Gazebo Screen & Clear Vinyl in Mont-Royal

Gazebos in Mont-Royal

In a garden city laid out in 1912, the gazebo was never part of the plan. The English cottages and brick Tudor houses of the 1920s to 1950s were designed with a back garden, sometimes a stone terrace, but not with a screened shelter. When a gazebo is there today, it is generally a wood structure a homeowner added, drawn to match the house: painted posts, a pitched roof, screen panels in wood or aluminum frames with dimensions particular to that one shelter. These gazebos live under the big trees of a neighbourhood planted a century ago, which protects them from direct sun and, in exchange, keeps their screens damp long after the rain.

The recent high-end rebuilds change the scale. On a recent rebuild the backyard shelter changes scale: a permanent structure in wood or architectural aluminum, large-format screen panels, sometimes clear vinyl (MICA film) sections. It is those wide spans, not the style of the house, that decide the work. Those big panels demand exact screen tension: over a wide span, slightly loose fibreglass ripples and eventually works out of its spline. Being near the water adds humidity and chlorinated splash, neither of which is kind to wood frames or to film left in place year-round.

Screens and vinyl: what gives out in Mont-Royal

On an older wood gazebo in Mont-Royal, what gives first is rarely the mesh across its face: it’s the corner, where the frame has moved with the humidity and the spline is no longer tight. The panel comes off, the frame is squared up, and the screen is re-tensioned in it — keeping the original frame’s dimensions, because nothing standard would replace it. On the recent structures beside a pool, the clear vinyl is the fragile part: left up through summer it yellows and stiffens; taken down and stored folded, it cracks at the crease. Each section is cut from its own measurement: on a structure drawn to match the house, no two of the large frames are twins. The large screens are rescreened with mesh stiff enough to stay taut across the full width.

Structure and access in Mont-Royal

Access is through the garden, and a Mont-Royal garden is planted: flower beds, clipped hedges, stone paths. Getting a large panel out of a wood structure without damaging the shrubs means preparing the route, and the mobile workshop stays in the driveway. On a custom gazebo, the panels are not interchangeable: each one is tagged as it comes off so it goes back exactly where it belongs, otherwise a frame made for the west opening won’t fit the east one. On a recent permanent structure, the panels are often screwed rather than clipped, and they come off by hand, with nothing forced in expensive millwork.

Wind, sun, insects: choosing in Mont-Royal

The garden city’s tree cover spares the film from yellowing, but it packs the frame channels with leaves, and the water they hold attacks a wood frame at its bottom rail — the exact opposite wear to an open yard. Wind is slowed by hedges and houses, which lets fibreglass do for most panels. Around a pool or spa, the constant humidity argues for taking the film down in spring rather than leaving it up all year. Beside a spa it is chlorinated splash, more than wear, that goes after the bottom frames first: rinsing them with clean water at season’s end does as much for the mesh as for the frame.