Childminder's Club:Need ideas for garden shade?

[Katymac]

I'm thinking of having a deck put in & thought I'd have some shade

But how do I make the shade

I don't really want cloth (gets dirty - needs putting away in winter)

Not sure about opaque panels.....would it be secure in a wind?

Any ideas??
TIA

I think the main problem with shade is drainage you don't want to get water puddling and potentially collapsing the structure, what about green wire fencing type and thick growing russian vine/ivy, alternatively polycarbonate panels which are quite light and trellis and plants around the sides..but I would check with the neighbours

Something like this

Canopy

but looks expensive

Like that - I might ring and ask about prices

Prob expensive but hopefully less than the £9K one I rang about this am

These are nice but again expensive

Here

Could you get a grant?

Probably not as we are a private company

But I think playing outside is really important and protecting children from sun burn is vital - if it provides me with an area to play in after rain it would be great

My friend has simple wooden posts (bit like very tall fence posts) sunk into the ground, then see through polycarbonate attatched to batons on the back of her house and then attatched to the posts which are slightly lower (making the roof slanted). She then has some trellis at the front on each side (1m of trellis, then 2m open, then 1m of trellis) and has grown some lovely plants up the trellis (it is the width of her garden so fencing is at both sides). However she gets the sun directly on the polycarbonate roof in the summer so she bought some lovely fabric and sort of hooks it up inside to keep the sun off. Her kids play under it in the summer and in the winter on a sunny day.
This actually looks much nicer than it sounds as she has painted all of the woodwork 2 shades of blue and has put some tubs with plants in around it. My dh built it for her and is going to do something similar soon for us at the bottom of our garden attatched to the garage over the sand pit etc for this summer. Dh says the materials are quite cheap and a local handyman or carpenter should be able to build one quite quickly so shouldn't cost too much. We usually use one of those pop up gazebos but you have to bring them in if you think it might rain etc.
Don't know if this is any help or if you can even understand my description.

Feelingold - that's what I was thinking about (I think)

Is polycarbonate correguated?

Or can it be flat?

I'd prefer flat - like the idea about the cloth underneath - it meanswe can have the extra sun when we need it

Polycarbonate is ofeten used for conservatories' roofs as it is cheaper than glass but noisy when it rains

Noise won't matter (our conservatoy is a nightmare anyway) and we are unlikely to be out when it is actually raining

not necessarily but it often is corrugated DIY here

dont they sell big pagoda type things in homebase in the summer. The lady opposite me has one up in summer and they eat their meals under it in the summer.

KM - It can be corrutaged or you can buy it flat. When you look at the end of the flat stuff it has 2 rows of squares, one row on top of the other. Does that make sense? It can be noisy when it rains but personally I love the sound of the rain on it, its quite theraputic
The cloth does look fantastic and last summer just after dh had built it for my friend, she had a bbq and in the evening and she also put up some fairy lights up and it looked lovely.

We're a bit windy for a pagoda....if we're thinking of the same thing

It looks like the shade bit will cost between 1 & 1.5K....so I need to see how much the decking will cost

What do you think about this?

Do you like these?

We have got a 3m x 3m gazebo that has 4 walls

It works for us but not sure it is really what you want KMc

There was a site with coloured panels on roof

that is used in schools but don't remember it's name

I can't have a permanent structure RTKM as I'd need planning......but I do need a bit more space with 3 adults 9 under 5's and who knows how many over 5's and over 8's I need a fair amount of shade

This isn't permenant

it is made of waterproof fabic

sort of waxxy

we leave it up and then take it down if weather bad

although I had to take it down alone during really bad storm and high winds

I got soaked and was left with huge thing to bring inside to get dry

Can you find the name...I might be tempted

I put a couple of links for shade sails on your other thread in 'products'.

Thanks I've spotted them

We are down to

Sunshade - permanent, wind proof lets rain through cheap

Parasol - Can go up & down, up to 20 mph wind, rain proof more expensive

Parasol - Can go up & down, up to 100 mph wind, rain proof most expensive

So one idea is to make the deck the same size as the cover (so we can play out in a bit of rain)

So lots of decisions to make