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Our ready made sails should be taken down in “high winds”. We do not define “high winds” as it depends greatly on installation and the age of the sail. When they are, new our “Ready Made” sails pull test to about 2000lbs. As they age the burst strength decreases until they finally come a part at the corner. Our Custom Sails are commercial quality and are designed for 85mph winds. They can be engineered for even higher winds.
Generally It is a two person job, but Ready Made Sails are designed for the Do-It-Yourselfer. ShadeSails.com LLC provides detailed instructions with every order.
Yes, but be sure what you are fixing to is strong enough to take the wind loads the sails will generate. Fix to the frame or structure of the house. Don’t attach to siding, fascia etc. We don’t like fixing to roofs because of the leak potential.
You can float 1 corner of the sail as far as you like, but do not float more than that.. If you do, the sail will move too much and shock loads will wear them our. Also, the warranty is voided.
Shade Sails are made with a knitted cloth that is about 10% porous. When canted most of the rain will shed to the perimeter with a mist getting through. If the sails are flat the water will puddle and eventually drain through the knit. The porous knit allows for hot air to rise and escape through the Shade Sail. We do offer a 12′ triangle in a light duty fabric that is waterproof and very reasonable.
No. The amount of protection from the UVA and UVB rays and the shade factor does vary with color, yet only slightly. Most Shade Sail colors (including our most popular colors) block between 90% – 96% of the UV rays.
We do offer a hardware kit but nearly no 2 installations are the same. You will should study our
Hardware page to figure out what will work the best for you. With the custom sails, we will work with the customer to determine what kind of hardware will be needed.
Custom sails give you complete design freedom and are much easier to work with. Study your space and figure out where the supports make the most sense and the sail is made to fit. Ready Made sails are much less expensive… As much as 1/5 the price. They are a real value and if you have a space that fits them they are a great option.
To make a custom sail we have to make a one-off pattern. They are laid out and fabricated by hand and then shipped to us from our facility in New Zealand by air freight. The Ready Made sails are cut out by the hundreds using a investment jig that is used over and over. They are then shipped by container to us here in the USA. Our Custom Sails are also commercial quality with more reinforcements with heavier fabrics and hardware. We can make them a little cheaper by making them like our “Ready Made” sails but not significantly cheaper. We feel that since you are already paying for the hand work and shipping, you might as well have the best sail we can make.
Finally, with Custom Shade Sails we do include some free limited design help as long as you send us a scale plot plan and some photos. With “Ready Made” sail we consider them a do it yourself job and an economical alternative. For design help with “Ready mades” we provide the “Helpful Hints”.
All our hardware is load rated Marine Grade Stainless steel… The sizes and strengths have been selected to go with our “
Ready Made” product line. We also have some
unique hardware that we have made just for us. When doing custom sail we compensate for the hardware. So, we need to know the pieces sizes exactly. Also with customs sails you might need larger hardware if the sail is larger and produces more loading.
In general, we warrant against problems due to workmanship and materials for 2 years. Almost without exception the problems we encounter have to do with the design and installation and not the sail. The fabrics we use all have 10 year warranties against UV degradation but the weak link in any sewn membrane is usually the stitching. That’s why we use UV stabilized threads.. HDPE in our Skyclipse 280 line, Dacron in the Skyclipse 320 and Solar Fix in our Skyclipse 370 and Custom sails. Even so, the sewing will generally degrade faster than the fabric therefore making any fabric warranty more or less misleading. Generally, we see 5-10 years of useful life from a shade sail. They average about 5-8 years depending on the size of the sail and the conditions they are exposed to. Many of our competitors have 10 year warranty in large print but when you read the warranty it is just for UV degradation of the fabric. In all the years we have been around we have never seen the fabric fail before the stitching or the ring.
No, Shade Sails should be cleaned annually with a garden hose. they can also be cleaned with a mild detergent but you should be careful of the sewing. Never use Bleach. Turnbuckles should be checked for proper tension and tightened when necessary.
In the Skyclipse 320 and Skyclipse 370 lines, our own private run of extra wide fabric means No Seams! Our Sails use Commercial Quality HDPE Fabric with added UV blockers.
Stronger Stainless Steel Corner Rings. In our Skyclipse 320 and Skyclipse 370 lines we use a Double Row of Locking Stitch (not a chain stitch used by our competitors. Polyester webbing reinforced perimeters with an added sun resistant HDPE covering that protects the webbing from the sun.
To achieve that taut tensile fabric look, you need to start out with a sail that is properly made and installed correctly. Don’t be fooled by catalog sails that hang limp. These Shade Sails are of our own manufacture and are not available anywhere else. Also, look at the hardware “they” offer, then look at ours. Our hardware is intended for tension loads and are load rated. Their’s are intended for a picnic. We have pull tested our sails at over a ton of force. Combined with our “load rated” hardware the systems we offer are designed to give you a trouble free installation. These are serious tensioned fabric structures not a picnic tarp!!
Our Premium Ready Made sails now come in 30 combinations of shape and color. Our Skyclipse 280 line has 44. These sails are made with commercial quality high density polyethylene shade material. They have reinforcing webbing around the perimeter and a welded closed stainless steel “Delta” ring at each corner. Please check with your local building authorities regarding applicable building codes in your area. Custom made sails are recommended for public or commercial applications.
