Patio shade: Umbrella or shade sail?
May 2, 2022 8:04 PM Subscribe
Have you used a shade sail for your patio? Will you tell me about it? Or other patio shade?
I am getting ready to have a patio put in. For shade, I am debating between an umbrella over the table, or a shade sail to cover most of the patio.
One thing I am concerned about is the wind. In the spring here, the wind often is up to 20 mph sustained, with gusts of 50-75 mph. So, can a shade sail setup handle that? Or, if not, is it easy to set up and take down? We would run it somehow between our roof and a 6-foot-high block wall fence.
Also, I am considering later planting vines to climb up the fence. Would a sailcloth installation likely make too much shade for vines?
I am also interested if you have any other info or advice related to patio shade.
In case it matters: This is in the U.S. Southwest. The patio would run around 14 ft. x 14 ft. It would have the house on one side, and the block wall fence on two other sides. The fourth side would eventually be landscaped. I am hoping for something along the lines of a wildlife garden/permaculture, with a bit of food forest.
I am getting ready to have a patio put in. For shade, I am debating between an umbrella over the table, or a shade sail to cover most of the patio.
One thing I am concerned about is the wind. In the spring here, the wind often is up to 20 mph sustained, with gusts of 50-75 mph. So, can a shade sail setup handle that? Or, if not, is it easy to set up and take down? We would run it somehow between our roof and a 6-foot-high block wall fence.
Also, I am considering later planting vines to climb up the fence. Would a sailcloth installation likely make too much shade for vines?
I am also interested if you have any other info or advice related to patio shade.
In case it matters: This is in the U.S. Southwest. The patio would run around 14 ft. x 14 ft. It would have the house on one side, and the block wall fence on two other sides. The fourth side would eventually be landscaped. I am hoping for something along the lines of a wildlife garden/permaculture, with a bit of food forest.
If at all all all all possible, put on a real roof. Put water collection on it, solar or whatever, but my god a roof is so much less trouble going forward than something wet.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:34 PM on May 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 8:34 PM on May 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
I have buildings on either side of my back deck. I put up shade cloth attached to PVC runners with plastic clips made for the purpose (I can find brand name if that's useful, they were in the nursery section of my local home improvement store). I attach the PVC to the buildings through eyes screwed into the target ends. Easy to untie from one side, roll up, and hang from the other side when not in use. Has survived some pretty heavy winds, though I'd likely back up the clips with zip ties if we were more exposed.
We have umbrellas too, but they're way more susceptible to wind...
posted by straw at 9:14 PM on May 2, 2022
We have umbrellas too, but they're way more susceptible to wind...
posted by straw at 9:14 PM on May 2, 2022
We have both a shade sails and a 10ft cantilevered umbrella. We get the Santa Ana winds every year. The shade sail that I installed came down two years in a row. The shade sails that we had professionally installed after those incidents are still standing. They are attached to either the stucco of the house or 4" steel poles the installers sunk in our garden (set in concrete). We close the umbrella at night. I wouldn't trust it to stay up in serious wind.
YMMV, but our shade sails do not completely block out the sun. You can still feel the suns rays under them. I think this is quite common. The umbrella does fully block the sun. Our shade sails are also configured in a way that restricts air flow a bit, which can make being under them a little stuffy. I suspect raising them higher would have mitigated this. On the other hand, the shade sails cover around 1000 square feet, and the umbrella covers 300 sq ft. You're unlikely to be able to offer shade to a full sofa and chair with an umbrella, for example.
posted by caek at 10:05 PM on May 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
YMMV, but our shade sails do not completely block out the sun. You can still feel the suns rays under them. I think this is quite common. The umbrella does fully block the sun. Our shade sails are also configured in a way that restricts air flow a bit, which can make being under them a little stuffy. I suspect raising them higher would have mitigated this. On the other hand, the shade sails cover around 1000 square feet, and the umbrella covers 300 sq ft. You're unlikely to be able to offer shade to a full sofa and chair with an umbrella, for example.
posted by caek at 10:05 PM on May 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
After weighing similar options, last week we bought this pergola with a adjustable canopy. We get strong Santa Ana winds here as well, so the ability to open the canopy on windy days was a big plus. It will be arriving in a few days and I can't wait!
posted by platinum at 11:54 PM on May 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by platinum at 11:54 PM on May 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
When you want vines, you can consider putting up trellis netting and having vine shade instead of the shade sail. Deciduous or prune-back-hard-every-year vines can be paradisical shade.
(Woody perennials too, but they’re advanced elvish gardening to get right.)
posted by clew at 10:28 AM on May 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
(Woody perennials too, but they’re advanced elvish gardening to get right.)
posted by clew at 10:28 AM on May 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
There is shade cloth, which is like a somewhat loosely woven tarp, commonly used by nurseries to reduce the intensity of direct sunlight on plants. We put it up to cover a trellis we constructed over a south-facing deck. I used the deepest level of shade cloth and folded it over to increase the shade it made, since the tarp was large and the deck was small. Since wind can blow through it, it's also cooler and less likely to be blown away. We used zip-ties, I think, as the tarp had grommets.
The deck was about 6 feet above the ground, and I grew fairly fast-growing vines to trail over it. It took a couple of years, but eventually we took down the shade tarp and had natural vine-supplied shade.
posted by citygirl at 12:51 PM on May 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
The deck was about 6 feet above the ground, and I grew fairly fast-growing vines to trail over it. It took a couple of years, but eventually we took down the shade tarp and had natural vine-supplied shade.
posted by citygirl at 12:51 PM on May 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Having to take down an umbrella every time the wind kicks up gets old fast, and sometimes it gets windy when you can't get to it. A really big gust sent mine flying across a road in the middle of the night. It didn't crash into a car or someone's window, but it could have.
A neighbor had a sail up for at least five years and it survived every storm. Maybe it made noise or something, because the new owners took it down and went for umbrellas, which they are now constantly putting up and taking down.
Seconding a patio cover, if you can.
posted by sageleaf at 1:44 PM on May 3, 2022
A neighbor had a sail up for at least five years and it survived every storm. Maybe it made noise or something, because the new owners took it down and went for umbrellas, which they are now constantly putting up and taking down.
Seconding a patio cover, if you can.
posted by sageleaf at 1:44 PM on May 3, 2022
We have a Sunsetter retractable awning, which is wind resistant. We’ve been very happy with it—much more so than with the patio umbrella we had before, which broke our glass-top patio table due to wind.
Bonus: there’s a wind sensor that automatically retracts the awning if it detects high wind.
posted by vitout at 5:18 PM on May 3, 2022
Bonus: there’s a wind sensor that automatically retracts the awning if it detects high wind.
posted by vitout at 5:18 PM on May 3, 2022
I have a patio table with an 8’ diameter umbrella that fits through a hole in the table and rests in a 22 pound cement filled base, I also have two sail shades, one triangle and one rectangle. The shade produced by the umbrella is darker than the shade cast by the sails, but I worry about the stability of the umbrella. I’ve watched as a strong wind dragged the umbrella, base, and table several feet across the patio and I’ve even seen the umbrella lift several inches with a good gust, but fortunately it has not pulled all the way out of the base. For the first year I would crank down the umbrella after dark just in case we had a windy night, but I’ve gotten lazy and now I just run outside when I hear or see the wind pick up (this is super scary when there’s lightning).
I had the two sail shades installed in March and I’ll have three more installed next week. Per the Coolaroo product package, the sails block 85% of UV light and I can feel the temperature change when I move from direct sunlight into the shade cast by a sail. They haven’t been up long enough to judge whether they’ll hold up, but per the packaging, the fabric has a 3 year warranty. So far my plants are thriving under the sail shades. There’s a lot of sunshine where I live, so I’m hoping the sails will filter the harshest of the summer sun. I plan to get rid of the umbrella once all sail shades are installed because it causes me a lot of stress.
posted by kbar1 at 6:17 PM on May 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
I had the two sail shades installed in March and I’ll have three more installed next week. Per the Coolaroo product package, the sails block 85% of UV light and I can feel the temperature change when I move from direct sunlight into the shade cast by a sail. They haven’t been up long enough to judge whether they’ll hold up, but per the packaging, the fabric has a 3 year warranty. So far my plants are thriving under the sail shades. There’s a lot of sunshine where I live, so I’m hoping the sails will filter the harshest of the summer sun. I plan to get rid of the umbrella once all sail shades are installed because it causes me a lot of stress.
posted by kbar1 at 6:17 PM on May 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for all the tips and info. We are now leaning toward something adjustable.
posted by NotLost at 9:29 PM on May 3, 2022
posted by NotLost at 9:29 PM on May 3, 2022
We have a shade sail off the back of our house. It's about 16'x16' with catenary curves between the corners. Two corners are anchored to two poles in the ground, and the other two corners are anchored to the roof of the house. We will take it down on days we have a high wind advisory, but we've missed these forecasts in the past and have watched in awe while this thing withstood some brutal wind with no problem.
It takes about 2 minutes to take down and about 10 minutes to put up (attach all 4 corners with a ladder and then go back and tighten the turnbuckles that keep it taut).
A++++ love it and would recommend it. It's the only source of shade in our yard.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 9:25 AM on May 5, 2022
It takes about 2 minutes to take down and about 10 minutes to put up (attach all 4 corners with a ladder and then go back and tighten the turnbuckles that keep it taut).
A++++ love it and would recommend it. It's the only source of shade in our yard.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 9:25 AM on May 5, 2022
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