help me kick around shade cover ideas for my new deck please?

[NMDemDist2]

I can get the right size shade cloth for the 12x16 deck for <$200

we have enough scrap 4x4s to build the frame off the old porch we took down. we'll just need the metal doohickies that will connect it to the deck

the question is how to attach? the cloth comes with grommets every two feet. is it better to cable it up with eyebolts and turnbuckles or use hooks or what?

suggestions? experiences? TIA everyone!

[TygrBright]

1. What the pros did with ours was...

...to mount a metal bar on little brackets on the TOP of the two parallel beams that form the ends of the shade cloth. So the little powder-coated metal bar (maybe 1" in diameter) sits about one inch from the top surface of the beam. They installed bars on the middle beams, sitting on higher brackets, lifting about TWO inches from the top of the beam.

Then they lashed the shade cloth, using marine-grade cording, through the grommets and around one of the end bars. Stretched it tightly over the middle one, putting an almost indiscernable "peak" in there, and then lashed it tight on the other end. They explained that without the middle bars slightly higher like that and the cloth stretched tightly over it, the 25-mile-an-hour winds we get here would make even the most tightly lashed cloth flap a little, with a resulting loud cracking sound that I'd find unnerving. I believed them, I remember a bit from my sailing days about what a sail sounded like, suddenly filling with wind.

You can sort of see it here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=246&topic_id=4296&mesg_id=4314

I'll try to get out and get some more useful pics for you later this afternoon.

helpfully,
Bright

[NMDemDist2]

2. thanks! and pics would be great. that makes so much sense and I

hadn't thought about that at all

thanks again Bright! :hug:

[politicat]

3. Where are you getting the cloth?

I'm about to go get painter's tarps, paint them with waterproofing, and start futzing aorund until I get something right. We had umbrellas on both porches, but high winds killed them both this summer... Even when we had them down, a couple of heavy gusts took them - and their 50 pound bases - over the porch rails and off the porch.

[NMDemDist2]

4. this stuff looks good. it'll be stronger than tarps and we aren't looking

for water cover, we need shade

http://secure.cartsvr.net/catalogs/catalog.asp?prodid=4766911&showprevnext=1

[TygrBright]

5. OK, here's the pics...

That shows the middle riser and the awning cloth stretched over it.



That's a closer view of the lashing on the end beam. The metal rod and the lashing twine are both white so they don't photograph very effectively, alas.

Hope that makes sense?

helpfully,
Bright

[NMDemDist2]

6. they attached the pipes to the existing beams?

how? can you get a pic of that for me? or 'splain it to me Lucy :evilgrin:

thanks Bright!

[TygrBright]

7. Yes, they put them right on top of the beams...

...and used some kind of brackets. They fastened the brackets to the beams and the pipes to the brackets, if that makes any sense. They're all painted white so it doesn't really photograph well. But the pipes, or rods, or whatever they are, are fastened to the brackets (not sure how, I think they used some kind of tightening screw/ring arrangement.) The brackets are just screwed into the beams, but they're REALLY screwed in... like, two or three screws for each bracket, running 2' deep into those beams, so the rods/pipes aren't going anywhere even in a helluva wind.

They did allow as how they (or I) could unlash the awning cloth and roll it up for the winter and re-deploy it next spring on the pipes, which stay up there permanently. But it's not really necessary, according to the installation guy, who said the stuff weathers fine over the winter, "it's the summer UV that'll eventually wear it out." But he expects I'll get 5-6 years out of it, even so.

I think the bracket/pipe assembly might be machined for the purpose, since it all came pre-painted. But a clever DIY-er could probably figure out how to cobble together something that would do the same job.

informatively,
Bright

[NMDemDist2]

8. did you already have a full ramada roof over the balcony?

we have nothing up so we're literally engineering from the deck up

[TygrBright]

11. No, we had nothing there at all...

...when we moved in. We had the framework built to match a similar construction outside the front door, then when it became obvious that the beams alone weren't going to provide much relief from the sun, called the awning pros and said "what have ya got?" And this is what they came up with.

We paid way too much but we're in Santa Fe where everything is wildly overpriced. Comparatively, it was reasonable since we couldn't do it ourselves, both having the anti-handy genes in full measure.

explicationally,
Bright

[NMDemDist2]

12. ok. we're thinking of using galvanized pipe for the frame anyway

or at least the top. we'll have to see what's left from the old porch lumber. we may have enough (or close enough) 4x4 to do the uprights and then pipe the top

thanks for the info and the pics were very helpful :pals:

[Longhorn]

9. Here's what we use for shade:

They're called Coolaroos and they're from Australia. I got ours from Hammacher Schlemmer.

http://www.hammacher.com/publish/75740.asp?promo=ou_patio

They're only about $90 each and they cut out up to 90% of the sun's rays. We take them down in the winter. I like seeing them waft up and down in the breeze when it's 100 degrees outside. It makes it seem cooler. :D

[NMDemDist2]

10. we regularly get 40+ MPH winds around here

those "sails" are the coolest though!

[Warpy]

13. Think hailstorms

If you tie it in place securely, you're may have to replace it after the first big hailstorm.

Other than that, sounds like a plan, using the grommets to lash it to the frame. Hooking it may cause it to pop out and sail away in the spring winds here. Just make sure you've got a long pole for when rain and snow collect in the middle to push it up so the water runs out.

[NMDemDist2]

14. we're torn between a super light design that is planned to "give"

or over engineering the heck out of it with the thought of enclosing it later on

:shrug:

[Warpy]

15. You're on the humid side of the mountains

and you may find you have bugs during the summer. Enclosing it may be in your future.

[NMDemDist2]

16. only lots of flies this year. I expected mesquitos but didn't get any

in spite of the record breaking rain this year

and the flies are due to the horse that lived here until the day before we arrived and the neighbor's goat and two pigs IMO

but screens may be in the future with all the livestock around here

[Warpy]

17. Lots of flies here, too

and the closest horse is about 10 miles away.

Mosquitos generally are a problem only close to rivers.

[NMDemDist2]

18. we have a rive less than 5 miles away

i'm close to the Pecos here