We are building a pool and have come up with this rather unique design that we love (see below). We planned to add an additional covered area... either by extending the patio, or by adding a pavilion or by adding a pergola. We are currently leaning toward adding a large fiberglass pergola with a translucent cover (like ShadeRight) which would create a water tight roof barrier to help protect patio furniture, etc from rain, but still allow some light in. The top plan right now is to do a fiberglass pergola (approx. 24'x24') as a stand alone structure, supported by 4 columns (we should be able to get away with only 4 column because of the strength of fiberglass), but to place it next to the current patio creating seamless rain protection from the back door of the house all the way out to the pool. In fact we are planning to extend the pergola over the pool a bit including one column in the water itself (pool company is going to build it up to create the footer for the pergola post while also creating a small ledge around it (like a mini table) were someone can place a drink or some small water toy. We plan to have a water curtain falling from the outer edge of the pergola back into the pool as a water feature that we can turn on or off as well. (I'm posing a few sketches so you can get the concept. MY QUESTION is this, we need to create a slight slope on the pergola so that the rain water will not stand on top of the roof. Should we slope it slightly toward the pool, in which case any rain water hitting the top of the pergola will runoff into the pool? (I'm guessing this could help conserve/save on water as it might help replenish from the constant evaporation & just generally be easier to do as we wouldn't have to be as concerned with pergola beams hitting the existing patio roof. But could it be so much water running onto the pool that it creates a headache keeping chemicals properly balanced? Or should we slope it toward the house and try to have the rain water from the pergola run into the same gutter that we plan to install surrounding the existing porch? I hope that makes sense. Thoughts?
