Shade Sails - Personal Experiences

Sorry - no personal experience - but the " Instr " link on this page, has a pretty good 4-page pdf for installation instructions.

If comparing price & quality of different brands - don't forget to look at the hardware included - good stainless steel - rather than cheapo ... John T.

Thanks, but these are the types of sails which should be avoided. I will be using sails that have cables sewn into the sails that transfer all the stress to the mounting hardware. The ones on that page are rated to withstand 25 mph winds, which is just not adequate in almost any outdoor environment I can think of.

I do appreciate your reply.

We use 2 shade sails in our back yard. We overlapped them at different angles and used wire and ropes to tie them off. Part of them are tied to a 4 x 4 fence post, and another is tied to a hook on our house. Haven't had any problems with them, but, will probably need to replace them in another year or two due to the fabric breaking down from sun and weather exposure. They've been up for about 4 or 5 years at this point.

On Thu 22 Jun 2017 08:28:27a, told us...

Ours is personal experience, but our sail was custom made due to the unusual shape we needed. On three sides there were heavy steel rods mounted to two existing walls and one beam. The sale was grommeted at one foot intervals and lced to the steel rods. On the fourth side a have steel cable was contained within the sale and eached was anchored into heavy eye bolts into two of the walls. The cable tensions was adjustable at both ends. We've had this sail for five years and it's as good as new. The company who made it does employ steel posts if required; e.g., where no other mounting location would work.

That sounds very interesting. Any possibility of you posting a few pictures of it? I am curious about the steel support struts.

On Fri 23 Jun 2017 06:49:09a, Stormin' Norman told us...

When it's cool tomorrow morning I'll take a couple of pictures. It's too hot right now. I'll ping you.

Thanks! I look forward to seeing them!

On Fri 23 Jun 2017 02:23:26p, Stormin' Norman told us...

I hope these pics make sense. If not, post any questions you may have. BTW, all the hardware, including the cable, is stainless steel.

Thanks very much for taking the time and making the effort to take and post the images.

It looks like they installed the steel struts / cleats on the two opposing long walls and they used a propylene rope to thread through the eyelets. It also looks like they used the wire rope to create the tension on the fabric.

It is a professional looking job, and the hardware looks like it is first rate.

What are the approximate dimensions of the shade sail? The next question is kind of subjective, but how would you describe the level of tension on the fabric? Taught as a drum? Trampoline-like, etc?

Also, did you watch them do the install? How did they so accurately locate the studs behind the stucco? Were they using a high end stud finder? It looks like each of the cleat brackets is about 16" apart? I assume they must have used lag screws to attach the brackets to the walls?

Lastly, the wall anchors they attached the wire rope to, what are those? Lag eyes or are they eye bolts that go all the way through the wall?