Sunscreen Sail Shade Project For Deck In Central Texas Sunshine

We use a porous sail shade primarily to reduce UV light and heat hitting deck during summer months, the shade is put up in May and taken down in September for storage. The Texas sun can be pretty stressful on potted plants on our deck, so the shade is critical. It also reduces the brightness and heat load, as the wall under into our living room is composed of four, 4 ft by 7 ft, sliding glass doors. Great view, but it gets a bit bright in the afternoon as it faces to the west.

We can experience wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph from infrequent thunderboomers in the summer (note one picture shows the weatherstation) but usually winds are in the 20s, except when there is dead calm. Texas weather, go figure.

The shade pictured has sides of about 22 feet, and is about 10 years old. There is some fraying at the D rings, one failed during a rather HUGE storm, and we just doubled over the fabric and sewed in a large caribiner which works in place of the D ring, quite well. So I am planning to replace it this summer with a new, larger, more customized fitting shade of the same type of material and color.

I employ heavy springs at two of the three anchors to lessen the popping-type stresses of wind gusts. The anchors are set through concrete stucco, into glue-lams of 6" by 24" framing on two points, and 6" by 12" glue-lam for the other.

I do have to trim a live oak each year just a bit, to insure the tree limbs do not ever touch the sail cloth.In the first picture below, you can see that a custom shade cloth would be able to go MUCH further along the parapet, to an anchor right at the corner of the overhanging roof. From the anchor in the foregrount to that far, right corner is 33 feet. From the foreground to the LEFT anchor is only 18 feet, and the distance between the LEFT anchor all the way to the right end of the roof is also 33 feet.

The dimensions I need for a replacement shade are much greater than this current shade cloth provides so I am looking for a custom shade maker that will not take my arm or leg.

The literal dimensions of the three legs of the triangle for a NEW shade are 33' x 33' x 18'. The actual cloth dimensions would need to be at least two feet smaller to allow for the springs to not contact the concrete stucco exterior of the house, and to allow for proper tensioning.

The color needs to be the same light sandstone, which we feel does not alter the light's color bandwidth that comes through to the plants and the deck space. I've tried a blue sail shade and it was far too influential on the light reaching inside the house and on the deck.