Shade structure question

octoawesome · Post by **octoawesome** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:23 pm

So its about to be that time of year again as I'm sure you all know and I am working on putting together a worthwhile shade structure for me and my hearties.

So far what I've got is this:
1 12'x20' piece of 70% aluminet shade cloth
2 swiss snow tarps
4 6 way fittings for 2" gavelized steel fence posts
8 8' lengths of fence post

So right now I have the ability to make an 8' cube out of the fittings and the steel fence posts. Because the fittings are all 6 ways I can build off of the cube in any direction. I was thinking I could simply get some 10' pvc and some corner fittings so I could build off 2 sides of the cube to produce a rectangle. Basically I would be building a DIY carport type structure with a flat roof. I would then cover it with the shade cloth and tarps.

Before I move forward with the construction I wanted to get some advice about the strength of 2" PVC pipe in playa conditions. If used to make a square structure will it have structural integrity? I know its strong stuff but for most playa shade structures I've seen it it usually bent. Does my plan seem like a solid one? Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated!

dragonpilot · Post by **dragonpilot** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:10 am

Here are components for a shade structure a campmate made...very sound rectangular tunnel structure:

1 33ft X 26ft 70% shade Aluminet
1 33ft X 26ft 90% black shade cloth
3 1.5in dia X 10ft schedule 40 PVC
3 2in dia X 10ft schedule 40 PVC
250ft min 3/8 in dia rope
250ft parachute cord (1/8in dia)
18 12in construction nails
36 10in construction nails

The shade cloth should be edge taped and grommeted approximately every 18 inches along all edges of both pieces. He had a very elaborate guying system that survived the strongest winds of '07 and '08.

oneeyeddick · Post by **oneeyeddick** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:16 am

I bet that 20 x 12 70% cloth that octoawesome has came from Harbor Freight.

2" PVC is plenty strong for what you are doing.

Guy off your corners and you are set.

SilverOrange · Post by **SilverOrange** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:20 am

Maybe save your steel fence posts for the uprights in the corners and along your walls. It seems like this would give you a good, strong point to run your guy lines from, and I would imagine that most of the wind stress would be hitting the surfaces that are perdendicular to the ground.

octoawesome · Post by **octoawesome** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:11 am

dragopilot, how did the construction of that structure work? Which size PVC was used as the vertical supports and how were the edges put together?

oneeyedick, actually, the aluminet came from gothicgreenhouses... it ended up being kinda expensive. My buddy and I built a little X type dome thing, stretched the cloth over it and put our tents under. Then we took sheets and used duct tape to attach those mylar emergency blankets to the outsides of the tents... it was amazingly loud and we looked like a chrome space camp, all a shimmer.

SilverOrange, my initial plans are to use the steel to build the central box and hope that that will have the structural integrity to help support the rest of the structure. I could use them for the other vertical supports as well, but I only have 4 steel fittings and the rest will be PVC so I was thinking it would be best to use the steel with steel and the PVC with PVC... I'm open to some changes of the plan though.

I also had the thought that I could run some smaller size pvc down off the sides to create rounded edges that would remove the vertical walls and make the structure a bit wider... any thoughts on that idea? If I pull it together I will try to draw something up on google sketchup or something...