Make a Sun Shade Sail

If you don’t have a covered porch or a shady area under a few trees for relaxing outdoors, the heat and dangerous UV rays of the summer sun may keep you inside more than you’d like. Fortunately, you can build your own sun shade sail with just a few materials, all easily available at any hardware store and fabric store. With the appropriate preparation and materials, you can finish a sun shade sail building project in an afternoon.

1,Dig two holes, each 9 feet from the house, 10 feet apart. Use a post-hole digger or spade to dig the holes 12 inches deep. Place a round, 4-inch-diameter pole that’s around 7 feet tall into each hole and refill the holes with dirt, tamping the soil firmly around the base of the poles.

2,Staple one edge of the shade fabric to a 10-foot-long wooden crosspiece that’s 1-by-2 inches, attaching a staple every 4 inches. Wrap the fabric around the crosspiece several times. Screw each end of the fabric-wrapped crosspiece to the top of a wooden pole.

3,Position a second 10-foot crosspiece on the wall of the house about 10 feet above the ground. Mark off six evenly spaced drilling points for the crosspiece on the wall.

4,Drill into the wall of the house at the six drilling points, and insert the wall plugs.

5,Staple the free end of the shade fabric to the remaining wooden crosspiece, and wrap the fabric around the crosspiece several times.

6,Screw the loose crosspiece into the wall plugs.

7,Cut a length of steel wire long enough to reach from the top of a wooden pole to two points on the ground, each 4 feet from the base of the pole. Staple the midpoint of the wire to the top of the pole, and wrap each end of the wire around the eyelet of a steel peg. Drive the pegs into the ground 4 feet from the base of the pole so that the wire is taught, pulling the top of the pole outwards and away from the house. Repeat this procedure for the other wooden pole.