Loading...
Loading...
Five Eight Twelve is now an authorized dealer and installer for three louvered pergola manufacturers: LOUSOL from Canada, STOBAG from Switzerland, and KE Outdoor Design from Italy. This guide explains what a louvered pergola actually does, and what separates the three so you can see which one suits your project.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-15 · Five Eight Twelve Technical Team
Five Eight Twelve is an authorized dealer and installer for LOUSOL, STOBAG, and KE Outdoor Design. Three manufacturers, three countries, three quite different engineering philosophies, and all three installed by the same local crews.
The reason for carrying three rather than one is simple. A louvered pergola is a permanent structure that has to fit a specific patio, a specific budget, and a specific set of expectations about how it should look. A dealer who carries a single brand has one answer to every question. Carrying three means the recommendation you get is the system that suits your site, and we can tell you honestly when the most expensive option is not the right one.
A louvered pergola, sometimes called a bioclimatic pergola, is an aluminum structure whose roof is made of blades that rotate. That single feature is what separates it from every other outdoor cover, and it gives you three distinct states from one structure.
Open the louvers and you have open sky with a shaded frame. Tilt them and you get filtered light plus natural ventilation, because warm air escapes upward while fresh air draws in from the sides. Close them fully and the blades interlock into a continuous surface that sheds rain into gutters hidden inside the beams, draining down through the posts and out at ground level with no visible downspouts.
Vancouver sees measurable precipitation on roughly 169 days a year, and the wet season runs from October through April. A shade structure that only solves sun is solving the smaller half of the problem here.
At the same time, summers bring genuine UV, and up to 80% of ultraviolet radiation penetrates light cloud cover, so shade matters even on grey days. A roof that adjusts handles both conditions, which is why the category has grown quickly in the Lower Mainland rather than remaining a warm-climate product.
LOUSOL is manufactured in Canada by a Mississauga-based company, and its louvered roof system is protected by two United States patents with a Canadian patent still pending. Orders ship domestically rather than crossing a border, which shows up in lead times.
Two things make it distinct in our lineup. First, it is the only brand we carry that offers genuine manual operation, using a crank rather than a motor, which brings the entry price down for smaller patios. Second, it is the only one with a pre-engineered kit: a fixed 10 foot by 12 foot structure that is ready for pickup within 24 hours and typically installed in about four hours, at roughly 30% less than the same footprint built to custom dimensions.
It also publishes its engineering openly. The kit is rated for 175 MPH wind and 50 PSF snow, and custom builds are rated 130 to 175 MPH and 20 to 55 PSF depending on configuration, backed by a 10 year structural warranty.
STOBAG has built shading systems since 1964, still designs everything in Switzerland, and manufactures its North American line in Burlington, Ontario. Its BAVONA HARD-TOP louvered roof collected the iF Design Award, the German Design Award, and a Red Dot Award in 2024, which is an unusual sweep for an outdoor structure.
What sets STOBAG apart in practice is a combination of engineering honesty and range. Their own technical documentation describes the louvered roof as particularly water repellent rather than claiming it is perfectly waterproof, and they size drainage by formula rather than guesswork, requiring one concealed outlet for every 12 square metres of roof. We respect a manufacturer that specifies that way.
STOBAG is also the only brand in our lineup that offers a serious fabric-roof alternative alongside the louvered one. The PERGOLINO is a retractable fabric roof running in guide rails, spanning up to 23 feet wide, and it is the system behind a number of Vancouver restaurant patios we have installed.
KE Outdoor Design builds its Gennius pergola systems near Venice, Italy, and has manufactured for North America since 1984. Where LOUSOL leads on value and STOBAG on design, KE leads on certified numbers.
The Kedry louvered line is rated wind resistance class 6 under EN 13561, which is the highest class the European standard defines, with structural components certified under EN 1090. For context, a typical fabric awning has to retract around class 3. On an exposed site, that margin is the difference between using the structure and worrying about it.
KE also builds the most unusual roof in the category. The Kedry Skylife does something almost nothing else does: its louvers rotate for sun and rain control, and they also retract and stack, opening the roof plane almost entirely to the sky. It is effectively two roofs in one structure, and it won an Archiproducts Design Award for exactly that.
There is no ranking here, because the three are aimed at different problems. In practice the decision usually resolves along these lines, and we walk through it with you on site rather than over the phone.
Whichever manufacturer a project uses, the parts that decide whether you are happy in five years are the same. Every structure is engineered to your site rather than ordered from a size chart, because snow loads in the Lower Mainland range from about 1.5 kPa in Richmond to 3.0 kPa in North Vancouver, and Whistler is far higher again.
Permits are part of the conversation too. Most BC municipalities exempt only structures under 10 square metres, and a standard 10 foot by 12 foot pergola is already around 11 square metres, so assume a permit review will be needed. We prepare the engineering drawings and the strata submission package where one is required, and installation is handled by our own certified crews rather than subcontracted out.
None of them, in the abstract. LOUSOL wins on value, speed, and the manual option. STOBAG wins on design and offers a fabric-roof alternative. KE wins on certified wind ratings and on the retracting Skylife roof. The right answer depends on your site, your budget, and how prominent the structure will be, which is exactly why we carry all three.
No. These manufacturers sell through trained dealers rather than direct to homeowners, so the dealer network is the normal route. What you gain is site-specific engineering, permit and strata support, certified installation, and a local contact for warranty service instead of a phone number in another province.
Closed louvers interlock and shed rain into concealed gutters, and on a typical wet day you stay dry underneath. How completely each system seals varies by brand and configuration, and at least one manufacturer describes its roof as highly water repellent rather than fully waterproof. We will tell you exactly what the system you are considering does and does not do.
The LOUSOL kit can be picked up within 24 hours and installed in about four hours. Custom LOUSOL projects typically ship in one to three weeks. European systems from STOBAG and KE are scheduled at quote time and take longer. Engineering and any permit review run on your municipality's timeline, which we build into the schedule from the start.