Let There Be SHADE!

Just when we thought we were finished with all our projects prior to our summer hiatus......  You know those fun projects like the gas service line replacement, the upstairs HVAC unit replacement, the bathroom makeover (that I still need to show you) KA-CHING!  Just when SuperDave thought we were just going to chill for the summer...I said, "I'd like to figure up how much it would cost to put up the shade fabric over the patio."  If I had a number, then I could figure out when we could do the project.  We had been planning to install the shade fabric on the patio before summer 2013, but life had gotten a little busy.

So we started calculating....and we now have shade over the patio!  The initial project budget was only about $150 for 165 square feet of shade.  Pretty good.  The cost doubled after SuperDave tried to drill the first hole in the brick with his very old hammer drill.  We are now the proud owners of a new and improved, very noisy, hammer drill.  I suppose I need to think of more projects requiring the drilling of holes in brick, since we have exactly the tool for it.

The problem with our patio is that it is surrounded on 3 sides by the walls of the house and only a small amount of this area of the patio is under roof. WHY?? This is Texas!  If there's one thing we need in the summer, it's SHADE!  We get sun on the patio in the summer for most of the day, of course, in winter it's shady.  We have a large umbrella which we were moving several times a day in our attempt to stay in the shade.  We could shade 3 people max with the umbrella, if we moved it all day as the sun moved.

Here is the patio BEFORE without shade - disregard the mess this is after we started the project and shoved the furniture to the middle.

And here's AFTER with the shade fabric overhead!

We used this product, along with some anchors, turnbuckles and coated clothesline wire.  This is the 90% UV blocking fabric.  Why would you install anything less?

The long edges were hemmed, we cut this 30' piece in half
for two 15' pieces, each 6' wide.

Here's a look at work in progress.

  

Anchors and wires first

I hemmed the ends of the fabric with outdoor thread -
not fun stuff to work with!

We snapped butterfly clips to the fabric and slide them over the wire

Then attached the other end of the wire to the anchor

We did the same to all four long edges of the two pieces of fabric

And the second wire is attached!



We installed 4 wires and two pieces of fabric

 

This project went pretty quickly compared to most projects.  We sat in the shade for a few days and just enjoyed it.  Now we had shade, but as SuperDave expected, the wire pulled together in the middle causing the fabric to hang down.  It was okay - but we were thinking on what we could use for spreader poles to tension the wires in the center. 

I decided bamboo poles would be just right - but finding bamboo poles over 6' long locally didn't happen.  So after trips to two stores I had FIVE 6' bamboo poles sorta straight and sorta the same color and diameter.  Then SD had to join them together and cover the joints with some nice jute twine I had in my stash 'o stuff.  He put slots in the ends of the poles, inserted a butterfly clip, drilled a hole though it all and inserted a bolt.  A lot of this was done standing on a ladder with his arms over his head. I think he deserves to relax the rest of the summer, don't you?  And he can relax right here in the shade on our patio.

Love and Laughter,

Laura


  

    http://tamicurbalert.blogspot.com

http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com
http://www.the36thavenue.com

http://betweennapsontheporch.net
http://southernhospitalityblog.com

http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net