The pool surround nobody can cross barefoot
Every change below is put into the plan and the whole model is run again. That is why a pergola's winter cost shows up here without anybody having written it down, and why the cheapest thing that works is allowed to win.
Reading at
Crossing it barefoot
Surface heat is20.6°F over— 140.8°F against at most 120.2°F
This is the one use where the ground decides everything and the air decides nothing. Skin blanches at about fifty degrees and burns not far above it, and a pale-looking paver in July sails past both.
Direct sun is15 over— 100 / 100 against at most 85
Sun on the crossing is only a problem because of what it has done to the slab for the last four hours.
Confidence low (37%). Treat this as a starting hypothesis, not an answer.
A 9.8 ft umbrella fixes surface heat and direct sun.
Ranked by what solves the actual limit with the least effort, not by the biggest number.
Not offered, and why
A 9.8 ft umbrella fixes surface heat and direct sun.
A 9.8 feet canopy at about 7.5 feet, set square over the table.
+1 hours of usable time on this day. Opens 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM.
It takes the summer sun and leaves most of the winter sun, which is the behaviour worth paying for.
A shade sail over the seating fixes surface heat and direct sun.
A sail about 16.4 feet by 13.1 feet, set at about 9.2 feet and angled to shed water.
+5 hours of usable time on this day. Opens 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
It takes the summer sun and leaves most of the winter sun, which is the behaviour worth paying for.
A deciduous tree 16.4 ft south of the seat fixes surface heat and direct sun.
A medium deciduous tree planted 16.4 feet to the south, grown to about 26 feet, with a crown roughly 19.7 feet across.
+2 hours of usable time on this day. Opens 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM.
Summer beam up about 0 per cent, winter beam down about 17 per cent at this hour.
A pergola with close-spaced slats fixes surface heat and direct sun.
A pergola about 13.1 feet square at 8.5 feet with close-spaced slats, slats running roughly west.
+3 hours of usable time on this day. Opens 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
It takes the summer sun and leaves most of the winter sun, which is the behaviour worth paying for.
An adjustable louvred roof fixes surface heat and direct sun.
A louvred roof about 13.1 feet square at 8.5 feet, blades running west and closable.
It takes the summer sun and leaves most of the winter sun, which is the behaviour worth paying for.
Horizontal fins above the opening fixes surface heat and direct sun.
A run of fixed horizontal fins projecting about 2.3 feet from The house, set above head height. Geometry does the work: high summer sun is cut, low winter sun passes under, and the view out is barely touched.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
Raise the seating 3 ft improves things by 9 points without solving any single limit outright.
A raised platform lifting the seat about 3 feet. It clears low boundaries, reaches faster air, and it works both ways: what you can see over, you can be seen over.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
Move the table 6.6 ft north does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Slide the seating about 6.6 feet toward the north and change nothing else.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A second seat 19.7 ft north does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Put two chairs 19.7 feet to the north and leave the main table where it is. The point is not to fix this spot but to stop needing it at the hour it does not work.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
Two 8.2 ft parasols instead of one does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Two parasols about 8.2 feet across, set 7.2 feet apart along the table. Between them they cover a rectangle, which is the shape a table actually is.
It takes the summer sun and leaves most of the winter sun, which is the behaviour worth paying for.
Two low shielded lights instead of one high one does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Add a pair of shielded 200 lumen fixtures at knee height near the seating, so the useful light is where people are rather than thrown across the garden.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
Add 1.5 ft of trellis to Block wall does not move this in any way worth the effort.
An open trellis panel on top of Block wall, taking it from 6.2 feet to 7.7 feet. Open trellis blocks a sightline at an angle while letting light and air through, which a solid board does not.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A deciduous climber on tensioned wires does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Wires strung about 8.5 feet above the seating with a vigorous deciduous climber trained across them. In leaf it shades like a light pergola; bare, it gives back most of the winter sun a solid roof would have kept.
It takes the summer sun and leaves most of the winter sun, which is the behaviour worth paying for.
A 8.2 ft awning does not move this in any way worth the effort.
A folding-arm awning projecting 8.2 feet from the house wall at about 8.5 feet, retracted out of season.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A paler paving does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Replace Pool deck with a paler paving of similar mass. The surface itself runs cooler underfoot; the trade is that more light bounces back up at a seated person.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
A solid canopy over the seating does not move this in any way worth the effort.
A solid roof about 11.2 feet above the seating, 13.1 feet by 11.5 feet, guttered on the low edge. Unlike fabric it works in rain, and unlike a pergola it takes the winter light too.
It takes the summer sun and leaves most of the winter sun, which is the behaviour worth paying for.
A ventilated timber deck instead does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Replace Pool deck with a ventilated timber deck. Heavy paving charges all afternoon and radiates back until well after dark, which is why an evening terrace can feel hotter than the air. A light deck over an air gap is done within the hour.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.
Take up the paving and plant it does not move this in any way worth the effort.
Lift Pool deck and plant it. Nothing else on this list moves surface temperature as far: paving in full sun sits twenty degrees or more above the air, while planted ground transpires and typically sits at or below it. It is also the only change here that gets better rather than worse over ten years.
It does not meaningfully change the beam in either season.