Free Standing Commercial Shading Solutions

Bespoke Structures for Sun, Wind and Rain Protections

Sun shade and Rain Protection – Create the Perfect Outdoor Covered Area for Your Business and Customers – Free Standing Freedom for Positioning.

Free standing sun shade and weather protection solutions are now more varied than ever before with advances in materials and technology. Reasons for requiring a self supporting structure include an unsuitable building height to fix to, insufficient fixings on the building or simply because you want a new area creating away from the main building?

Samson Awnings provide bespoke commercial solutions with retractable fabric canopies, fixed glass and polycarbonate roof systems, and rotating louvre blades. All these are incorporated into what is often referred to as a ‘pergola’ but the reality of many structures is far more varied and they are nearly always manufactured from aluminium profiles, giving the best flexibility in design, strength and longevity.

A great outdoor covered space will create interest in your establishment and provide options for customers to be inside or outside most of the year round. Extra revenue, extra space, extra kudos for your establishment and probably the easiest way to create extra space, often with no planning requirements and expensive building works.

We have worked on many commercial projects since 2007 and these include sectors such as Hospitality, Education, Sports Facilities, Industrial Buildings, Public Spaces and Commercial Offices. Covered all year weather protection on building roof tops perhaps provides the best examples where wind ratings and general commercial specification and build are most important and necessary for:

Adapt with existing buildings for control of shading and general weather protection

Expansion of your seating capacity with greater options throughout the year

Increase in revenue with more customers staying longer

Increase in revenue as you can use the outdoor areas for more months of the year

Protection from harmful UV rays – great for children, elderly and vulnerable skin types

Create themed and private areas for larger parties or private functions

Great, healthier outdoor space for meetings and staff use

Structures with Retractable or Rotating Louvre Roof Sections

Roof sections with full retractable fabric options in either standard awning fabrics or tougher vinyl triple layer fabrics which offer a stronger final protection when fully extended and in use. Rotating aluminium louvre blade systems offer great sun protection and control of air flow and light with options for a retractable louvre blade roof for maximum weather control.

Benefits and Features include:

High quality aluminium bespoke framework systems in endless choice of high quality powdercoat colour finishes to suit existing colour schemes.
Fast assembly and construction times reducing time required for disruption.
Any sizes possible for length and depths up to around 14 metres as standard.
Larger sizes are possible with design limitations.
Pitched or flat roof design options to suit
Ideal for sun shading and open air in the warmer months
All systems use electric operated retractable or rotating roof components for ease of control and auto operation in weather changes.
Multiple LED lighting and heating options for any of the systems
Multiple options for fixed or retractable side infill to create further weather protection or create a complete ‘outdoor room’

louvred roof systems for commercail settings

Retractable Pergola Awnings

The word ‘Pergola’ is perhaps now confused from its original meaning, but in this case it refers to an aluminium framework incorporating a retractable, super taught, fabric canopy cover.

We offer various aluminium pergola framework systems with retractable electric canopy covers built in, from a more basic and simpler pergola to a heavier duty, more complex system with built in rain guttering at the front and the ability to add sides alongside lighting and heating options.

All our retractable pergolas are electrically operated as standard, offering easy operation at the push of a button or via a Smart phone app. The main reason large pergolas are electrically operated is because the fabric cover is under a lot of tension for the best stability in wind and rain and the tension would be a very hard manual operation indeed, so has never been offered as such…

We offer lean to angled options and more discreet flat roof style systems, where the fabric cover is either arched or curved to drain the rainwater away to the front or sides.

Benefits and Features include:

Fabric roof lets natural light through
Large sizes possible with modular design to allow further options to further enclose one or more side and control the climate even more.
Fully retractable roof for the sunnier months
Structures are aesthetically pleasing

Butterfly Awnings

The ‘butterfly awning’ is a term used to describe various options of a simple, but very strong aluminium goal post system with two or more self supporting awnings fixed retracting on either side to create cover. This cover presents in the style of butterfly wings..

It is a very popular free standing product for Samson Awnings due to the versatile nature of the free standing goal post system. Manufactured from a large profile aluminium goalpost arrangement, the supporting structure can either be bolted to a solid concrete pad in the ground or sit surface mounted using very large weight boxes which double up as seating or planters.

The largest single size for our Syncra system is 7m wide and fitted with two awnings, each at 4m projection you now have a covered space of 56 square metres. However, you can couple the system and line up for far larger area coverage if required. The awnings retract completely to leave a clean goalpost structure when not in use. This structure can be fitted with LED lighting and infra-red heating to provide lighting and warmth in the evenings and cooler months of the year.

The awnings used are specified depending on individual requirements and can be manual or electrically operated as required with varying angles for the fabric covers to suit the site.

Benefits and Features include:

Fabric canopy lets natural light through when in use
Massive coverage when open and minimal structure showing when closed
Easy adjustable projection during the day and night time.
With free standing weight boxes this system can be repositioned if required

Louvre Roof Bioclimatic Pergola

The louvre pergola concept exploded onto the UK market during the Covid pandemic period. Used extensively in Southern Europe, mainly for sun protection, we see some confusion in the UK as the requirement is more for protection from rainfall. Commercially this is very important to get right and avoid ongoing issues

Commercial specification bioclimatic pergolas will offer larger profiles all round, greater rainwater drainage capacity, rotating blades which rotate up to 170 degrees to give air flow and sun shine ingress in 2 directions and larger sizes and more colours to choose from.

All the systems we offer are bespoke sizes and always have electric operated aluminium blades. LED lighting and infra red heating systems are very popular for evening use.

Side infills are offered with sliding glass door options, vertical electric blinds and fixed and louvered aluminium walling.

Benefits and features include:

Great for evening time use with LED lighting built in
Control air flow and shade during the hotter months easily.
Can be made into a free standing outdoor room with side infills
Bespoke sizes and shapes can be manufactured.

Glass Outdoor Rooms

Samson offer a wide range of various self-supporting structures which have a flat roof design and are capable of being a modular structure with many options to enclose further when and if required. Self-supporting and with various retractable roof options, these structures provide all year-round protection from sun, wind and rain when specified correctly. As an ‘outdoor room’ there cannot be 100% wind and rain ingress protection, but more than enough to deal with 99% of the weather conditions during a normal year.

Built in rainwater guttering ensures there are no waterfalls at any side, the system can direct rainwater down the supporting posts and out on the ground or join an existing drainage system.

Often specified with LED lighting and many different types of low cost running infra-red heaters, the ‘outdoor’ room principal has truly provided a great way for easier, high quality additional space on existing outdoor patios, gardens or roof terraces.

Benefits and features include:

Luxury outdoor space for any commercial venture
Ultimate control of sun, wind and rain
High levels of natural light levels (excluding louvre roof systems)
Independent lighting and heating systems for extra comfort into the evenings and cooler months of the year.

Commercial Umbrellas

The main enemy of the parasol or umbrella in any commercial environment is wind…
Centre pole support parasols offer the best overall stability and Samson offer a comprehensive range of commercial parasol with high wind ratings and our most popular parasol, the Vortex, is tested to wind speeds over 100km/h. Perfect for leaving open pretty much most of the year round and making management simple in a commercial setting.

Benefits and features include:

Simple management with geared winding handle operation for larger parasols
High wind speed ratings for exposed locations
Size up to 7m x 8m in one parasol
Multiple parasols can be joined with rain guttering sections to cover large areas

Structures with Fixed Roof Sections

As the roof sections are either polycarbonate or glass the natural light levels are kept and the systems are perfect for rain protection all year round. It is possible to include retractable fabric blinds for partial or full sun protection for the hotter months.

Benefits and features include:

High quality aluminium and steel framework in choice of high quality powdercoat finishes
Any size possible in the length and depths up to around 14 metres
PItched and flat roof design options and models
Ideal for rain protection and natural light levels kept high underneath
Sun shade retractable blind options for warmer months.
LED lighting and heating options to suit size and shape
Side infill options to enclose some or all side and create and enclosed ‘outdoor room’

Traditional sloping aluminium verandas and a wide choice of flat roof veranda designs now available. The polycarbonate and glass verandas are so often overlooked as a great option for commercial applications, especially if you consider they allow natural light levels to be maintained.

We can design and supply almost any size of commercial car port for multiple vehicle protection.

Free standing and with integrated rainwater guttering on the lower side of the sloping roof.

Direct the rainwater away from the area or into a specific drainage or soakaway system already in place.

LED lighting can be built in to light up the car ports at night time and additional back or side infills can be added to further enhance weather protection. We can even add electric or manual operated roller shutter doors to the front if required..

From Planning to Installation Made Easy

1. Initial Contact

Call us directly on 01933 448 844, submit an online enquiry or visit our showroom to speak to a member of our team.

2. Price Proposal

We will then send you a price proposal to review, and make changes if required. We can also do some initial visuals.

3. Site Survey

Once you are 100% happy, we will arrange a site survey to check dimensions and to ensure the specifications are suitable.

4. Installation

We will complete your installation and handover a professionally installed product which will have guarantees in place for added peace of mind.

We welcome you and your family to come and try out the selection for yourself.

Visit our Showroom

6-8 Meadow Close, Ise Valley Industrial Estate, Finedon Road, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 4BH

Our Outdoor Living team welcome you to visit our comprehensive showroom which is one of the largest in the UK, since 1992 at the same location. We have inside and outside working models of awnings, pergolas, glass verandas, retractable canopies and umbrellas. We also have a large range of entrance and garage doors as we are part of the Dovegroup and have doors, security products and electric gates in our portfolio. Our range of products that you can use for yourself and relish in the joy of outdoor living are from our trusted, impressive manufacturers such as Markilux and Weinor.

Please call on 01933 448844 to ask about our products and our team will expertly guide you through the pages of the website to see what products we have here, and how to make the best choice. Our showroom has a lot of products to view and try but if there is something very specific it might we worth checking to make sure we have a working example or sample to see and review.If you prefer we can provide budget prices for you, via email but for this we do ask for at least one image of the area you are considering installing to so we may assess product suitability and sizing, etc. Please send us images of your home or business and some basic measurements and this will commence our email consultation!