Garviks retractable pergola canopy - various colors and sizes

A retractable pergola canopy slides over steel cables stretched between the beams of a pergola or 2 walls. You could even put posts in the ground and tension the cables between them.

There are metal eyelets in the retractable pergola canopy through which the cables run.

Aluminium ribs (rods) are slid across the width of the pergola cover, under the eyelets, to keep the pergola cover hanging straight.

You attach a rope to the pergola cover, which runs between pulleys. By pulling the rope, you can slide a pergola cover open and closed. The retractable pergola canopy is then folded and slid in 1 direction. During assembly, you can choose yourself to which side the fabric should slide open and closed and on which side you want the pulleys with the rope (the rope should always be on the side where the pergola cover is folded, but can be to the left or right of the pergola).

On the picture you can see the steel tension cables where the pergola cover hangs and the white rope that comes down and runs over the pulleys at the top.

I personally like the shade of a retractable pergola canopy more than a closed one. Because some light gets through, it looks like you are sitting under the canopy of a tree, the sunlight shining through. This makes you less confined and still enjoy a little of the sun. I know from experience that you still get a tan under a retractable pergola canopy, although of course much more slowly than in the full sun. After all, 95% of the rays are filtered out.

Another advantage of a pergola cover is that you can also slide it half open and closed. You can't do that with a fixed pergola canopy. At our house, there is often discussion because one half of the table wants to sit in the sun and the other half does not. Well, you get rid of that too, just open the pergola cover halfway, then everyone can decide for themselves whether they want to sit in the sun or not! ;-)

A retractable pergola canopy made of HDPE is not tightly woven, so there are small holes between the threads of the cloth. The advantage of this is that warm air can rise under the pergola cover through the holes and does not get trapped. This provides extra cooling on hot days!
The pergola cover also allows some sunlight through, but still blocks up to 95% of harmful UV radiation. 

On the picture you can see in detail how the HDPE threads are woven into the pergola cover fabric. HDPE (High Density Poly Ethylene) is a very strong plastic that is protected against UV radiation.

A pergola cover is for sale in 3 different widths and 3 different lengths, as you can see in the pictures.

The width is fixed and cannot be changed. Keep in mind that you need to leave at least 5 cm free space on each side. That may be a bit more, 10 or 15 cm doesn't look strange, from 20 cm you really start to see a gap between the pergola cover and the pergola or wall, but that doesn't have to be disturbing either.

Do you have a terrace against the house of, say, 340cm wide? Then you can easily use a 290cm wide pergola cover in a Lean to pergola .

Let's do the maths:

• terrace 340cm wide
• minus the width of the beam of the pergola (9 or 14cm): 340 - 9 = 331cm
• minus at least 5cm clearance, but when you have plenty of room I would recommend at least 10cm: 331 - 10 = 321cm
• minus the width of the pergola cover 290cm: 321 - 290 = 31cm
• That leaves 31cm of free space on the wall side.

31cm of free space between the pergola cover and the wall of your house is really not much, it can easily be more. At my house it's even more than 50cm, which leaves enough space for the outdoor lamps hanging against the wall.
The sun is never exactly straight above the pergola and thus falls obliquely against the wall. On the ground, there is then just shade. Also, you are hardly ever tight against the wall. Even if some sun gets between the awning and the wall, you will still be sitting slightly away from the wall in the shade.
The table below shows the minimum free width needed, more is no problem. (For your convenience, we have also added the number of steel cables in the pergola cover fabric, so you know immediately how many are needed.)

Longitudinally, you don't need to keep a free space. The length is variable. If, for example, you hang a 500cm retractable pergola canopy in a free space of 470cm, this is not a problem. The pergola cover will simply slide open a little less and stay wavy when fully extended.

Longer than 500cm is not possible. The forces on the tension cables will then be too great and thepergola cover will sag. If the length exceeds 500cm, an intermediate beam must be installed between two fabrics. That's no problem for Vinuovo, we simply adapt your pergola to it. For a lean-to pergola, we can make a 10-metre-long pergola with just 3 posts! (In the case of a free-standing pergola, that obviously means 6 posts, 3 on each side).