Hi, I’m Andrew Merrick with SoulTech Patio Covers. Uh, coming to you today with my very first video. Just built the YouTube video channel. Uh, don’t even know what I’m talking about really. This is my first time on camera, so bear with me. But, uh, this is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Uh, finally put it all together, decided I’m going to make a video. And, uh, this kind of correlates with a big project I’ve been working on. uh working on the business uh we did a complete rebrand. We started this in April of last year. Uh started working with a new uh digital marketing team. Uh and along with that uh we decided we’re going to make a whole new website uh and rebrand. So um that just launched last week finally. It’s been quite the process. uh starting in April of last year. Uh and I have to say it was quite a process. Uh it took a

lot more than I thought, but the finished result is something I’m super proud of. Uh our new website, www.soltechpiocovers.com, is in my opinion pretty impressive. I have to say I’m I’m really proud. Uh really proud of what we’ve come up with. Um new logo, new branding. uh super happy and I’m super excited to to get this new brand launched uh and see where we can go with it. So um along with that I decided uh I was going to start a YouTube channel and uh here we are video one. Um so hey, nice to meet you. Andrew Merrick. I’m the owner of Soultech patio covers. Um we are a patio cover and pergola builder in San Diego, California. Uh we build metal patio covers. And so uh that’s what I kind of wanted to talk about today a little bit uh to just kind of answer some questions. You know, frequently asked question is why would I want to go with

a metal patio cover? Um you know, wood seems to be the more common option. And so what’s good about metal versus wood? Um it’s a great question. And so here in uh Southern California, we deal with a lot of moisture in the air. uh lots of termites. Um so what we can get is a lot of wood rot, a lot of uh termite damage, uh dry rot. I see it every day as I go around uh to different homes and looking at replacing people’s uh existing patio covers. So um why is metal better? Well, uh our aluminum patio covers uh are made out of aluminum. Aluminum is a very durable material. Uh one of the more durable metals there is. It doesn’t rust. Uh and so with the paint processes that we have, uh baked on primer coat, baked on polyester paint finish, uh you now have essentially a maintenance-free patio cover. You’ll never have termite damage. You’ll never have wood rot. So

aluminum is actually a very good choice uh to build a patio cover with. And so then what kind of patio covers could you build with aluminum? Another good question. Uh but actually we can build almost any kind of patio cover with aluminum. Uh solid roof patio covers, lattice roof patio covers. There are cantal lever patio covers now which uh are pretty awesome and something kind of new to the market within the last I’d say like five, six years, but um we can build some cantaliever patio covers where the posts are only on one side freeing up space. Uh and then we have our louver patio covers uh which are kind of our upper echelon top high-end uh product that we sell. Uh louver patio covers allow you to open or close the patio cover. So you can either have partial shade or full shade and rain protection. So essentially we can build any kind of patio cover that you would need out of aluminum. And uh the

advantages are it’s going to last a lot longer. It’s going to stay looking nicer for longer. You don’t have to worry about that constant upkeep, repainting, replacing bad pieces of wood that go bad from termites or wood rot. Um, so it’s just all in all a better system. Um, we have different levels of quality. So, um, our kind of entrylevel aluminum covers are made out of a thinner roll formed material. These are going to be brands you may have heard of such as Aluma Wood or Elite Wood, uh, Weatherwood. Um, these materials are made of a thinner piece of metal that are rollformed, meaning it runs through a machine that forms it into the different shapes, the different beams. We have 3×8, we have 2×6, we have 3×3. So, lots of different shapes and sizes that we can build with um, and we can build a real lightweight uh, structure that uh, you know, lasts quite a long time. There’s also insulated roof panels which uh that is a foam core panel that

has a skin of aluminum on the top and on the bottom. Uh they interlock together male female. That’s what you can make a solid roof out of. Uh so you can combine the roll form parts with the insulated roof panel parts to create yourself a full solid patio cover out of the Elitewood alumalwood weatherwood type material. Um then a step up from that we have our extruded products. Extruded aluminum products are made of much thicker aluminum uh rather than a thin piece rolling through a machine. Uh extruded extruded means that a uh molten metal is pushed through a die. Uh therefore you have a seamless part. Uh most of our extruded parts are an eighth inch to a/4 inch thick wall aluminum. This makes for an extremely durable patio cover. Dentres resistant. uh creates very modern designs which people love nowadays. Uh it seems to be the big trend is people are going towards these

modern homes with real clean simple lines. So the extruded aluminum parts allow us to really kind of build within that kind of design frame. Uh but so that’s what’s great about metal is uh we can kind of go in any direction with it. Whatever suits your house and we’re very design forward. Uh we’re all about making this patio cover pergola kind of blend with the seamless design of your house so that it seems as though the the patio cover is just meant to be there uh part of part of your design and architecture. Um love coming out uh looking at at people’s yards and being able to help design something that fits amazing uh that you’re going to love. Uh, I love building patio covers for my customers because, uh, we really come and transform a space, make you a whole outdoor living space that, um, you can now enjoy the beautiful weather that we have in San Diego year round. San Diego has to be one of the best climates in the world to to live outside. So, why

not invest into a durable uh, maintenance-free, beautiful patio cover to extend your living space and and create another place to live? Uh, be more than happy to help you with design with uh anything that you need. We give free estimates and uh yeah uh just starting this YouTube channel as a a way to to reach out to to people and help uh answer frequently asked questions and and just explain a little bit about patio covers and tell us tell people about Soultech patio covers. Um I hope you enjoyed this video uh brief introduction and just a little bit about what’s good about a metal patio cover versus wood. Um, we’ll see you on the next video. Thanks, Andrew Merrick. Soultech patio covers.