4 Important Points To Remember When Installing Shade Sails

Shade sails are stylish, low in cost, and easily installed. These are one of the best ways to make your outdoor living space look visually more attractive. You can get effective protection from the sun’s harsh rays and add a nice feature to your home that can be used for or protecting your outdoor living areas, patios, decks, pools, children’s play areas, etc. What important things should you remember before installing shade sails outside your home?

Read on and find out to have an overall better understanding of shade sails:

1. Check Building Codes:

Before carrying out shade sails installation, you need to check with local authorities and find out about any relevant building regulations or codes which would be applicable for your investment. You need to check your building plans for services and talk with local utility agencies for any underground services. You need to communicate anything about your property to your installation professional (if you are planning to use one) before holes are dug for the support posts.

2. Determine the Mounting Points:

After you have identified the specific location where you should install your shade sails, it is essential to determine the most appropriate mounting points for your sails corners. Mounting points can exist already, for instance – in the case of a fascia through the roof or a rafter.

• There should be double brick walls with suitable number of reinforced concrete or brick ties.
• The battens should be reinforced with fixture of screw type.
• The plates at the top should be tied down with the help of cyclone straps.
• Triple grips must be used for holding the rafters down.

As a thumb rule, you need to remember that wooden framed walls are not suitable for attaching sails. Unless there are many fixing points, you have to install support posts for shade sails. It is essential to make sure that all the fixing points are well-structured. In case you are not sure, get advice from an engineer or a builder with the necessary skills, knowledge and qualifications.

3. Post Mounting Sail Supports:

Steel posts are appropriate, and you can find them either from your local steel supplier or hardware store. These are strong and can last for a long time if coated properly. It is possible to have these cut to pre-set length and painted in a colour of preference. The post length is determined by the height of the attachment and the size of the sails. The footing depth is determined by the height of the attachment and the loads. It is important to remember that the angle of the posts must be away from the load direction.

4. Consider the sail post footings:

Typically, no shade sails footing must be less than 300 mm round and 1.3 m in depth. Some footings need to be 600 mm around and 2.4 m deep. You need to follow footing instructions and dimensions as properly as possible. Do it yourself post footings often fail to match the necessary quality that can be ensured by a good installer out there. As compared to square footing, round holes need less concrete, and the hole-bottom must be similar-sized to the hole-top.

5. Prepare the concrete beforehand:

As a footing material for shade sails, concrete should be used only. Rapid Set and other materials would not be adequate. Concrete should be prepared according to the package instructions given. It must be combined with pure water, and subsequent combinations should have the same amount of water as the first one.

Final Words

So, these were certain important points you needed to know before installing shade sails. Ensure follow up with the mentioned above points to make the most out of your investment.