Aluminium canopy over a residential entrance doorway

Service Profile · Canopy Awning

Shelter where it matters. Above the door.

A fixed projecting aluminium canopy with a polycarbonate sheet — sized for an entrance, a balcony door, a service yard or a porch. Smaller and simpler than a pergola, detailed to the same specification. Built to handle the August monsoon without sagging into the third year.

Send the dimensions

Or call Suraj — +91 98703 08481

Frame

Alu 6063-T6

Sheet

8 mm polycarb

Projection

Up to 1.8 m

Span

Up to 4 m

Mount

Wall / post

Finish

Powder-coat RAL

Scroll

Chapter 01 · The Problem

A doorway in August.
Nobody planned for the rain.

Mumbai apartment entrances flood every monsoon — residents wait under an umbrella for the lift, the watchman gets soaked at handover, the SUV-pickup zone is a puddle by half-past four. Service-yard doors leak. Bungalow porches were sized for the architect’s drawing, not the August downpour. The brief is shelter — narrow, specific, and over a real opening.

A small piece of architecture, sized to a single opening, that does its work in the rain.

The RCC chajja

Built into the building, fine until it cracks. Once it cracks it leaks. Once it leaks the staining begins. Repair is a re-plaster, then a repaint, then the same crack a year later.

ii.

A fabric awning

Cheap, quick, sags by next monsoon. The fabric stains, the frame rusts at the wall fixings, and the elevation looks tired before the warranty paperwork is filed.

iii.

Or simply nothing

And the entrance lobby floor stays wet, the watchman stays wet, the residents queue under one umbrella, and the building feels untended at the moment the family arrives home.

iv.

The fourth answer

A fixed aluminium canopy with an 8 mm polycarbonate sheet — 1.8 m projection, integrated leading-edge gutter, finished to the colour of the building.

Chapter 02 · How it works

Three parts.
One opening.

An aluminium frame

6063-T6 wall plate, 50 × 100 mm rafters, perimeter beam. Sized to the opening — a typical entrance is 2.4–3.6 m wide with a 1.5 m projection. Powder-coat to any RAL — typically matched to the existing window joinery or the building elevation.

A polycarbonate sheet

8 mm UV-stabilised polycarbonate, dropped into the rafter channels with EPDM glazing seal. Clear sheet for daylight, smoke for glare control, opal for diffused light. Transmits 80%+ daylight, blocks UV, will not yellow under Mumbai sun.

A leading-edge gutter

Aluminium gutter at the open edge, with a downpipe routed against the column or the wall to the existing drain. Water lands on the sheet, runs forward, drains down — not onto the residents waiting for the lift.

—

Wall-anchored.
Or post-supported.
Or both.

Chemical-anchor fixings into the structural wall for projections up to 1.5 m. Beyond that, or where the wall is brick infill, we drop a slim post at the leading edge. Coordinated with the structural engineer where the building drawing requires.

Aluminium canopy structure detail with polycarbonate sheet

Chapter 03 · Material

What it’s made of.
Down to the fixing.

Same alloy family as our slim-section windows. Polycarbonate sheet specified for Mumbai sun, integrated leading-edge gutter for monsoon, every fixing stainless. Designed to retrofit cleanly onto an existing building elevation without scarring the plaster.

Material 01

The frame — 6063-T6 aluminium.

Extruded 6063-T6 wall plate and 50 × 100 mm rafters. Powder-coat to any RAL or NCS swatch — matched to the existing fenestration, the parapet colour, or the building elevation. Salt-air durable on coastal sites without sacrificial coating.

Material 02

The sheet — 8 mm polycarbonate.

UV-stabilised polycarbonate with a co-extruded UV layer on the weather face. Clear, smoke or opal — transmits 80%+ daylight, blocks UV, holds dimensional stability through a Mumbai summer. 200x the impact resistance of glass and will not shatter under a falling AC compressor bolt.

Stainless steel fixing hardware close up

Material 03

The fixings — SS 304 chemical anchor.

Chemical-anchor stud fixings into the structural wall — not expansion bolts that work loose. Every fastener, gutter bracket and downpipe clip is SS 304. No MS bolt streaking rust down a freshly painted entrance lobby wall.

Chapter 04 · Where it’s installed

Real openings.
Real monsoons. Real shelter.

Building lobby entrances. Terrace doors. Service-yard corners that flood every August. Society SUV pick-up zones. Bungalow porches. Restaurant entrances on Bandra-West side streets. Kindergarten drop-off shelters. Salon waiting areas. Anywhere a single opening needs cover and a chajja is the wrong answer.

Apartment building entrance with aluminium canopy

Society lobby · Khar

The most requested install.

Building entrance canopy — 3.6 m span, 1.5 m projection, 8 mm clear polycarbonate, leading-edge gutter routed to the storm drain. Powder-coated to match the existing aluminium fenestration on the elevation.

Terrace door · Worli

Penthouse threshold cover

Service yard · Lower Parel

Back-of-house dry zone

Bungalow porch · Juhu

SUV pick-up shelter

Restaurant · Bandra W

Side-street entrance cover

Kindergarten · Powai

Drop-off shelter for parents

Mumbai monsoon · Retrofit

Heritage and low-rise buildings — clean wall-anchor retrofit without scarring the elevation

Chapter 05 · Comparison

A direct read on the
seven decisions that matter.

RCC chajja

Fabric awning

Aditi Canopy Awning

Daylight to the entrance

Zero — solid concrete

Partial — fabric blocks light

80%+ daylight through polycarb

Leak risk over time

Cracks at 8–10 years

Sags and seeps by year three

Sealed EPDM glazing, sloped

Salt-air durability

Plaster spalling

Fabric staining and mould

6063-T6 + SS 304 throughout

Visual weight on elevation

Heavy concrete band

Tired fabric panel

Slim aluminium, finish to RAL

Retrofit on existing wall

Major civil work

Possible, low quality

Chemical-anchor, one day install

Drainage

Drips at the edge

Drips at the centre seam

Integrated leading-edge gutter

Service life in Mumbai

10–15 years before repair

3–4 years before refurb

15+ years on the aluminium

Chapter 06 · Benefits

A small piece of architecture.
That earns its rent in monsoon.

Rain shelter at the entrance.

Residents stop waiting for the lift in the rain. The watchman has cover at handover. The SUV pick-up zone is dry. The building feels tended at the exact moment the family arrives home.

Polycarbonate sheet — daylight, not gloom.

80%+ daylight transmission with full UV block. The lobby underneath stays bright on a grey August afternoon — unlike a concrete chajja which simply darkens the entrance.

Integrated gutter handles the flow.

Aluminium leading-edge gutter routes monsoon water down the column or wall to the existing storm drain. No drip line on the residents, no overflow on the car bonnet.

Wall-anchored or post-supported.

Chemical-anchor wall fixings up to 1.5 m projection. Beyond that, or on a brick infill wall, we add a slim aluminium post at the leading edge. The structural call is made on site, not assumed in the catalogue.

Projection up to 1.8 m.

Enough to cover a person, a stroller, the SUV door swing on a typical society pick-up zone. Larger projections handled with a coupled-rafter structure where the brief calls for a full porte-cochère.

Finished to any RAL.

Powder-coat to RAL or NCS swatch — matched to the existing window system, the parapet colour or the building elevation. Anodised silver, champagne or black on request.

Retrofittable on existing buildings.

Chemical-anchor fixings into the structural wall mean we can install on heritage buildings, low-rise societies and finished bungalows without scarring the plaster. One-day install on a typical entrance.

Salt-air durable.

6063-T6 with a heavy-spec powder-coat or anodise will hold ten-plus years on a sea-facing Worli or Juhu entrance. SS 304 fixings, no MS hardware to streak rust onto a freshly painted lobby wall.

Designer-direct.

Suraj walks the entrance, reads the wall, signs off the fixing strategy before fabrication. No franchise, no call-centre, no rep filtering technical questions. The relationship is the brand.

Chapter 07 · Common questions

The questions a designer
asks before the quote.

Most do — the canopy is bolted, not welded, and demountable for any future facade work. We provide a one-page specification sheet for the secretary stating the fixing strategy and the projection. On a heritage or older building we coordinate with the architect to ensure the elevation is unaltered behind the wall plate.

Not when it is co-extruded UV-stabilised sheet, which is what we specify. The UV layer is on the weather face — it absorbs the UV before it reaches the polycarbonate body. Ten-year warranty on dimensional stability and yellowing is standard from the sheet manufacturer.

Yes — but with a different fixing strategy. Up to 1 m projection, chemical-anchor into a structural beam above the opening. Beyond that, we add a slim post at the leading edge to take the load off the wall. The call is made on site after a structural review.

The sheet is set to a 5° fall — water runs forward to the integrated aluminium gutter at the leading edge, then down through a concealed downpipe routed against the column or against the wall to the existing storm drain. No drip line on the residents below.

Polycarbonate has roughly 200 times the impact resistance of glass and 30 times that of acrylic. A falling fastener will mark the surface but will not shatter or penetrate. The same property is why polycarbonate is used for police riot shields.

3–4 weeks from drawing approval to fabrication. Site install on a typical 3.6 × 1.5 m entrance canopy is one working day, plus half a day for the gutter and downpipe routing.

Pricing depends on span, projection, sheet type and the fixing strategy. Send a photo of the entrance and the rough dimensions and we will quote within two working days. We do not publish a per-square-foot rate — a wall-anchored 2 m canopy and a post-supported 4 m canopy are different conversations.

Send the dimensions

Send a photo of the door.
We’ll quote in two days.

No site-visit fee. No call-centre. No quote written before measurement. Suraj walks the entrance himself, reads the wall, and signs off the fixing strategy before we fabricate.

If the building is in a society, ask for our one-page bye-law clearance note for the secretary — it covers the demountable specification and the fixing strategy in writing.

Phone

+91 98703 08481

surajgudhka@gmail.com

Web

www.aditienterprise.org

Workshop

Santacruz (East), Mumbai

aditi enterprise · Aluminium fabricators for Mumbai's interior designers, architects and HNI residences.