2023 Archive : Blackbourn’s Canopy

Project Details

Fabric 1

Diamond Translucent
Producer/Manufacturer: Contender NZ Ltd.
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Please describe the project specifications

The customer had originally had shade sails to cover his outdoor seating and bbq area, but wanted to extend the concrete pad and add a permanent roof and blinds. He had already arranged for the concrete pad to be extended around the existing shade sail posts prior to contracting us to make the new roof. He asked us to design the roof structure to utilize the existing posts.

What is unique or complex about the project?

The design of this job was difficult, nothing was square and the roof had to smoothly go around a corner, and the job was complex, we had to work around existing shade sail posts that were not straight, and this job was large, one of the biggest awnings we have done, which caused challenges on the install.

The house was square, however, nothing else was. The customer had originally had shade sails to cover the area and had extended the concrete pad around these posts. The customer requested that we utilize these existing posts to hold the awning. The concrete pad was not square to the house and the shade sail posts were installed outside the square of the house so the frame had to be designed to extend out both LHS and RHS past the ends of the house.

One of the awnings was a “round the corner design” but was narrower at one end than the other, so each bend had to be individually calculated and bent to ensure a streamlined look. Extra time and care had to be taken in the design, welding and covering of this corner section. The kitset was preassembled in the factory to allow the canvas fabrication team to prepare the fabric pieces, which would be installed onsite. Once the frame was complete each bend was marked with location prior to taking apart for powder coating.

Once we got to site for installation day, we discovered that the existing shade sail posts were not straight. Made in 2 frames, both of which were kitset style. We had everyone, including the boss (unusual) onsite for the day. The kits were delivered to site then assembled, covered, and installed in one long rainy day.

It was one of the largest awnings we have done to date.
The fabric covering was particularly challenging as parts of the frame were superglued and overlapped in rainy and windy conditions. We used creative methods to reach the top of the arches while attaching the fabric before lifting into position.

Getting each frame up into position required all of our installation teams, and the customers father (grandad) was helping to move ladders and props around while we positioned the bigger of the frames.
One of the shade sail posts had been bent by the original sail, and needed to be straightened before we attached the frame. This brought out some creative kiwi solutions like using the towbar of our van with a truck strop to encourage it into position. We also used this technique to get the two frames into position for the join. Each time we held our collective breath when releasing the strops half expecting the entire awning to explode into a thousand pieces. Fortunately for us and the client ( a close family member) this did not happen.

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