Decision support
Four ways to roof a patio, compared
The style decides how much light you get, how much heat, how it meets your existing roof, and what it costs. Here is the difference between them, in one place.
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The short version
| Style | Shape | Light to the house | Height | Relative cost | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skillion | Single slope, below the existing roofline | Reduces light to the rooms behind | Lowest | Most economical | Single-storey homes, straightforward budgets |
| Flyover | Mounts above the existing roofline | Keeps light and airflow to the house | Tallest | More than a skillion | Two-storey, pitched roofs, low gutter lines |
| Gable | Pitched A-frame with a central ridge | Good, and the height carries heat away | Tall | More again | Houses that already have a pitched roof |
| Louvred | Adjustable blades that open and close | Whatever you want, on the day | Varies | Most expensive | Spaces used all year round |
Relative cost, not a price list. Every job is engineered to its own span and site — we give you a fixed figure after we have measured.
The long version
Skillion
A single slope, attached below the existing roofline. The simplest and usually the most economical way to cover a space, and the right answer more often than its reputation suggests.
The catch is light. Tucking a roof under a low gutter line on a single-storey home can dim the rooms behind it, and that is not obvious until the structure is up. Worth checking which windows sit behind the space before choosing it.
Flyover
The roof mounts above your existing roofline rather than under it. More height, more airflow, and more light into the house behind it — which is precisely the problem a skillion can create.
The usual answer for a two-storey or a pitched roof. It costs more because of the structure needed to lift it over the existing roof, and because its greater mean height is the thing council measures, it is the style most likely to need a closer look at approval.
Gable
A pitched A-frame, the same shape as a house roof. It matches a home that already has one, gives you the ceiling height for a genuinely large space, and carries hot air up and away from where people are sitting rather than trapping it against a low ceiling.
More structure than a skillion, and it looks like part of the house rather than an addition.
Louvred
Adjustable blades: open for light and airflow, closed when the weather turns. The most flexible option and the most expensive.
It earns its cost on a space that gets used in every month of the year — a courtyard off a living room, a pool surround. On a space used four months a year, it is a lot of money for a mechanism that mostly sits in one position.
Insulated — not a shape
Insulated panel is a roof material, not a style: two steel skins with a foam core, which cuts heat and noise substantially against single-skin Colorbond. It can go on a flyover, a gable or a skillion. It cannot go on a louvred roof, because there the blades are the roof.
Insulated roof patios, from $12,500Roof styles, built
Chermside
- Structure
- Insulated roof patio
- Size
- 7.2m × 4.0m
- Timeline
- 9 weeks start to handover
- Cost band
- $14k–$18k
Wynnum
- Structure
- Insulated flyover patio
- Size
- 8.0m × 4.2m
- Timeline
- 10 weeks start to handover
- Cost band
- $18k–$22k
Carindale
- Structure
- Louvred opening roof
- Size
- 5.4m × 4.0m
- Timeline
- 9 weeks start to handover
- Cost band
- $22k–$28k
Project details are illustrative pending confirmed case studies.
Common questions about patio roofs
Which patio roof style is cheapest?
A skillion, over a modest span, attached below the existing roofline. It is the simplest structure to build and the least steel in the air. If the lowest number is the priority, that is the shape to ask about.
What is a flyover patio?
A flyover mounts the new roof above your existing roofline rather than tucking it underneath. That keeps daylight reaching the windows behind it and lets air move through the gap. It costs more because of the structure needed to lift it, and its extra mean height means council looks at it more closely.
Which style is best for a two-storey house?
Usually a flyover. Attaching under the first-floor gutter line on a two-storey home tends to produce a dark, low space; going above the ground-floor roof keeps the proportions right. A gable can work where the house already has one.
Can any of these have an insulated roof?
Flyover, gable and skillion, yes — insulated panel is a roof material, not a shape, and the range starts at $12,500. Louvred is the exception: the blades are the roof. See insulated roof patios.
How do I decide?
Most people arrive with a look in mind and change it once they have seen what the house will actually take. The roofline, the gutter height and which way the space faces do more of the deciding than taste does. Send us a photo of the space and we will tell you which of the four the house is asking for.
Tell us about your place
Send us your address, a photo of the space and a rough idea of what you want covered. We'll come out, measure it and give you a fixed price.
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