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Shade Sails--Have you installed one?

empress
12 years ago

Hi, all. I am new to these homeowner-related forums, though I've been on the cooking and needle craft forums for years. My husband of four years and I have recently moved into our new home. We've been condo dwellers forever, so everything that needs to be done in this 18 year old home is a learning process. Please consider me a total newbie to even some simple tasks or processes you might want to talk about.

The only not-wonderful thing about our home is the straight on west facing back yard. Here in Phoenix, that means any rooms along the back of the house will be several degrees warmer than the rest of the house all afternoon, and measures must be taken not only to make those rooms more comfortable, but to control home cooling costs overall.

The quickest solution, at least in the short term, is to hang the standby matchstick bamboo rolling shades right away while we plan our yard and more permanent shading solutions. But those are hard to find and not as inexpensive as they once were. Other shades and solutions will require custom orders--more time and money.

Sun sails or shade sales appear to be a great compromise for a quick solution at not too high a cost. We can easily attach two corners to the existing patio supports on one side, but for the other side it looks like we either need to install a heavy-duty eye bolt or something into our block wall or set some sort of post into concrete in the ground.

Has anyone else done this? How do we install an eye bolt into a block wall? And will it be strong enough to connect a corner of a sun sail? What about putting in a post? What size would it need to be diameter wise? What is the best material, a hollow metal pipe like I see used for electrical conduit or is there something else? What suggestions or warnings do you have for me?

Sorry for the loooong post, but I thought I'd save someone making suggestions of products we've already considered. Thanks for any and all information.

Valerie

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