Adapting

We have a lovely deck which is usable about 4 weeks a year. It’s either winter, and too cold, or summer and too hot, (and spring and fall seem to last about 2 weeks each) so we’ve ponied up to have some retractable awnings put up. Hopefully this will also let us shade some of the large windows in the back and stop the house from overheating in the blistering summer afternoons.

Except, oops, we have a low overhang so the awnings will have to be mounted on the roof. The company does that on traditional roofs like asphalt and metal, they even have a gizmo to do it, but it doesn’t work on shake roofs, which have “shingles” of various heights and dimensions. I called people who work on shake roofs, but they can’t be bothered because it’s too small a job, they’re interested in replacing your roof for $80k or whatever.

I found some things meant to hold solar panels on a shake roof and managed to figure out how to adapt them, the big thing was that they’re meant to hold a bank of panels parallel to the roof, and the awnings must be mounted “plumb and level”, which means at an angle to counteract the roof pitch. But machining some monster shims, and using the mounts in staggered fashion with a course below to hold the 2x10 and a course above to hold a strut, it’s done. Took me a few weeks to figure it out, but we just mounted the ledger boards yesterday and it’s great.

Best, the awning guy wants to send pics to HQ because they usually turn down people with shake roofs who want to buy because they don’t have the hardware to do it.

Wouldn’t it be cool if MF allowed pictures so I could show it? Heh.

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A friend who lives in Atlanta got one of those retractable wings for a deck off the north side of their house. Used and crowed about it for a year. Quietly removed it and put up a pergola thingy – basically a row of 2 by somethings perpendicular (basically north to south) about 20 inches apart. The pergola really does a good job of lower the apparent temperature in the 3PM and later period when their most preferred usage time.

A friend who lives in Atlanta got one of those retractable wings for a deck off the north side of their house. Used and crowed about it for a year. Quietly removed it and put up a pergola thingy – basically a row of 2 by somethings perpendicular (basically north to south) about 20 inches apart. The pergola really does a good job of lower the apparent temperature in the 3PM and later period when their most preferred usage time.

We looked into that, but this is a raised deck, so we would have had to completely retrofit the supporting infrastructure to hold the weight. Plus it’s right outside our window onto the lake which means it would partially obstruct the view, so that ended up being a no-go.

For the same “sight lines obstruction” reason Plan B, which was a permanent awning, was nixed. We want the awning there when we want it there, but when we’re inside and enjoying the view we don’t want it there. So “retractable” seemed to be the way to go. We spent extra to get the motorized version, and the sensor that automatically retracts it in high wind.

We had an awning on the RV, and even though fully secured to the ground and held by poles, a good gust came along, raised the whole thing and WHOMP, brought it back down and bent the arms. An expensive lesson.

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Heh, I just removed out 24’ trailer’s 14’ awning after the many years of non-use, when traveling, too much trouble to set it up as we’re out n about mostly, for too windy, so the plasticized material just sun rotted… One of the arms also blocked one window from opening… So as I await a fellow to come by, replace seal on the A/C and sell other stuff up top, I thought it was a good time to clear it off… I tossed all the springs n such, saved the aluminum to take to the smelter someday… If ever we replace it, it will be the newer, motorized jobbers… But for now it was time for it to go…

Congrats on sorting out the mornings…

Pics can be added here, you just have to fiddle around and upload 'em somewhere…
https://imgbb.com/upload works for me…

OK, time for coffee!

weco

My deck is on the west side of the house. Shaded in the morning and evening but hot and sunny afternoon. I live on top of a hill where the wind really howels. Umbrellas are easily damaged even when down.

I think retractable awning may be the only solution. Some people do have the tents. Could be ok if sturdy and well secured.

So far i have not decided. I have a patio under my deck. Shaded in the afternoon and pleasant but hard to get guests to walk downstairs.

We’ve started using an umbrella on our deck, where we thought an awning would be required. Works great. Collapsible when we want full view. Way cheaper is a bonus.

IP

Our West side deck could use some shading, we took out a huge Creek Alder a while back, so less leaves, but in the summer it lets the sun into out kitchen/family room, so we added a cantilevered umbrella that works well, but this time of year it’s too blustery, so we leave it and another big umbrella closed up…

I can see where a series of vertical 2x8’s could be a decent fi, allow hanging plants, lighting, but we don’t want to block all the light either, so we let it be…

Hi wecoguy,

“I can see where a series of vertical 2x8’s”

Additionally, they do not need to be vertical.

A friend in TX had the boards at an angle, maybe 35 to 45 degrees. The boards ran east-west and the tilt was to the north. This made a deeper shade mid-day and less in the morning/afternoon.

Just another way to do it …

Does that help you?

Gene
All holdings and some statistics on my Fool profile page
http://my.fool.com/profile/gdett2/info.aspx

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