it: the drip edge pulls the drop off the edge, the gutter collects the water and takes it away to one side in a pipe. On a flat canopy with no drainage, ice builds along the whole edge in winter and one day comes down in a sheet.
Where to go next
Once a canopy grows to a size you park under, it is a carport, and its posts go into the ground rather than into the wall. The steps beneath it are covered in stairs and railings. Choosing fixings by substrate, and how long coatings last, are in how ordering works.
Frequently asked questions
How far should a canopy project?
A metre at least, and 1.2 m is better. The canopy has to cover not only the door but the top step — otherwise you stand under it and still get wet while looking for keys. For width, take the door opening plus 25–30 cm each side.
Will the wall take it?
That depends on the wall, not on the canopy. Concrete and solid brick take wedge and expansion anchors; hollow block and aerated concrete take only resin with a mesh sleeve or a spiral plug. The same canopy holds quite differently on concrete and on aerated block.
How much does the snow on a canopy weigh?
At the Warsaw figure of 0.9 kPa, a canopy 1.2×1.5 m carries about 160 kg — more than the canopy itself weighs. All of it arrives at two anchor points, which is why they are calculated rather than guessed.
Does polycarbonate go yellow?
Sheet without a UV layer does, in three or four seasons. Sheet with a UV layer is marked, and it has to be laid that side out: turned over, it ages as fast as the cheap kind.
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