So how did your shade structure do?

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 6:01 pm

We had a LOT of discussion about shade structures before the event this year and I was just wondering how everyone's shade structure did. We had a Costco carport and it was great. Probably have two next year. Might do a dome. Not sure.

However, we didn't have to deal with the winds on Monday so I was wondering how your shade structure fared (some friends who got in early lost their whole PVC shade structure and had to get me to call their friends to get more PVC).

That reminds me of another question: why do some people insist on building their own shade structures when you can get one for realatively cheap? I can see it if you have a great design or for other reasons, but, I was in their camp thinking, "I bet a carport would have remained standing".

DoctorIknow · Post by **DoctorIknow** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:39 pm

Dallas Playa asks:

why do some people insist on building their own shade structures when you can get one for realatively cheap?

It may have something to do with esthetics…..

I visited the Airstream camp and, in my head, designed a shade cover to cover all those easy to heat metal ovens, using the Swedish Snow Camouflage (seen in many campsites this year) and wire rope. It would have worked great, been cheap, but then it would look industrial.

Think of HeeBeeGeeBee camp: with their countless lavendar HUGE parachute shade structures. Obviously a LOT of work, and not as efficient for blocking UV rays as camo, but what beautiful shelters. Especially for their camp.

Personally, I think a big piece of GOOD camo, some 8 foot 2x2’s and guy lines to hold it up, with either some more camo on the sides or other screening, is MUCH less complicated and cheaper and better looking than a carport. Plus, it will not be blown down in the highest winds. A carport (big sail) can stay on the desert, but wow, it would have to be super secured and super staked. I remember carport pics in the eplaya threads pre-2005-event, some showing HUGE trucking staps that probably cost $20 a piece, and they must have used ten of 'em…

KnowMatterWhat · Post by **KnowMatterWhat** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 8:38 pm

I've used a COSTCO 10' x 20' car port since 2002. Except for having to reinforce (resew) the front door zipper, it has held up GREAT! I stake it down with 6 rebar stakes (4 @ the corners and 2 in the middle of the long side). Even in Monday's windstorm, it held firm. I also position it facing north easterly (facing the Man from 5:30). It has been my experience that the stronger winds seem to come from the south west, I believe positioning the carport as such helps minimize the nastier winds. The only downside is the bulk of hauling it and the time it takes to build and strike. I may opt for something different next year, like an RV ...

safetythird · Post by **safetythird** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 8:55 pm

The Costco carports kicked ASS. We saw very many of them out on the playa in various configurations.

We set up ours on Sunday, which was pretty windy and come Monday, our shelter was used by all our campmates as refuge from the playa blasting. A piece of rebar under each leg and 8 tie downs and it was very solid. Tarps were directly facing the winds and they held just fine.

Next year we plan on expanding by getting another canopy and connecting the two to a campmate's dome + shelter. Helping him setup his dome took 5 people, long sticks, ladders and patience while the Costco carport took 2 people, but could've been done by 1. White camo netting provided great side shade and we'll be using it to provide more square footage next year (only set up the back & one side wall).

Rope lights going up the tie downs/guy wires looked really awesome at night. Sure made finding ours in the wee hours of the night pretty easy.

S3

Wavemage · Post by **Wavemage** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:35 pm

I built a 'cave' using PVC and fabric, and it held up GREAT to the wind...it bends, it doesn't break. That thing WHIPPED back and forth during the windstorm, but very little damage.

Just two pieces of crossed PVC, lashed at the top, and put over a piece of rebar each on the ground. Then repeat 7 times, so you have this ribcage-like structure. Then take a ream of fabric and stretch it over it, pinning it together in places (I used safety pins, but some of them bent and broke during the wind--some quick sloppy hand-stitching would probably do better next time). I put my tent inside this, and had plenty of room for chairs and kitchen area, dressing area, all infront. ANd I could lay down at night and watch the man glow, from our location on the esplanade. I really couldn't have had a better setup this year.

Next year, hoewver, I think I'm gonna cop-out and just bring a camper trailer. I wanna spend time building shade structures to be SHARED instead of so much time building one for me.

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:50 pm

Heh, my structure did nicely but could have been a failure if I hadn't replaced all the zip ties holding the pvc pipe to the pad eyes on the side of the bus . See, I put them up there a year ago where they've been baking in the sun since. I tugged on one experimentally thinking "hmm, wonder if this is getting dry and weak..." and it promptly snapped. So they all got replaced and the 30x20' XHD tarp stayed attached and all was well. Time to switch to those stainless tie straps and maybe put up steel conduit instead of the pvc? Got to be able to sleep easy in an alpha storm.

Steven bradford · Post by **Steven bradford** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 12:47 am

I had both a carport and a 10x10 folding shade structure. Both held up fine. I tried the metal fence posts, only 3 foot ones, and tied the poles to those, no guy wires. I was also next to a couple of RVs that provided a nice wind break.

A great winter project would be to paint the carport. The one I got has clear windows on the sides too.

Post by **AntiM** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:18 am

We had two carports with snow camo strung between. We set up Monday in the worst of the wind, so we "clamshelled" one carport, that is left one set of legs off the windward side. The wind did catch one of the gable tubes pretty hard while the second carport went up, torqued it a bit, but nothing catastrophic, unusable or unrepairable.

We parked the vehicles to the far side of the clamshell for a further windbreak. The snow camo provided cool, dappled shade and good airflow. We attached it with ball bungees for give and take, otherwise it shreds or tears. We're thinking of ways to rig angled feet for when we clamshell, it makes a cozy little shelter. The end walls don't fit obviously, we simply used spring clamps to hold on sections of billboard vinyl. Larry's going to custom cut end clamshell end pieces.

We do need a "spreader" for the snow camo to hold it up higher, us shorties had no problem, but larry was constantly getting thunked in the head. I'm thinking a couple light interior lace curtains to section off the clamshell from the common shade area, in that configuration you don't use either sidewall at all, just the roof. The guys ran down the legs, the second carport used a criss-cross between two sets of legs on each side. Needed more ground cover in the shade area, the floorcloth was great but too narrow. A second one should do the trick. Used carpet under the tent and a second chunk in the main clamshell area. The second carport had grommeted billboard vinyl on the ground.

Used welded rebar crosses on the carport legs, military flat steel tent stakes for the tents, newbie has 18 inch spikes for his tent, and contractor spikes for the floorcloths and carpets. Nothing budged.

Our newbie has a rather large double dome tent, we set that on the far side of the second carport. He says it stayed cool and dust was not a problem, it did well in the wind too.

We've had a problem with the zipper wall tearing also, and one of Genius' end walls failed last year. We've made an entirely new one (yes, billboard vinyl again) with a cute graphic of a house on it.

Post by **AntiM** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:31 am

Another thought on carports: We roll the tubes in the vinyl floor drops, sort of like a big burrito, then strap them into a tight bundle. The walls and roof are folded and go into a flight bag, the huge square canvas ones with a zipper and handles. The bungees and joints and guys have a packer tote with a clamp-on lid. There's a separate wooden box for all the stakes, mallets and sledges.

We have a trailer, so hauling the two carports is not a problem. You can get one in a car or on a roofrack, but I wouldn't try more than one per vehicle. With four to six people, they go up fast, maybe thirty minutes from start to finish. Take down is actually a longer process.

We don't roll the tubes in the walls because they simply aren't as tough as the vinyl. The vinyl prevents shifting tubes hence a shifting load.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:32 am

KnowMatterWhat wrote:I've used a COSTCO 10' x 20' car port since 2002. Except for having to reinforce (resew) the front door zipper, it has held up GREAT! I stake it down with 6 rebar stakes (4 @ the corners and 2 in the middle of the long side). Even in Monday's windstorm, it held firm. I also position it facing north easterly (facing the Man from 5:30). It has been my experience that the stronger winds seem to come from the south west, I believe positioning the carport as such helps minimize the nastier winds. The only downside is the bulk of hauling it and the time it takes to build and strike. I may opt for something different next year, like an RV ...

We were at 5:30, too (and Fetish). We, too, faced the man and we could not have had a better orientation. We had one whole long side (facing) and one short side open all day and had shade all day because the sun was behind us. When the winds and dust did come, it go right around our structure instead of blowing into it (like standing the the leeward side of a building). We had 6 people an a 30' RV and I decided to sleep outside most nights and it was fine (even though we never raised the short-side triangle peak sections that run from the top bar to the roof). Of course, you can't beat an air mattress for getting off the ground.

Aesthetically, yes, our carport exterior was bland. I want to change that for next year. Can the Costco models be painted very easily? I mean painted as in it won't come off when you fold it, etc. Maybe we should stick to decorating it inside and out with fabric and lights and just do more instead of less...

Regarding setup time, the carport went together a lot faster than I expected (especially since we misplaced the instructions). The hardest part was getting some of the bungees on without snagging your thumb. It was a lot quieter than I thought, too; thought there would be a lot more flapping but I guess the heavier material negates a lot of flap.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:55 am

Tiahaar wrote:put up steel conduit instead of the pvc?

I posted in another thread about finding cheap conduit at a metal salvage place here. Might be a cheaper alternative to buying new.

Cosworth Magellan · Post by **Cosworth Magellan** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 9:12 am

We had a minor shade structure nightmare this year, and it was all my fault. I got to the gate during the dust storm on Monday evening - too late for theme camp placement. I was with a friend of mine, a virgin burner, and we camped on the edge of the city. Got up on Tuesday morning and rode out to the greeters' station for placement. It was chaos. We ended up not being placed until Tuesday afternoon, due to exciting playa bureaucracy and communication snafus, and some squatters in our allocated space. To be fair, they were very apologetic and we had a good laugh (beer) over it afterwards, but it took a long time. So it's Tuesday afternoon and we have no shade. We're borrowing shade from our neighbors. 100 pieces of 3/4" electrical conduit are sitting on the playa, and we're waiting for the sun to go down a bit. We had planned to finish the structure by Tuesday evening.

I created our shade structure four years ago, after a real fiasco with our store-bought structure in 2000. It's a pyramid, approximately 16' on each side and 12' tall, made from the aforementioned conduit and 16 fairly large pieces of yellow cotton fabric that are held taut to the structure with (you guessed it) plastic zip ties. Even in the best of circumstances it's a nightmare to assemble. Each piece was cut and hammered by hand, and everything only fits together one way. Half of the labels on the pieces rub off each year due to playafication. But damn, when it's assembled it's the best looking thing on the block. Lit up from the inside, it's a beacon for people trying to find their camps at night.

Anyway, back to the story... Tuesday afternoon at around 4:00, Time to get to WORK on this infernal contraption. I opened up the first of the brand-new boxes of hardware for the pyramid. I find 100 1/2" bolts. Uh-oh. It was supposed to be 100 1/4" bolts. Hmm... I open another box and actually find 50 1/4" coarse threaded bolts. Lucky. Then I open up the boxes of nuts and find... 200 fine-threaded nuts. Fine threaded nuts. Coarse threaded bolts. I still have no idea how all of this happened. I *remembered* checking that the boxes were 1/4" bolts and nuts, coarse threaded, properly labeled and actually containing the proper hardware. It must have had something to do with the extreme jet lag. I can't even blame drugs or alcohol, as I'd been sober the entire time.

Tuesda evening. Still no shade. I have 100 pieces of 3/4" EMT conduit that's supposed to look like a pyramid, but instead looks like 100 pieces of conduit, lying on the playa, too hot to touch. I have several hundred nuts and bolts, none of which will actually fit together in any reasonable way. The structure was supposed to be *done* on tuesday morning. We were becoming "those" camps. You know - the ones who bring 1000 pieces of PVC for a structure that never gets assembled. We used to laugh at these people. Our neighbors were laughing at us. Bastards. They offered me a beer. I drank it. The virgin burner wandered off and found himself a playa honey almost immediately, and I didn't see him for 24 hours.

Wednesday morning, alone in the desert with my pathetic collection of steel pipes. A decision needs to be made. Either I figure out how to assemble the structure using what we've got, or I have to drive back to civilization for hardware. Instead of making a decision, I spent most of the morning looking for someone with a sat phone or working internet connection to contact the outside world and the rest of our camp who were arriving that afternoon. No dice. So everyone else arrives that afternoon, having failed to bring along my emergency pyramid hardware box. Seems a former roommate "borrowed" it when he moved out. We set out assembling the bits of the structure that we could manage with the feeble assortment of hardware, and then called it a night.

Thursday morning. The pile of steel conduit is still there, taunting us. I sent the rest of the camp out scavenging for hardware, and this is when the miracle occured. Virgin burner comes rolling up with his new girlfriend, who happens to know that the folks at The Machine have *exactly* what we need. I have to give props to her and the people from The Machine. When all was lost with our shade structure, they magically provided us with 50 coarse-threaded 1/4" nuts. Not enough to finish the structure, but enough to start thinking about assembling it with only the critical structural elements in place. It wouldn't be pretty, but it just might work.

I spent all of Wednesday afternoon assembling the various pieces. Due to the aforementioned problems with labeling, I was the only person who understood how all of the pieces fit together, and that the piece labeled "E4 HACK D2 -half" needs to have its label facing the inside of the structure, not the outside. In the process of dicking around with this nonsense, I nearly ended up with heat stroke, and had to retire to an advisory role in the construction. This further slowed our progress, since no rational human being can possibly comprehend my tri-dimensional half-erased labeling and assembly scheme. And then we ran out of nuts.

Due to extreme sun exposure, I don't remember who came up with the idea of connecting the remaining steel pipes together with zip ties, but pretty soon the structure was taking shape... as a death-trap. But it was a death trap with shade. We banged together the rest of the structure on Thursday evening, and by nightfall it was glowing bright yellow and could be seen from the platform below the Man. Holy fucking shit.

In the end, it held up perfectly. It couldn't support two or three people standing at the apex as in past years, but it kept the sun off our heads. In the past, we've always been one of those over-prepared camps, always handing out whatever we had to whoever was in need. I'd like to think that all of our past generoisity paid off. We had so much help from so many people to make this damn thing a reality, and we spent the rest of the week feeding our entire neighborhood fresh-cooked meals and strong drinks (in violation of the new no-unpermitted-foods regulations.) It was glorious. From that point on, everything ran smoothly. Our neighbors gave me a wooden paddle with my name engraved on it, and we used it to spank people who wanted free drinks. God I love burners. :)

Petalford · Post by **Petalford** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 9:39 am

Thanks to Saffron Chickles McPherson, we had the most rocking shade structure that held up wonderfully.

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 9:39 am

Gr8 story cosworth!
This time, my 2nd burn, I followed advice from these boards and got a 10'x10' shade structore from Costco, like 140 bucks or so. I'm soloing so it was plenty big enuff for a tent and a couple chairs. (2:30 and Gestalt.)
The other excellent advice was touse 3 ft rebar, pounded straight in, and duct taped directly to the legs of the structure. Very strong, no tie-down ropes or exposed rebar. The structure folded up into a package that fitinto my rented ford focus.
Why can't I live there all year? How many days to next burn?

thinkcooper · Post by **thinkcooper** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 10:47 am

Perfect structure and camp this year. The Box Lounge chill space in Illumination Village.

28'x20' steel conduit with connectors, medium rise roof, 10' height at center, 8 foot at side walls. Covered with a machine sewn tan colored, cotton velvet shade cloth, held in place by 8" ball bungies through nylon webbing loops sewn into the edge seam, spaced every 18 inches. Corners and side posts were guyed to 4' construction stakes, with crimped stainless cable loops, held taught by self ratcheting nylon straps. Very secure and quiet (don't you just hate the ceaseless rippling noise of PVC tarps?), even in the intense gusts Monday.

Underneath the shade, two 8'x8'x8' cardboard box cabanas, formed a wall on the prevailing windy side. Cabanas were constructed of white 4'x8' sheets of 275# cardboard, stapled and glued to 1x2 lattice frame on 2' centers, pre-glued and fabbed in our driveway in Santa Cruz. The flat box panels were screwed and glued with 8' headers and footers on playa in under an hour. A hinged door with a screen door type closure kept us totlally dust free and the cardboard deadened the techno. The cardboard is also light proof, so we had dark sleeping quarters any time of day. A gennie driven fan inside provided ventilation and a roof hatch allowed fresh air. Decoration inside the cabana consisted of rope lights and sheer metallic fabric drapery. Temps inside the box during the day were cooler than under the open shade structure by about 5 degrees and at night were about 10 degrees warmer than ambient temps.

Outside of the box provided a big white canvas for communal art. We burned the boxes on Sunday night...

Janka · Post by **Janka** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 10:47 am

We had a tensegrity type thing built according to the 'net instructions of Camp Elsewhere (here: http://www.bweebweebwee.com/tensegrity/), and were very happy with it.

For us the reason of building our own instead of buying a carport is that we need to fly it over from Europe in our luggage. If we buy the lumber from the States, the rest of the structure travels very lightly. Ours had an opaque roof cloth, mesh-cloth on two of the three sides, and the third side open to the street. Together with ligthtweight ropes those come to about 10 kg and almost fit into the cooler we also bring, which is practical. (I haven't actually weighted it, so that's just a rough estimate.)

We put the thing up with two persons in the storm on Monday, which caused some interesting experiments with foul language, but was otherwise completely doable. It held through the whole week without problems - I think we tightened some of the ropes once, but even that was more for cosmetics than for real need. We had a hammock inside too, which gives you an idea of the surprising stability of the structure. With our measures - the top triangle 4.5 meters on each side, others accordingly - it was very comfortable and spacious for three people, even with our two small tents under the shade.

The only problem with the shades is that it does not stop wind practically at all, which during a stormy year like 2004 can get just tiny bit annoying. I saw similar structures with one or two completely covered sides, though - not an option for us due to not wanting to carry more cloth with us, but just to mention it.

If I did not have to work with a weight / volume limit, I would probably want to have a carport and a shade like ours, the former for sleeping in an hiding from storms, the latter one for "a porch" to get the advantage of breezes on a hot day and a relatively unobstructed view to the passers-by (how do I know to call them for a cold beer if I cannot see them well? ;)).[/i]

Cosworth Magellan · Post by **Cosworth Magellan** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:00 am

We donated our costco carport to some friends of ours who had to stay in Kidsville due to, well, their new kid. Like I was saying, the pyramid is a bitch even when everything is working correctly. I figure I need to get at least 3 more burns out of it in order to justify the two months of work I did on the initial construction. And god damn it just looks so cool. I've had people ask me if it was constructed from a kit (well, not this year - the zip-ties were kind of a giveaway.)

When I built it, I had only a few simple rules:

1) Must not, under any circumstances, be a dome.
2) Must collapse to fit in my old SAAB hatchback along with all of my other gear.
3) Must be tall enough to satisfy human urge to build tall structures.
4) Must accomodate 8 people in reasonable comfort.

I reccomend to anyone thinking of building a structure that you do NOT build a pyramid. Next time I'm building a ziggurat.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:48 am

Cos, can't you use bungee balls instead of zip ties? Not only are they re-useable, they flex with the wind loads.

gawul · Post by **gawul** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 12:05 pm

[quote="Petalford"]Thanks to Saffron Chickles McPherson, we had the most rocking shade structure that held up wonderfully.[/quote]

thanks, but by monday night i felt like that rubber mallet was an extension of my hand. we need to come up with something better for next year

gawul (aka saffron)

thinkcooper · Post by **thinkcooper** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:30 pm

DallasPlaya wrote:Cos, can't you use bungee balls instead of zip ties? Not only are they re-useable, they flex with the wind loads.

8" Ball Bungies rock. Elegant, one hand install, and they self adjust to both wind load and side to side tension. And reusable...

blyslv · Post by **blyslv** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 3:18 pm

Swedish Camo Netting: this Year's Black!

I think ours worked great, except for the sag. This was caused by the EMT digging into the playa as the wind rocked them back and forth. That can be easily solved by having it rest on a piece of scrap. We incorporated a 10x10 carport and a PVC "oinion" into the design and it all worked perfectly. To prettify the carports, sew sleeves out of whacky! fabric for the legs and festoon liberally with various gaily colored camo netting. Don't use the Swedish stuff, use the more ruffly, multi colored stuff. We have red white and blue for a patriotic theme.

Why make your own? It's fun to overcome the design challenges!

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 3:42 pm

why do some people insist on building their own shade structures when you can get one for realatively cheap?

cuz we need/want something other than a carport (though my camp had several integrated into the larger design).

as per the OP, ours was rock solid. But this was a very mild year. Do not judge the success of your structures on this year alone. Well, unless they broke, then yer in trouble.

devilgrrl · Post by **devilgrrl** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 4:50 pm

Everything when a-ok with my Coolaroo Gazebo.

RebA! · Post by **RebA!** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:49 pm

its been our home since 2001 (2000 we had a diffrent set up that didnt work at all) We can set it up together in about a hour now, and thats including the rebar. Its 18x20.

During mondays wind, lost all of one grommet on our tarp. If we go again next year. We will be out there with the same strutcture.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:36 pm

stuart wrote:
why do some people insist on building their own shade structures when you can get one for realatively cheap?
cuz we need/want something other than a carport (though my camp had several integrated into the larger design).

Yeah, I was just pondering. I *am* jealous of Monkey Puzzle's dome.

as per the OP, ours was rock solid. But this was a very mild year. Do not judge the success of your structures on this year alone. Well, unless they broke, then yer in trouble.

Yes, very mild. I was telling my virgins how lucky they were.

RebA! · Post by **RebA!** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:47 pm

DallasPlaya wrote: Yes, very mild. I was telling my virgins how lucky they were.

Some really good blowers on monday however, I wondered what some of those gusts were clocked at. Rest of the week was easy peasy.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:51 pm

Yeah, love the PVC structures. I might be partial to the carports, though, because I'm tall and I don't like having to duck around in my shelter space. TONS of headroom.

Key Man · Post by **Key Man** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 7:57 pm

Good topic. Our shade structure is made of burlap, with a 8 x 16 foot "ceiling" and a 4 x4 "bathroom", also made of burlap. It's supported by 10 foot rebar pieces, which are pounded 2 1/2' into the playa, using a T post pounder.

Second year it was used, worked just fine. The winds pretty much go "through" it but of course, the dust does too.

A campmate had a burlap "quanset hut", which I was drooling over. Great design, wind goes through it, nice shade, good combination of shelter and openness. Next year, I might convert to that system.

Since it's just an elongated "strip", orientation is crucial. My conclusion, at least for now, is that aligning it lengthwise on a 140/320 degree line is optimal. The whole thing is a process, fine tuning things each time, as you know.

Cosworth Magellan · Post by **Cosworth Magellan** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 2:13 am

[quote]Cos, can't you use bungee balls instead of zip ties? Not only are they re-useable, they flex with the wind loads.[/quote]

Yup. One of those things I've been meaning to do for several years, but haven't ever remembered in time for the burn. Originally I wasn't able to find a size that fit the grommits on the fabric walls, but I've found some online. Reusable is obviously the way forward, and moop control on the zip ties is always a bitch.

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 8:04 am

Cosworth Magellan wrote:Yup. One of those things I've been meaning to do for several years, but haven't ever remembered in time for the burn. Originally I wasn't able to find a size that fit the grommits on the fabric walls, but I've found some online. Reusable is obviously the way forward, and moop control on the zip ties is always a bitch.

I know of this place that sells them. Not sure if the price is competitive or not: http://www.creativeshelters.com/

So how did your shade structure do?

So how did your shade structure do?

Re: So how did your shade structure do?

What a mess...

Costco carports...

Mine worked like a charm