wood verses aluminum patio covers

A great patio deserves a great patio cover. A patio cover makes your outdoor living space more comfortable and improves your home’s marketability if you decide to sell. This is especially true in sunny California. Patio covers come in all shapes, sizes, and materials. So how do Alumawood patio covers stack up against wood patio covers

Wood has the longer history, so let’s start there.

Wood is a classic building material and can be quite beautiful. An experienced craftsperson can manipulate wood in a nearly infinite number of ways to achieve the look you’re after. At least they can as long as it provides the proper structural support. You can also apply roofing material that matches the roof on your home. 

That’s the good, so what about the bad. Wood requires a lot of maintenance. Obviously everything in this world has a life expectancy right? You… me… your water heater, your patio cover. The life expectancy for a patio cover ranges significantly depending on the region in which you reside not to mention the manner in which you maintain your patio cover structure or, the lack thereof.

Personally, I’ve seen wooden patio covers last over 40 years. Contrast that to other wood patio covers that I’ve seen only last a mere 10 years. We do tons of wood patio cover repairs throughout Los Angeles and surrounding cities and counties, so we’ve seen our fair share of patio cover wood damage let me tell you.

Wood Patio Cover Maintenance

Since wood patio covers are constantly exposed to the weather, they need to be re-stained or repainted on a yearly basis. Then again, that statement is not based on any quantifiable scientific measurements but really, just my own personal opinion based on my experience. Be that as it may, and regardless which camp you reside in… maintenance of some type is still needed f not annually, then bi-annually.

Of course, you can reside in the camp of, “I’ll just want and see what happens“. In which case…, take my card because we’ll be seeing you in a few years when that massive structural beam is precariously dangling from its attachment and risking the lives of anyone brave enough to walk under it.

When wood covers aren’t maintained the wood can bleach, crack, and dry rot. Basically turn to dust before your very eyes. If you live near water or in a humid area, wood is also susceptible to regular rot.

Oh yea…, let us not forget about the termites. They love new wood the way a high school football team loves pizza. So being that everyone reading this probably lives in the Los Angeles area, then as we speak, termites are likely feasting on a patio cover. That’s a pretty nasty though but it’s a reality those of us in Southern California have to come to grips with. So what’s the alternative? Aluminum of course.

So what about Alumawood patio covers?

The good

Let’s face it, aluminum patio covers aren’t a classic, yet, but they do have a lot going for them. It can’t be manipulated the way wood can, but it comes in several styles including Newport style, solid insulated cover and lattice or shade bar type. That said, however, Alumawood patio covers can still be custom fitted to your home, just like a wooden cover. Esthetically, the Alumawood has the classic loop and whorl pattern of wood stamped into it. In essence, you get the look of wood, but you avoid all of the wood’s downside.

Alumawood doesn’t rot in humid weather or dry rot in arid climates. Never will you caught with a paintbrush touching up or repainting that old wood cover every year… or any year for that matter. Moreover, Alumawood covers are metal, so termites can’t eat it nor will it fade, crack or bleach out.

In the event that you suffer damage to your Alumawood cover, our team is able to perform patio cover repairs throughout Los Angeles and have replacement parts at our fingertips. Alumawood patio covers are available in a kit as well. As a matter of fact, with our installation video and documents, just about anyone can install one of these.

Now for the bad

Now for the bad. These patio covers are not self-cleaning as you can imagine. That being said, you need only hose off or wipe down your aluminum cover with a sponge occasionally or, you can always wait for it to rain. Most people opt to wait for the rain. Unfortunately, because we live in Los Angeles, it doesn’t rain much.

So how do Alumawood patio covers compare with wood patio covers? If you have a special attachment to your home or a unique design requirement that doesn’t conform to the engineering of the Alumawood product, you’ll probably want a wood cover. After all, one of wood’s main benefits is its ability to span further than Aluminum in many instances. If you don’t need a special design however, Alumawood is the practical, low-maintenance choice. As an added bonus, aluminum is far more cost-effective when you take long-term maintenance costs into account.