Here's a fun story for the evening. I tackled this project last year, but I figure it plays into the whole thread, so why not.
The best title I can come up with is "How
NOT to put up a giant solar shade"
When I bought the house, my realtor and I where perplexed about a pair of 4x4 posts at the corners of the pool. He thought it was for a clothesline. I had different ideas. After some measuring, and then realizing that there was a 3rd attachment point on the peak of the roof, I figured it was for a triangle sail, which makes sense, since those are all the rage here in Phoenix.
So, measure once, cut 37 times, and make 10 trips to Lowes, right?
After measuring, I start poking around on Amazon, and order me up the BIGGEST shade I can get (again, my pool itself is somewhere in the vicinity of 40x20, and I wanted to maximize coverage.) The ORIGINAL posts where something like 35 feet apart, and it was another 30 or so feet to the house, so I order a big one. Biggest I could find, which is 26x26x26 edge length.
3 days later, a giant box shows up, I get out the ladder, and tie the first rope to the house. Now, being part engineer, and knowing we get nasty wind, I wanted to be able to disconnect the sail, so I got some good heavy caribiners as well.
Step 1 - hook the sail to the rope attached to the house.
Step 2 - attach one corner to a ratchet strap / come-a-long on left post
Step 3 - attach last corner to another ratchet strap on the right post.
All is good at this point. I've got the ropes measured, I even have one tied. So, now I start pulling the other side tight.
Crank Crank Crank Crank Crank. Creak...splash.
The other post was held in with one of those stupid "post up" things, so it fell right over.
Trip #1 to Lowes, come home with a 60# bag of quickrete.
Dig hole (fun, in Phx clay, in august!) Pour concrete, set post, drill holes for hook eye, and wait.
2 Days later - go back out, hook up the ratchet straps again, and....crank crank crank....creak.....splash. This was one of "those" moments, that ended in having to drink a beer. And I think the neighbors learned a new NY 4-letter word.
Trip #2 to lowes. Another bag of concrete. maybe it was 2, I don't remember.
Dig hole #2, pour concrete, set post, and wait.
2 days later, get everything attached AGAIN. Crank crank crank.....no creaking! no splashing! All is good.....or so I thought.
Step back, crack open beer #2 for the project, and enjoy my handiwork. Then, all **** breaks loose, and BOTH posts come out of the ground, concrete ball and all, and the stupid thing falls over again. More 4 letter words ensue, and it's back to lowes.
Trip #3 - 8 bags of concrete, 12 pieces of 1 foot re-bar, 2 4x4x10 foot posts, 2 "swing springs" (whatever they are called for a porch swing) and 4 new hook eyes. Oh, and new rope.
I'm going to win this battle.
So...I spend saturday morning (early, like 6am) when it isn't as hot as the surface of Venus) digging 2 gigantic holes.
Here's the big tip of the thread. If you are going to set 4x4 posts, do yourself a huge favor, and buy some 1 foot pieces of 1/2 rebar. Drill holes through the post, and pound the rebar in so it looks like a giant spike laden ogre's hammer. THIS END GOES IN THE GROUND. Pour in the concrete, and wait.
(by this point, you've all figured out how much I love concrete.....I should have bought stock in quickrete before starting ANY of this.)
Drill a hole on the top of the 4x4 and pound the hook-eye through, use some good washers and lock nuts. The screw in ones will pull out. Just go big.
Now, the swing-spring thingies - these get attached to the TOP hook eyes. You can also put pulleys on here, but I just ran the rope through the end of the springs. This acts like a shock absorber in heavy winds. I've left this thing out in monsoon storms with wind up to 50MPH - it bounces around, but it hasn't had any issues. I prefer heavy cotton rope, it also acts like a shock absorber, and you can always re-tighten it. I put carabiners on the end so I can un-hook the sail in about 30 seconds and have it all rolled up if I think we're going to have a real blower, or I'm out of town for a couple days.
I don't have any "in process" pictures, but the finished looks like:
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So, 8 bags of concrete - is about $30 or so.
2x 4x4x10's at $12 each - another $24
re-bar - 12x~$1 - we'll say $12
Carabiners - $2 each, have 3
Springs - I think they where about $7 or so, not bad.
Rope - $20, but plenty of leftover
The sail itself was about $70 if I recall. So, all in, less than $150, a couple of beers, and only a small barrage of 4 letter words
