Adding sun shade/sail

[cangarooooo]

  

Hi everyone,

We would like to have a sun shade to act as a car port in front of our garage.

We would like to use a rectangular dual sun rail. 

however we’ve never installed poles. The Bunnings website doesn’t have instructions for poles. Can we buy poles there and can you provide advice and instruction on how to install poles? And how many poles do we need to have based on our photo’s? Can we get away with two poles?

Front the fence to the home side wall is 3.30 m and from the garage door to the end of the deck is 4.4 meters and we’d like the sun rails to extend at least that far.

Your advice and suggestions would be appreciated. 

kind regards,

Ken

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community Ken (@cangarooooo). It's fabulous to have you join us and many thanks for your questions.

You should find this step-by-step tutorial helpful: How to install your Coolaroo shade sail. You'll note in the Bunnings tutorial How to install a shade sail, we chose to have a qualified builder oversee the installation of the posts ensuring they were structurally sound. A professional can also advise what posts would be suitable for your application.

You might like to read through this previous discussion: How to erect a shade sail by @allanna. The ever-helpful @Adam_W discusses some posts installation requirements and his experience with them.

Prior to getting started, check with local authorities for any relevant building regulations which may exist.

I'm not familiar with the "dual sun rails" that you are mentioning. If this was a Bunnings product I might be able to provide you with additional information on the installation requirements.

Please let me know if you need further assistance or had any questions.

Mitchell

[Adam_W]

Hi @cangarooooo As Mitch mentions you will need solid advice on those posts as a shade sail is just that - a sail - and it catches wind.
Post holes have top be pretty substantial, I'd be thinking at least 500mm wide by 600mm deep. At least.
Also... if you are planning on attaching to the walls of the garage or the home you will likley need council approval and also some sort of engineering scope for that too as a shade-sail in strong wind can tear down the top courses of a brick wall of rip off fascia/barge boards if not properly installed.
Sorry to be a bring-down but it is one of those projects where the impact is often not properly thought about.

[cangarooooo]

Adam, thanks for providing additional detail. I guess I’ll ask council first and if it’s too hard we’ll put an ad out for someone to help! Appreciate your time to reply and guide us.

I assume that posts are something we can buy at Bunnings?

[cangarooooo]

Mitchell, thanks for getting back to me. Yes the dual sun shade is a Bunnings stocked item though I’ll likely follow your and Adam’s advice on following up with council first to see if there are any regulations. Hopefully dealing with council isn’t a headache!