flat roof canopy

[zetan]

Hi,
I'm tired of my beat up car ports and mis matched tarps.
Time for a new shade structure this year to complement the 12' 2v dome.

I've built a 10x20 flat roof canopy structure in the back yard (two 10x10 tied together) using 90 tent corners and 1" EMT with 7' legs.
I intend to weld nuts into the bottom of the legs to screw them into the rebar in the legs.
The corners have welded nuts to secure the EMT.
I also intend to use ratcheting tie down straps at all 6 corners to anchor the entire thing to the playa.
The shade will be two 10x10' thick silver tarps.

Do you think this will crater in the wind?
I realize this design has very little structural integrity compared to my dome.
I am thinking some 3' diagonal pieces to connect the legs to the roof sections
Do you think it will "fly" ?

-Zetan

[CornMan]

I will be very strong. Maybe some mesh shade cloth on a side or two for walls would help to keep the intrusive sunlight out.

[danibel]

This sounds very similar to the black rock shade structures by form and reform. I bought one from them this year. They were having a fund raiser for the serpent twins solar power. I think that 6 extra tie downs might be overkill, but on the playa that is not a bad thing!!! I am bringing 4 extra tie downs for the corners or perhaps I will just figure out a way to strap this sucker to the van bumper.

[ygmir]

I'd only say, make provisions, or be prepared, to drain it if we get much rain...........

[CornMan]

I didn't see any mention about rebar stakes in the original post.

[zetan]

I'd only say, make provisions, or be prepared, to drain it if we get much rain...........

I have some camo netting spreaders I can use to make the flat roof into a pitched roof to avoid the rain water collecting.

I will have rebar under each tent leg to keep them in place, and screwed in just like the fund raiser plans.

Thanks for the input!

[danibel]

I have some camo netting spreaders I can use to make the flat roof into a pitched roof to avoid the rain water collecting.

I will have rebar under each tent leg to keep them in place, and screwed in just like the fund raiser plans.

Thanks for the input!

Camo netting spreaders? I am going to look for some of those.

[phil]

Louise and I used a 10x10 foot flat roof canopy on EMT for years. Ours wasn't home-made, so we had angles with locking screws for the four corners, plus the tension of the bungee cords. We drove rebar in at each of the four uprights and duct-taped the legs to the rebar. We had tarp walls on two sides; the one to the south stayed up all day, and we moved the other wall from east to west as the sun went by.

The one disadvantage is that when it rained, we had a huge ball of water hanging down into our shade area when we got back to camp. We pushed up and all the water ran out with no problems, but it was clearly near the breaking point for metal and/or tarp.

With your home-made rig, I won't comment on durability, but flat canopies do work. I recommend a back up shade for the odd chance something in your structure fails and can't be jury-rigged.