At our church community garden we need to support a fabric sun shade (18' x 18') made by Cooleroo. One side should be approx 14 feet high and the other 9 feet. According to Cooleroo we need a 4" dia schedule 40 pipe (or a 5 x 5 wooden post) set in concrete 1/3 of its length for adequate support. That would be pipes 21' and 14' set 7' and 5' deep, respectively. Sounds like overkill to me and the cost of materials and erecting this is way out of budget. Do you guys agree with these requirements and do you have any suggestions? The shade cloth would be for seasonal use in central NC.
Shading a picnic area
- Thread starter MillWeld
- Start date
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Damifino
Gold Member
Sounds to me the lawyers wrote the instructions, for a 18 x 18 that sounds like their covering there butts for uplift, not support.
If it were for personal use I would use pt 4x4's, the only issue I would see is it is used for church activities and there is where the liability issues come into the equation.
The key to me would make it so the fabric holds would give before lifting any poles out of the ground and become missiles, at least that's my :2cents:
If it were for personal use I would use pt 4x4's, the only issue I would see is it is used for church activities and there is where the liability issues come into the equation.
The key to me would make it so the fabric holds would give before lifting any poles out of the ground and become missiles, at least that's my :2cents:
tommu56
Elite Member
my wife sells stuff at craft shows and we have a couple of the silver canopys
use a frame from one of those ares are 10+ years old and we just replaced one tarp.
use the high peak 1 3/8 ones and use chain link fence rail (get locally) for the pipes.
dont use the flat or low peak ones water builds up on them
Canopy Parts and Fittings 1 3/8" Inch
use a frame from one of those ares are 10+ years old and we just replaced one tarp.
use the high peak 1 3/8 ones and use chain link fence rail (get locally) for the pipes.
dont use the flat or low peak ones water builds up on them
Canopy Parts and Fittings 1 3/8" Inch
Western
Super Member
This isn't exactly what your talking about, but. We put up about 30 metal "shades" for Ostriches back in the 90's. They where 24'x14'. We cemented 4 corner post (2 3/8" dia) 3' in to the ground, then 2 3/8" welded on the ends to each corner post, (then perlin on 4' center for the metal roof).
I don't see why you couldn't do something similar, but instead of perlin, weld pipe around the top, or use 6"-8" perlin around the top, corner post to corner post.
Ours have never thought of blowing away.
I don't see why you couldn't do something similar, but instead of perlin, weld pipe around the top, or use 6"-8" perlin around the top, corner post to corner post.
Ours have never thought of blowing away.
Good ideas and I agree about the lawyer: it was specified to withstand a hurricane in the Carribbean.
Let me give more specifics on our project. We actually mounted the shade cloths on 6 x 6 x 10s (set in concrete 2' deep) to which were added a 7' stainless pipe extension (1.31" OD and 1.06" ID) to the top to give a total height of about 15 feet. A windy storm came by and bent one of the pipes all of which we have now taken down. See pics below of two of the SS extensions including the bent one. I don't have a pic of the post and pipe assembly but the posts have a sorta 4-prong yoke that fits on top of the posts and is lagged to the posts. These lags screw attachments held up very well in the storm - it was the ss pipe that bent so it was obviously undersized. It would be nice to utilize our existing 6 x 6 posts but with more hefty extensions. They would have to be installed by people on ladders and without the help of cranes for budgetary reasons. We used stainless because it is easy to weld and to avoid rust streaks from steel. More comments?
Bob
Let me give more specifics on our project. We actually mounted the shade cloths on 6 x 6 x 10s (set in concrete 2' deep) to which were added a 7' stainless pipe extension (1.31" OD and 1.06" ID) to the top to give a total height of about 15 feet. A windy storm came by and bent one of the pipes all of which we have now taken down. See pics below of two of the SS extensions including the bent one. I don't have a pic of the post and pipe assembly but the posts have a sorta 4-prong yoke that fits on top of the posts and is lagged to the posts. These lags screw attachments held up very well in the storm - it was the ss pipe that bent so it was obviously undersized. It would be nice to utilize our existing 6 x 6 posts but with more hefty extensions. They would have to be installed by people on ladders and without the help of cranes for budgetary reasons. We used stainless because it is easy to weld and to avoid rust streaks from steel. More comments?
Bob
