Proposed Sail over Driveway.

[ambenz]

I would like to put a lightweight, but strong, sun and tree sap blocker over my driveway for use this summer in protecting our cars when parked in front of the garage doors.
My proposed idea would also cover another area over the patio.
My tree is a great sun blocker but the acorns really make a mess and if I could channel the fabric to catch falling acorns and direct them to the base of the tree, I could collect them for easier removal and donate them to the nature center!
Any pictures of your sun sails, ideas different from my proposal, material I could use, and tips would be great since I am in the design phase of this project....I plan on keeping this budget build under $1,000.USD.

Below is a picture of my property, ya, I am landlocked and at max drainage permability....LOL!

Below is the proposed sail cloth location.
The area is about 25 feet X 30 feet wide.
I would have to add a pole, or two, close to the fence and string stainless steel cable from the garage to the poles and from the house to the tree.

As it could look from ground level...

I am a little concerned with bad weather so a design to slide the sails closed is important as is the material...ripstop nylon?
I plan on making the sail myself, buying the material, stitching the seams, and installing the grommets.

I'll be updating this thread as the design and work starts.
So let the questions fly and your ideas start rolling....and thanks in advance for your replies!!!!

 

[qdvuu]

I've seen some used very effectively, both triangular and 4-sided (but not necessarily square or rectangular). The 4-sided ones were set up as a saddle (i.e. 2 diagonal corners were raised up, and the other 2 diag corners were pulled down) rather than an attempt at flatness which just means a sag in the center. Have some sort of means of easily tightening them since they look nicer if they're taut.

I don't recall how the edging was treated, but it didn't have exposed lines such as you're suggesting.

 

[Jack Olsen]

The big thing to deal with, I think, is wind load. At least, that was my concern when I put a shade fabric awning over my patio. Stainless cable is strong, but if the whole thing is buffeting constantly, you're going to test the durability of your grommets (and their adhesion to the sail cloth) in a pretty serious way.

At least in my case, there was no way to know how the wind would interact with the fabric.

For reasons an engineer might be able to explain, but I can't, by shade fabric thing gets virtually no buffeting at all. Even when the adjacent car parking spot cover I made is flapping noisily, it sits, very still. The biggest factor in my case is probably the adjacent rooflines and how they direct the wind, but that's a guess on my part. Another factor is that the shade fabric is porous, while the Sunbrella fabric over the car is not. But I think the main thing is the roof.

Car cover:

Snow load is an issue if you plan on leaving it up year round. (Not out here.)

I've seen a lot of the triangle-tyep arrangements over playgrounds out here. So it's a proven idea.

 

[Dntouch]

First post but hopefully a bit helpfull.. I am in the same scenario and have been thinking about this idea for a while. Look into windscreen used for tennis courts. I put up fence ( court systems ) and its amazing how long some of the better products are lasting in our crappy northern climate. The nice thing is that water will still pass through ( essentially washing it from time to time ) and because its somewhat porous the wind really shouldnt be a factor depeding on design.

You can order these things in any custom size with either grommets or slices in the fabric to pass a cable or rope through.

This is probably the route i am going to go maybe sometime this year. Like you i have a funky tree problem. I dont want to drop the tree's because i love the shade in the summer but then again its killing the finish of the concrete and the cars.



Good luck


BTW if you are worried about the wind maybe start by using tie wraps to attach whatever fabric you go with. Its what we use to install windscreen actually. Its better to have the windscreen let go then have to replace it when its torn, or worse yet replace the system or structure its attached to..

 

[ishiboo]

Check out Sailrite, I purchased a sewing machine and lots of material/tools/accessories for my boats over the last 2 years.

eBay for material. If you want something that also blocks the light, I'd look for some discount Sunbrella. The seller "trimjobber" has a lot of deals from time to time.

If you want something light, you could go ripstop nylon but I think 36" is the common width so you'll be making a lot of seams. Sailcloth would be a bit expensive unless you got a deal on it.

I'd stay away from shade fabric with sap, it will be a pain to clean and when it rains it will probably rain diluted sap

 

[ambenz]

My wife and I were at a home improvement center and found sun sails for the patio.
There smaller than I wanted but putting a few together got the same results.
I really wanted these sails to shield patio users from acorns, tree sap, and bird droppings.
Today we installed a few over the patio...

Guess we will see how well they will hold up, we bought 6 so I have a few for spares or to install elsewhere.