
Arch Support: Incorporating AZEK arbors into your landscape designs
Impressing clients with a great finished landscape design project is a good feeling and a big professional win. Once the spaces and structures you’ve designed are delivered and installed, your clients can start living out the excitement that started when you first showed them your sketches and schematics of gardens, dining areas, and walkways with lush flowers, AZEK arbors, and architectural elegance tying everything together. Satisfied customers mean good recommendations and repeat business.
But as an experienced professional, you know that your work started before those inspiring drawings. In fact, it started long before the customer even contacted you. Your ability to plan and create in your clients’ outdoor areas is the result of keeping your own knowledge of premium materials, products, and processes strong. It requires having a toolkit of versatile, practical go-to options in your head and the confidence that you can get make them real. If AZEK arbors aren’t already part of your project planning arsenal, they should be. This article will show you several important reasons why.
Why Arbors?
Flat-topped or arched, slatted or spindled – arbors are one of the most versatile landscape design elements. As grand, airy outdoor doorways, arbors create transitions like no other piece can. Entrances to enclosures around gardens, pool areas, and patios become more elegant and exciting when framed with a decorative arbor.
By designing an appropriate custom arbor (or selecting an existing style from a premium manufacturer’s design collections), you can direct traffic, frame scenic views, add vertical structure, and shade sitting or dining areas. A custom arbor can also be a destination and focal point of its own, providing a handsome architectural accent or turning an otherwise-empty side yard into an interesting transitional space.
Beyond these design considerations, financial priorities can also make arbors attractive options for both your clients and your own bottom line. Clients who initially imagine a pergola may be better served by an arbor, particularly in cases where a high-quality vinyl pergola might put the overall cost of the project out-of-budget, or simply be too large for the space. An AZEK arbor can also be an excellent addon to larger projects (perhaps creating a great transition to another area of the property and setting the stage for next year’s project). You shouldn’t overlook the opportunity to suggest arbors as improvements to existing fences, walkways, and enclosures, or to be a standalone project when something bigger might need to be put off for a year or two. After all, developing long-term relationships with clients who intend to keep investing in their outdoor spaces is a win-win for both of you.
Why AZEK?
A fully synthetic form of cellular PVC, AZEK is known to many architects and designers primarily as a trim, flooring, or accent material. But in the hands of the right manufacturer, the full potential of AZEK comes through for you and your clients, providing the look and finish of real wood while providing decades of sturdy, low-maintenance structural beauty.
Not so long ago, when clients and professional heard about a “synthetic fence” or “vinyl pergola,” they might have thought of a hollow, plasticky product, or one that lacked the rigidity and strength to be made into large structures. But things have changed, and hopefully your knowledge of improved options is up to date. In particular, AZEK products made by Walpole Outdoors are engineered, handcrafted, and reinforced for stability, longevity, and impeccable style. They may occasionally be referred to as “vinyl,” but the difference is clear to any discerning homeowner or design pro.
Why Walpole Outdoors?
To smoothly and capably integrate AZEK arbors into your designs and executions, the importance of a good working partnership with the #1 fabricator of AZEK structures cannot be overstated. With a wide range of design collections, exceptional collaboration and customization capabilities, and nationwide jobsite delivery, Walpole Outdoors has been the creating top quality spaces and structures for over 85 years.
In the New England facility of this leading fabricator of AZEK solid cellular PVC, the material is milled and carved with the same care and precision as premium hardwoods. Reinforced with internal metal supports, Walpole’s unique expertise allows the creation of stunning AZEK arbors, railings, pergolas, and other premium products. They even arrive at your jobsite factory-painted in over 100 Sherwin-Williams VinylSafe colors, including a 25-year paint warranty. Walpole’s AZEK products are even manufactured to be easier to assemble and install. So you may be able to delegate the final step of installing and finishing your vinyl pergola or arbor project to fewer and less specialized workers, saving cost and time while remaining confident of the end results.
Inspiring projects using AZEK Arbors
Above all (no pun intended), AZEK solid cellular PVC arbors offer you and your clients endless possibilities to make something you’ll both be proud of. Check out these examples, incorporating both custom arbor designs and prefabricated arbors from Walpole Outdoors design collections:
- Standard Verde Green Sheffield Arbor: This spindle top arbor from the Walpole Outdoors Sheffield collection is easily adapted to the grade of this hilly yard. And despite sun, weather, and climbing vegetation, it will keep its beautiful color and finish for decades.
- Seaside Custom Moon Gate: A gated arbor that combines eye-catching curves above and below creates a truly dramatic statement.
- Gallery Arbor: A series of arbor arches can be laid out in close sequence with open or joined sides for a range of effects and functions, from grape arbors to enclosed walkways.
- Historic Restoration Pergola and Gallery Arbor: Often confused with each other, arbors and pergolas also work beautifully together. The coordinated style and sturdy structure of this Walpole handcrafted custom pergola and its accompanying gallery arbor replace an irretrievably deteriorated wood structure.
- Special Formal Decorative Arbor with Bench : Arbors can evoke the sense of being in an outdoor room. Here, the unrivaled craftsmanship of Walpole made it possible for a designer to create this magnificent garden backdrop and sitting area.