Pros and Cons of Using Polycarbonate Roof for A Trellis in Singapore

Did your exterior renovation contractor or designer propose using Polycarbonate as the roof material for your trellis or pergola? Here’s what you need to know about this material, Polycarbonate before installing it in your home.

Pros of Polycarbonate

We’ve used Polycarbonate to construct trellises for our customers for quite some years now, and here are its advantages.

1. Lightweight. Polycarbonate sheets are light and can don’t add unnecessary weight to your trellis roof. This makes it a great material for your trellis at your car porch, patio, balcony, garden, roof terrace and private enclosed spaces (PES).

2. Durable. Given the combination of Singapore’s hot weather and thunderstorms, we need a roof material that can withstand high and low temperatures without breaking down. Polycarbonate is able to withstand the demands of Singapore’s weather well.

3. Virtually unbreakable. CDs and DVDs are made of polycarbonate as well. If you’ve ever tried to destroy an old CD of your old (and unwanted) memories, you’ll know what I mean.

4. High impact resistance. That’s why we can drill holes in it without it breaking. This makes it a good material to work with as we can attach it to your trellis or pergola structure without it cracking.

5. Light passes through it. There are see through options that allow light to pass through. This provides for natural light, and lower energy bills.

6. It doesn’t discolour or fade easily. Who wants to spend time and money building a trellis only to have it look old within a year or two?

7. It’s a great heat and sound insulator. Definitely less deafening in a thunderstorm than aluminium roofs.

Pergola with Polycarbonate roof top

Cons of Polycarbonate

There is but one characteristic of Polycarbonate that we think can be improved.

Polycarbonate is not entirely scratch resistant. So if you’re thinking of using it where there’ll be lots of contact, you may find scratches appearing soon. However, when used as a trellis or pergola roof, the chances of it getting scratched are pretty low. So you can use it with peace of mind.

A trellis is functional, and can be used to theme your outdoor area for different occasions like Mooncake Festival (中秋节), Chinese New Year and Christmas. I’ll share some décor tips for trellises or pergolas in a next post soon. Stay tuned!