Just bought a house in Kemah and there is no covered area in the back yard. The wife and I walked the neighborhood and saw one of the neighbors had installed one of these. We both liked the looks and I am now considering putting one of these up for a couple years until I can afford to do the back yard like I would really like to. Anyone have one of these, or have an recommendations? In my 30 mins of thinking about this, I figured I would affix one side to the house, and I would concrete two poles into the yard for the other side (rectangle, not triangle).

My concerns are longevity (would like a couple years out of it before it dies), noise in the wind, looks, how tough do the poles need to be, affixing it to the house or 4 poles, and how much rain protection does it offer. I plan on keeping my grill under it and I hate stupid grill covers. Also plan on standard patio furniture - table/chairs/etc...

I've looked into them for the past several years, but still haven't made the move to install one, mainly because of the corner posts required.

There are several online vendors that sell pre-cut sizes and shapes in a variety of colors and also offer the turnbuckles and stainless cable required. The only issues with attaching to your house on one side is that whatever your bolt into has to be strong enough to allow for your to crank down on those turnbuckles to avoid any wind buffeting and due to the stretching, you'll end up with a sliver of open air between the surface you attach to and the middle of that side of the sail.

UV protection, depending on the material can be good or non-existent, but I wouldn't rely on it to 100% protect your furniture and grill from sun damage. Also, most that I've seen are not 100% waterproof, so they may drip in rains.

I am thinking about a setup similar to this

My kid's daycare has these over the playgrounds and they have held up pretty well...until the last ice storm. Ice and snow shouldn't be a big issue in your area.