One of the elements that distinguish a high-quality shade sail over a cheaper low-quality one is the fabric. At Shade Sails Canada we use a range of high-quality fabrics.
Our shade sail corners use double-stitched, triple-layered fabric to ensure maximum life expectancy and safety out of your shade sail.
As a general rule, we always suggest a four-point shade sail to our customers over a triangle.
While triangles can look great, especially when combining multiple triangular shade sails, four-point sails will provide much more coverage and if you vary your attachment point heights correctly, you can achieve the look of several triangles from a single sail.
UV ratings range from 89.3% to 97.7% depending on the colour. Your colour choice will not noticeably affect the temperature under the sail.
Note: The surface you are standing on may reflect the sun more than others so the sail rating does not consider UV coming off the ground surface and bouncing up.
Most shade sails are not waterproof unless you are using a waterproof fabric, however, one of the reasons we suggest varying the heights of your posts/attachment points is to encourage water run-off. When your sails are sloped and tightened correctly, the majority of the water will run off to the side of the sail, with only a fine mist making it through the mesh. Heavy rain is not an issue if the sail has a significant slope and is very tight.
The sides of a shade sail are curved to ensure proper tensioning. The amount of the curve (catenary curve) depends on the shape of the shade sail and can be adjusted when ordering a custom shade sail.
A standard catenary curve is 7%; this percentage relates to the distance between attachment points. If—as shown in the diagram below—the distance from A to B is 10 feet, a 7% catenary curve is 8.4 inches (7% of 120 inches). This is the distance—shown in white—from the midpoint between the two attachment points (A & B) to the midpoint in the curve of the shade sail (C).
Curvature is not solely for tensioning purposes, it can be increased (to go around a tree or other obstruction) or decreased in some cases. Our design software automatically optimizes the catenary curve for each design. Please get in contact with our design team for any unique requirements.
