Protect your car or other vehicles with a cantilever carports. It doesn't matter whether you subscribe to the concept of global warming or not, the fact is, the United Kingdom has experienced three consecutive severe winters. We have suffered from the double effects of long periods of freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall.
Fortunately, the majority of the UK housing stock is designed and equipped to lessen the impact of these temperature falls, thanks to double-glazing, central heating and a wealth of insulation materials. A warm house is a comfortable house.
It's a pity the same cannot be said of the external elevations of the typical domestic property. Pathways, patio areas are all, at best, difficult and in some circumstances slippery and dangerous underfoot, particularly for the elderly or infirm.
There is however, one problem area that has caused more hardships than any other, and that is where we park our beloved cars or store other vehicles.
For most families, even those with garages, the common baggage of modern life means that this space is filled with gardening equipment, bicycles, boxes, exercise machines - in fact everything but the car. No matter how bad the weather - the family's second most valuable asset, the family car, stays outside, exposed to the damaging effects of snow and ice.
This means in winter the car is parked up and save for newspapers under the windscreen wipers, is largely left in the open. The early morning start is then a ritual of trying to get into the vehicle via frozen locks, windscreen scraping and de-icing, running the engine for ten minutes - simply to be able to get the car going. This obviously assumes that the driver can get traction to the wheels with ice and compacted snow under the car. Then, assuming the car gets off the drive, it is not unusual to spend the next few minutes driving dangerously peering through a small area of clear windscreen.
There is a solution
For a good many homeowners there is a relatively simple answer to this problem in the form of a cantilever car ports (or free standing). This structure is simply a roof structure, with no side panels or doors, coming out from the property itself. The ability to secure the roof on cantilevered supports, from the vertical wall, creates maximum coverage with no support poles or other obstructions that could make a tight space unusable. With no vertical supports, there is nothing to bump into or scratch your vehicle on.
What many families don't realise is that many motoring organisations recognise the carport as not just the most cost effective form of protection for the car but also the most efficient. In wet weather a car placed in a conventional garage will stay wet all night, in contract because the car port has no sides the wind will act as a blow dryer drying and protecting the car from the corrosive qualities of water and snow.
More importantly, in icy or snowy conditions, the roof structure will not only keep the snow off your car, but it will also stop it from freezing. No more morning de-icing, hot water on locks and dangerously driving through little clear spots in the windscreen.
Underfoot the area below the canopy will remain free from compacted snow and ice and as such will present a safe slip free area. The car has solid ground to gain traction and will quickly attain running temperature.
Summer and winter protection
The global warming phenomenon also creates a summer benefit for those fitting a carport. When the car is left exposed to soaring temperatures and harmful UV rays, the combination of leather or plastic seats and unsheltered sunshine can degrade the fabric and make the car almost impossible to enter. Similarly, for those homeowners surrounded by shading trees that help to dissipate the problem of baking sunshine, the equally damaging effects of bird droppings and tree sap are even more damaging than the sun
The expression carport is also misleading, with many owners choosing to store bikes, boats, motor homes, caravans and in some instances animals under the protective canopy. Manufactured from glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) these structures have an impressive strength to weight ratio, which is essential in periods of heavy snowfall. There are a number of specialist designers, manufacturers and installers of these structures that have all relevant accreditations such as Constructionline and ISO 9001 and their own fitting teams, the true specialist will be able to advise on any technical or planning requirements and provide documented evidence of snow load data .
