Ensuring the Stability of Your Shade Sails with Regular Inspections: What You Need to Do

Shade sails are a durable and unobtrusive way to protect you and your family from the sun, and can offer years of service. It's important to inspect your sails every now and again, just to ensure that sails are stable and can continue to offer that much-needed shade. The vast majority of shade sails will not encounter any problems with stability, but a regular inspection is important so that any problems can be fixed immediately.

Here are some of the things you need to look at while making a quick inspection.

Cabling and Turnbuckles

The sail will lose a small amount of tightness with time. The fabric will stretch slightly after installation, and will then be further stretched with exposure to wind and rain. This is to be expected, and does not affect the ability of the shade sails to protect you from the sun. If you feel that the sail has become significantly loose or slack, an adjustment might be necessary.

Check the cabling. Has it become slack? The turnbuckle might need to be tightened, but do not attempt to do this yourself, even if you have the necessary tools. It might invalidate the warranty, so contact the company who installed the sails.

The Ground

If the sail has been attached to a patio or trellis, you need to check the ongoing stability of the support structure. Once a month, just look at the ground directly below the support structure. If it's on a concrete or paved surface, look for any cracks that might have appeared. If the support structure is grounded in soil, check to see if the soil is loose. These things would indicate that the sail is placing stress on the support structure and might need to be repositioned. The structural integrity of the support structure would have been assessed prior to installation, but this integrity might have been overestimated.

Fixing Points

When checking the ground beneath the support structure, you should also look at the fixing points, which is where the sail has been attached to your home or patio. Look for small cracks in the wood or concrete, which indicate that the area might need to be reinforced. Repositioning of the sail is generally not necessary, and the area can be strengthened with an extra strong gap filler.

If the cracks are large or numerous, you should contact the company who installed the sail, as they might need to remove and then reattach the sails.


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