Thread: Shade Sail Poles

Oh well, if you really MUST do the hard yakka yourself.......

Try rust converter first. I did have the workings explained to me, but it turns the red stuff into a more or less inert black stuff and seems to work well enough.

Get a wire brush for your 4" angle grinder and get rid of all the loose bits first. (Wire brush works best if you don't have a shirt or shoes on, but you must have your eyes closed at all times -only joking kiddies ) Don't worry about the inside though!

My boat trailer similarly treated then top-coated with good old industrial strength hammertone has lasted in the weather for four years with no sign of deterioration.

Cheers

P

stinky check out wattyl super etch as an undercoat.

Years ago telecom used to coal tar epoxy any thing that went below ground.
cheers

Budget? what's a budget? Anyone that's had any dealings with architects knows that they are sensitive "artistes" whose grand creative vision must be untramelled by plebian, narrow minded concerns over mere money. (And of course all tradesmen are illiterate, beer swilling yobbos without an aesthetic bone in their bodies, who wouldn't recognise a thing of beauty if it jumped up and bit them on the bum). Sorry Stinky, couldn't resist, don't let me get started about architects and money.

Mick

Mick,

Are your own true colours showing?:

all tradesmen are illiterate, beer swilling yobbos without an aesthetic bone in their bodies, who wouldn't recognise a thing of beauty if it jumped up and bit them on the bum.

There was a time when "proper" tradesman couldn't even spell aesthetic. Have you been reading arty farty magazines under the sheets at night?

At this point, I must confess to sharing your sentiments AND in a former time, Stinky's profession, which in part goes to explain my propensity for priming everything, and why I do other things to actually make a living.

On an architect's salary, it's a wonder Stinky can afford to pay attention!

Don't let the big bad tradie's get to you Stinky, bite off more than you can chew and chew like heck!!!

Cheers,

P

for removing rust & paint there is a new grinder wheel out that looks like a corse toffie covered scotch brite.

I tried one they are great whips the paint & rust off leaving shiny metal.

you will want to grind any nasty flaky stuff & those welds first.

beats a wire brush by a mile if you actualy want clean metal.

not real cheap & you will need a few for that job but worth every penny

cheers

dont worry 1 in 10 architects is a real person.

BitingMidge,
At this point I must confess that in a previous life (at least it seems that long ago) I went to art college and then worked in graphic arts before realising Ididn't want to work in an office and that I was more practical/mechanical than artistic. Hence not only can I spell "aesthetic", unlike most architects I can tell the difference between it and "cost plus".

Mick

BTW, Stinky, I'm dissapointed that the title of this thread isn't shade sail polls .

Mick

Hi there... not sure if anyone is still reading this thread, but I have a question.

I plan on installing two 5x5m sails purchased from bunnings at my home.

I will be fixing most of the fxing points to the house facia, using pergola mounting brackets which bolt directly to the roof struts.

I am hoping I can get away with using two posts, rather then three. The post in the middle I have planned to hopefully hold two fixings from a corner or each sail, rather than a seperate post for each corner. Does anyone see a problem with this?

I am interested in hearing your thoughts....

Hmmm,

When I had my patio installed, the company flatly refused to install a shade sail attached to the facia. The engineer recommended that the be installed only to poles, or if need be, to an un-eaved wall with some large 4-bolt plates. Apparently the bunnings versions have a history of ripping facias and patio gutters off after home handyman jobs. Even claimed that a huge shadesails had been known to rip holes in improperly mortared walls. Hmm.

The easterly wind gusts where I am are frightening, I'd leave shadesails to someone who knows what they're doing if you're in a windy area.

The only problem that I have where I want to put them is that I do not need posts as the sail will be going right upto the house. Walls are not high enough to fix to mortar/bricks etc, so was going to get the brackets.

The brackets that I am talking about are the ones that go through a hole cut into the aluminium facia and then bolt directly onto the roof beams inside under the roofing. Not directly to the facia panel itself.

Hi All,
Two vague observations I'd make are:
1. I have Bunnings sails (I think they are Coolroo brand) and they stretch a long way so allow an extra 500mm at least on your original spacing. I didn't and it was going to be difficult to move the house to make the distance bigger to retension the sales, so I built an extension instead.
2. I secured my sales to the facia of the house with a huge steel brace inside the roof that secured the eye bolts back to the wall and trusses. While it never moved and was as strong as anything, the costant flapping of the sail vibrates through the house (Steel frame) and was very annoying.

So doing it again, which I intend to with our extensions complete, I am going to use poles to suspend the sail over the deck so that they do not contact the house at all and I will get some custom sails made so they don't stretch and sag which looks terrible. Incidently, with some of the stronger winds we have experienced I have seen the one pole (100mm with 4mm wall) I had in place flex as much as 50mm, thank goodness it was in the ground 1200 and angled back!!

My 2c worth....
Anthony

Hey thats cool, thanks for your 2c worth...... The feeling that I am getting is that there is alot of planning that I need to consider, as you said with the stretch factor of the sails.... the flapping in the wind (allthough we plan to pull down during winter to let the light inside when needed.) etc etc. The problem that we have also is the limited budget......
We had a price on a proper sail installed by a custom sail company, but it was like $5000 for what we wanted.... with the proper facial beam to spread the load accross all the trusses not just a single one etc etc......

Do not know what to do now...

Hi MystikWeb,
Sorry to put a dampner on things. I just remember being really dissapointed with the result. While the sails were up they were really functional and made our deck area a great place to be. It's just the they sagged a bit and the noise they made was a bit annoying. We also took them down for winter so the bulk of storms had no effect.

If you have the sails, allow heaps of 'stretch' space and put them up. At worse you'll loose the roof , at best (more likely!) you'll have a great place to sit and have a beer!

In the roof, get some cheap steel and you can tech screw it across a number of trusses to help the load and also get nice big eye bolts. Another possibility is to put a big rubber ring in between the sail and eye bolt to help soak up the jarring but I'd make sure the sail is well secured around that as well. Please note that I am not an engineer though and while I was happy with my over engineered braces it will be different for your roof!

Just some more thoughts! Like I said, at best you'll have a great place for a beer!

Anthony

Thanks for the comments.

The braces that I am looking at using, require me to cut a hole in the alum facia's. The brackets are like a t-peice with a 45 degree kink in them. which slots in through the cut hole, and allows you to bolt the main stem of the brace directly to the roof truss.

I was also going to get some cheep steel to place on the other side of the bolts, to also dampen the load when bolting to the truss, kinda like a sandwich of metal with the wood truss in the middle. its kinda hard to explain without pictures if you know what I mean.....

So what your also saying is that if we get 5mx5m sails, that would stretch to 5.5x5.5? plus making allowances for foxing points, could really bump em up to 6x6??