Browse Forums Eco Living 1 Jun 26, 2012 8:18 pm I was thinking about this last night, but Googling around didn't get me any fast answers. What sort of building materials should we be thinking about for north-facing patio & balcony, in order to manage our winter heating & summer cooling; and yet played-off against longevity & maintenance demands? Does it make any difference? Although our plan isn't finalised, our two-storey house will have a balcony (or covered area of some sort) upstairs, and it must have some sort of patio arrangement downstairs underneath (otherwise it'll be dirt/mud I guess). Stacker doors downstairs & either windows or doors upstairs (depending on floorspace ratio maybe not allowing us a balcony) are intended to catch winter sun, with shading to block summer sun. However, given that breezes will be blowing over whatever material we use for these surfaces, should we be careful not to use something which traps heat? There's probably no winter advantage to an attempt to treap heat as there won't be enough & we probably won't be having those doors/windows open on cold days anyway; so it's summer airflow I'm thinking about, and surely it'd be bad to have breezes blowing over hot concrete surfaces? So what're the alternatives? Is wood the only sensible answer? I have memories from the early 90's of not going out on the wooden front balcony at my parent's built-late-70's place because the wood was rotting & you might fall through. Are tiles thin enough that they just don't capture heat - are there certain types you might use? Our end-goal plan for downstairs, although we don't know if we're going to try & get a volume/project builder to do it, is to have a fairly shallow pond in front of the doors downstairs; breezes then blow over that in summer. However I expect the balcony &/or shading for those front doors to be probably a couple of metres wide; if we were to look at having a pond built such that there was maybe half a metre between it & those doors, I wonder if there are structural issues of some sort (eg. what happens when pond cracks & water ends-up under the house - is that an issue?)? That's a fantastic result! Happy you got it sorted out. cheers Simeon 6 7532 in the stormwater pit or the drain? Those dont look like theyd fit in the drain. Separately, the pits do get stuff in them during the course of the build. For the most… 1 4923 First time building 2 storey home in NSW. Below Current plan have separate balcony. But thinking to do a multipurpose lounge with balcony (kind of sunroom) in first floor… 0 4271 |