Gazebo Screen & Clear Vinyl in Mascouche

Gazebos in Mascouche

A Mascouche yard built since 2000 has one particular trait: it was often cleared out of land that used to be wooded. As a result, two yards on the same street can look nothing alike. One keeps a fringe of trees at the back and lives in shade — and with the insects of the woods; the other was cleared right to the fence, and its retail gazebo, set on the new deck behind the patio door, takes sun and wind head-on with nothing to break them. The single-family homes in these neighbourhoods have deeper yards than older suburbs, and a twelve-by-fourteen aluminum or steel gazebo with standard panels is nearly a standard in itself.

The large wooded lots on the edge of the developments belong to another world. There, the gazebo is often a permanent wooden structure, built to measure at the back of the lot, with one-of-a-kind panels no store can replace and an exposure that changes from one bay to the next: one side in the sun, one side under the trees. The older sectors of town, for their part, have mid-sized yards and retail gazebos a generation older, whose original panels are reaching the end. Mascouche therefore means three different gazebos, and it is the lot, more than the house, that tells you which one is out back.

Screens and vinyl: what gives out in Mascouche

In a cleared yard of a new subdivision, the clear vinyl (MICA film) takes it all: direct sun that yellows it within a few summers, unobstructed wind that slaps it until it splits. We replace it with new clear vinyl, cut to the exact size of the pane and stretched into the original aluminum frame; on the sides facing the prevailing wind, it is often better to keep aluminum screening rather than film. At the edge of the woods the problem changes: the film ages more slowly in the shade, but the screening has to stop black flies and no-see-ums, smaller than a standard mesh — so we rescreen in a tight weave. On a wooden structure beside a pool, the panels are measured one by one and remade to their own dimensions.

Structure and access in Mascouche

A retail gazebo in a new neighbourhood comes apart without trouble: the deck is wide, so is the driveway, and the panels are redone at the mobile workshop out front. On a large wooded lot, the wooden structure may be far from the house, beside the pool or the hot tub, and the panels are screwed or set in mouldings in the frame: we free them one at a time without forcing the wood, redo them on the spot or in the vehicle, and the structure does not move. A permanent-structure panel is often larger and heavier than a retail one, and it takes two people to carry across a sloping or gravel lot.

Wind, sun, insects: choosing in Mascouche

Woods and cleared land share Mascouche. On the wooded side: shade slows the yellowing of the film, but the small flies of the woods pass through standard mesh — that is the side of the gazebo rescreened in a tight weave, while the others can keep ordinary mesh. On the cleared side: sun and prevailing wind, so film that yellows quickly and fibreglass that weakens, and aluminum on the exposed panels. The film goes on before the first frosts, which come early in Lanaudière; on a hot-tub gazebo it often stays up year-round, and then a thicker vinyl is the right choice.