I want to put some shade sails over my pool but I need to get some tall posts brought in and dug in, or embed into the concrete decking.

Anyone know of someone that can do something like this?

Martin Q. Blank said:

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I would think any handyman could do this if your husband is too busy.

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LOL, any handyman my ass

True, some may not be willing to dig a hole in this heat.

I am the husband but will admit to being lazy about this, mainly because of the heat. But I am thinking this might be slightly more than handyman territory. Metal fab and concrete work seem outside painting and ceiling fan installs. Or maybe I am short changing handymen. So if you know of one who has done something like this I am open to it.

AAA awning co does this kind of stuff. They were backed up with Covid delays but surely they have caught up by now.

Martin Q. Blank said:

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True, some may not be willing to dig a hole in this heat.

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or have the ability and knowledge to appropriately anchor a post that will securely hold a significant shade and not make your pool deck look like ****

you have a lot more faith in the average handyman than I do

I found a metal building erector on facebook and the work came out fantastic. The poured piers for 3 out of 4 posts. The posts were fabricated to my specs. I am more than pleased with the shade of the pool and the temp drop in a few days. I need to take a pic with my drone to get a better effect

dummble said:

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Tell that to the guy that put the pool 12" from the house. The deck should be flipped with the pool.

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What's his number

Was thinking about doing something similar yesterday...do you mind giving a ballpark for what the project cost you?

$2k for the 4 fabricated posts, 3 piers and the imbeds and labor. In my mind it should have cost more and the guy that did it thinks he bid it low, but we were both happy in the end.

The sails are around $50 each from amazon. Stainless steel clips, coated wire, turnbuckles and porch swing springs add about $40 per sail in hardware. I also spent another $50 on paracord and carabiners to hang, position and tension the sails before I cut and fabbed the steel cables.

I put a scale on the tension points and it is 27lbs.

$2k sounds like a steal. Very nice.

dummble said:

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I found a metal building erector on facebook and the work came out fantastic. The poured piers for 3 out of 4 posts. The posts were fabricated to my specs. I am more than pleased with the shade of the pool and the temp drop in a few days. I need to take a pic with my drone to get a better effect

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When the erector visited how long did he take to make your post the way you've always wanted it?

He came out the first time to talk about the project and work out the scope and get an idea of my backyard. That took like an hour. The only notes he took were on the pole sizes, eyebolts, brackets etc...

When they came out to dig and pour the piers, I had marked the location with stakes based on some math I did on graph paper. The locations were really determined by my deck shape. They took about 3 hours to dig, form and pour the piers. They came 5 days later to install the posts and paint them.

Initially I had 2 20x20x20 equilateral triangles, but I could not get the second one positioned over the pool with equal tension. I put the locations into CAD and played with shapes and figured a 20x20x28.5 right triangle would fit.

We have been in the house for years and I know the path of the sun is in direct line with my pool in the summer and the most annoying sun coming at 4pm so I had to have one sail positioned as west as I could get it.

It is a balancing of post locations, sail sizes and shapes and sun path. I think I got lucky

dummble said:

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He came out the first time to talk about the project and work out the scope and get an idea of my backyard. That took like an hour. The only notes he took were on the pole sizes, eyebolts, brackets etc...

When they came out to dig and pour the piers, I had marked the location with stakes based on some math I did on graph paper. The locations were really determined by my deck shape. They took about 3 hours to dig, form and pour the piers. They came 5 days later to install the posts and paint them.

Initially I had 2 20x20x20 equilateral triangles, but I could not get the second one positioned over the pool with equal tension. I put the locations into CAD and played with shapes and figured a 20x20x28.5 right triangle would fit.

We have been in the house for years and I know the path of the sun is in direct line with my pool in the summer and the most annoying sun coming at 4pm so I had to have one sail positioned as west as I could get it.

It is a balancing of post locations, sail sizes and shapes and sun path. I think I got lucky

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In the event of a major storm/wind event how quick can you unhook the sails from the posts?

I did it in 11 minutes on wednesday night which included me pulling the ladder out and the paracord. I use the paracord looped through 2 carabiners twice to pull enough slack to undo the cable. Once you release tension on one corner, the second doesn't need the paracord assistance and the 3rd is just the weight of the sail. Instead of paracord, you could use ratchet straps. I thought about integrating a ratchet winch into the posts like we have at deer camp. But then I figured it would get rusty like the ones at camp.

how much of a difference has that made in the pool temp so far?

I installed the sails on the afternoon of the 3rd and since we have a chiller, I ran that the night of July 3rd and it dropped the pool enough that it was chilly on the first dip. The sails were up till the 12th and the pool was very comfortable those 11 days. I pulled them down that night and did not put them back up will Saturday 7/15 and in those 3 days it turned back into soup temp. It has only been 2 days, but it was still pretty warm last night

They look like giant thongs, which I fully support.