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Auke de Haan
Auke de Haan

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5 ways to shade a patio, ranked by how much work they are

Shading a patio comes down to how much you want to spend and how much fiddling you're willing to do every time the weather changes. Here's a quick rundown of the main options.

  1. Retractable awning. Mounts to the house wall and rolls out over the patio. Manual crank versions are the cheapest; motorized ones add a remote but also a motor that can eventually fail.

  2. Shade sail. A tensioned fabric triangle or square strung between posts or anchor points. Cheap and good in full sun, but most aren't rated for heavy wind or snow load, so they usually come down for winter.

  3. Market umbrella. The lowest commitment option - no installation, movable, but it only covers a small footprint and tips over in wind if the base isn't heavy enough.

  4. Louvered pergola. A permanent structure with adjustable roof slats instead of fixed fabric. These split into manual (crank, pole, or lever) and motorized versions, and the gap in price and long-term maintenance between the two is bigger than most people expect going in - pergolacompared.com has a breakdown of what each operation type actually costs and how each one tends to fail.

  5. Shade cloth over a frame. The budget version of a pergola roof - knitted cloth stretched over a simple frame. Cuts a good amount of sun but isn't waterproof, so it's shade-only, not rain cover.

For anything you're leaving up year-round, check the wind and snow rating before you buy, not after the first storm.

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