Cantilever Umbrellas and Wind

[Gladius Nova]

Just wanted to see if anyone here has a 10'-13' cantilever umbrella with a weighted base (200-300lb) and how it handles in the wind or gust of winds. We had two 11' Grand Patio umbrellas with the bases weighed down with sand and water (about 250lbs) and the wind still blew them out of place and some gusts of wind actually flipped them over a few times. I don't want to spend $1000+ on an umbrella in the future and always worrying about them being pushed around by the wind. I had a friend who actually had his bolted down on a concrete pad and the wind literally ripped the umbrella fabric and bent the stabilizing ribs. We live in San Antonio. Thanks in advance.

 

[Toxophilite]

Living near the coast, we have just learned when to put up patio umbrellas and when to take them down. Seems no matter how well secured, how well built, something has got to give eventually. It is either going to tip over stand and/or table, go flying away, or will be destroyed from lack of give.

 

[Newdude]

Unfortunately they are massive parachutes, even when they have slots in the top for airflow with a smaller umbrella on top of that.

Mine blew over with the gentlest breeze so I flipped the bases over, cut an access hole and filled them with cement. Then they blew over in medium breeze so I cemented steel pipe in the ground that wouldn't budge, and inserted the umbrella poles in the pipes.




But that worked so well, it risked umbrella failure and they had to stay down when not in use. Many days we had to drop them while we were using them when the wind picked up mid afternoon.

 

[Toxophilite]

For these reasons, I only very selectively use the umbrella holders embedded in my pool sun-shelf. The intense side load on the pole just worries me that some plaster cracking, or loosening of the insert, might occur.

 

[arvil]

Consider this: the base may be 250 lb, and it’s, let’s say, 2 ft diameter. The top is maybe 7 ft tall. Basic physics lever says it will take maybe only 35 lbs wind force to topple it. Divide that by the sq ft of the canopy, there you have only 1 or 2 lb per sq ft to push it over. If moving air can lift an airplane, it can topple these. Especially if the wind pushes in the direction the canopy is offset.
I have my upright umbrella in the table center against the deck rail and tied off to it 90° apart so it can’t blow over. And if we’re not at the pool, it’s cranked down.

 

[Gladius Nova]

Unfortunately they are massive parachutes, even when they have slots in the top for airflow with a smaller umbrella on top of that.

Mine blew over with the gentlest breeze so I flipped the bases over, cut an access hole and filled them with cement. Then they blew over in medium breeze so I cemented steel pipe in the ground that wouldn't budge, and inserted the umbrella poles in the pipes.

View attachment 423981View attachment 423982


But that worked so well, it risked umbrella failure and they had to stay down when not in use. Many days we had to drop them while we were using them when the wind picked up mid afternoon.

So with your configurations, can you still swivel them around?

 

[Newdude]

Mine swiveled at the top of the pipe. So it spun freely still. I'm not sure how the newer square pipe ones swivel.

Funny you should mention this as that was our cue that we had to go without the umbrellas for the afternoon when they kept swiveling away from where we wanted them.

 

[Homebrewale]

My umbrella is always down when not in use and put down if the wind picks up while in use.

 

[VinceL]

My umbrella is always down when not in use and put down if the wind picks up while in use.

Same thing here. In the pool area we have 2 regular umbrellas and 1 cantilever umbrella. The umbrellas are only open if we are out by the pool. When we come inside they all get closed up.

 

[Gladius Nova]

The thing is , it can be sunny and 95 degrees out, but every now and then (which is just about everyday, there are short gusts of wind that moves the umbrellas and they look like they want to take off! It was embarrassing when we had guests.

 

[Oona]

We just returned ours this morning as even the gentlest breeze caused the cantilever part to swivel all over the place-so needless to say I’m following this thread!

 

[VinceL]

Our cantilever umbrella has a rectangular pole. It does not rotate at all. When a strong breeze comes up, the umbrella creaks a bit.

As I said before, if I am not out by the pool, the umbrella is closed up.

 

[Oona]

I just purchased this Purple Leaf one today (supposed to arrive by the 11th)-if it doesn’t give me issues like the last, I am going to buy another

 

[reggiehammond]

I’m a big fan of cheap, big umbrellas from Amazon. If you check the daily deals section, there’s almost always an umbrella on sale.
They are not amazingly sturdy, but neither are the $800-900 versions. When you only spend $80 or so, who cares if it blows over and gets damaged.

 

[mkflyfish]

So that happened, glad the planter caught it.

Usually, our umbrellas are down in the wind, I’m surprised how well our cantilever does, but might break or topple in gusts.

 

[Newdude]

The bigger the relief hole / chimney / whatevs it's called, the better any umbrella will do. But the cantilever umbrellas are typically much larger than standard umbrellas and with seneral times more parachute to grab the wind, they need to be lowered that much sooner.


The larger of the regular umbrellas, a 9 ft round, has 64 square foot of material. A 13 ft cantilever has 133 Sq ft. 50% larger uses more than double the material.

The irony is that when we used regular umbrellas, the shade in the late afternoon was not over the table, but 6ft to the side of the table. So we switched to cantilevers that could move the shade back over the table where folks were sitting/eating. But then the wind would make us take them down and we were back in the sun.

 

[PoolGate]

I had an umbrella in the hole in the center of a heavy steel table and forgot to close it. The wind blew the umbrella with the table still attached into the pool. Nothing stops wind.

 

[arvil]

A few years ago, I had a standard umbrella that launched right out of the table center with a gust of wind flew up right over the garage and landed in the driveway on the other side, destroyed. Didn’t even move the table. Now I drill a hole in the umbrella pipe for the base lock-screw.

 

[YankeeTexan]

I just purchased this Purple Leaf one today (supposed to arrive by the 11th)-if it doesn’t give me issues like the last, I am going to buy anotherView attachment 428504

We're looking at buying 2 of the purple leaf umbrellas also. Since we're building ours in the near future, we're looking at using their base that gets concreted into the ground/deck. You'll have to post how you like it when it arrives.

 

[Gladius Nova]

I’m a big fan of cheap, big umbrellas from Amazon. If you check the daily deals section, there’s almost always an umbrella on sale.
They are not amazingly sturdy, but neither are the $800-900 versions. When you only spend $80 or so, who cares if it blows over and gets damaged.

One of my main concerns is it blowing over and hitting someone also.