Thread: Shade Sail Advice

G'day,
Have been a keen follower of the forum for a while but this is my first post. It’s a great resource so thanks to everyone involved.
I am looking to put up a couple of shade sails for the rear veranda that gets the morning sun. At this point in planning it looks like I will use two sails approx 3m (not quite) x 4m each.
I have attached some photos of the set up I am imagining including proposed attachment points on the facia side. I'm going for the cheapest option and am really interested in your input on the strength of the facia attachment points I am suggesting. We do not experience above normal wind patterns where I am in Brisbane, but like anywhere, now and again she rips through in the big storms.
I plan for one attachment point to be bolted onto 2 lots of 4' x 2' timber behind the facia (marked with blue dot). Due to the separation needed between the two sails where they overlap in the centre of the veranda the second sail attachment point (marked with a red dot) can only be bolted onto 1 section of 4' x 2' timber. Not sure if these attachment points will suffice? Appreciate any feedback.

Thanks a lot,
Kg

...I also plan to bolt 2.5 to 3 metre, 6mm thick, 90mm angle steel onto the veranda timber corner posts. The timber veranda corner and stairway posts are 100mm x 100mm. A friend with a similar setup says advice to concrete in 100ml steel posts is really conservative for flat laying domestic sun shade jobs. As concreting in posts is not really an option for me anyway due to the existing concrete foundations the only other option would be to cut some veranda floor decking out and bolt some RHS onto the existing steel foundations for the veranda in addition to bolting the RHS onto the veranda corner posts as in the prior scenario.

I also wondered what would be the recommended height distance between the two sails at the overlapping point. I’m thinking 40cm.
Does anyone have any suggestions on a quality high % UV-R Block fabric that will last longer than most? So far I have looked into the PolyFab material. Have read on the forum that the perimeter stitching on the pre-made DIY sails sold at Bunnings etc. have 10 year guarantee on fabric only and not on stitching which is the first to go after a couple of years. Don’t mind spending some dollars on a well made sail that will last a while.

Cheers,
KG

Shade sail plan is good but a few issues,

The small vertical batten in the end truss is not really strong enough. The other attachment point using the truss member is probably OK but I'd add some more timber attached to two members in the truss.

The posts holding the railing are nowhere near sufficient to hold a shade sail at 2600mm above the deck. You definitely need steel posts, 600mm into the ground, possibly bolted to the deck also depending on its strength.

My partner's dad had a storm bend a 125mm RHS beam on a 4x4 sail. He also had a storm pull down the brick veneer from his house twice in three months, repaired the second time with an extra steel post, with no load on the house.

Cheers
Pulse

Thanks Pulse,

Have had some windy weather here the last few days. After reading your reply I'm wondering weather shade sails are the best way to go for my setup. I don't wont to have to worry about my attachment points holding every time a storm comes through. I've had a look at retractable/folding blinds that you can bring in during high winds. Does anyone have experience with these or have any other methods of getting a lowish cost shade solution for the back deck? Thanks.