rox
Veteran Member
Finally we got some relief from the hot Provence sun. In May a local craftsman designed, built and installed a wraught iron pergola for us. I was in the states in May and brought home really really heavy tarps which i purchased at Cover Me Tarps and Canopies for the covering. I used tenders to connect the canvas to the frame.
Because we get a lot of wind, our wind even has a name, the Mistral, and our home in particular being in a valley we get a lot of wind. So what I did is I laid two tarps each 10' x 20' lengthwise. The bottom tarp at the edge of the patio is totally anchored down. The upper tarp overlays the bottom tarp by about oh maybe 3 and a half feet. I Anchored it at the top to the roof by drilling holes in the roof and screwing into the roof where the metal gromets were, and also anchored the sides. But for that overlap, I bought elastic cord and in the 2 center grommets on the bottom of the tarp, I pulled the elastic through and tied off to the is bolted to the house and the legs were anchored in holes that were filled in cement, that if we completely covered it that the wind would pick it up and tear the whole pergola off the house. We literally get hurricane forced winds here.
That top tarp with the elestic cords in the center (the sides are anchored)raises up in the center and allows the wind to escape. It works really great and we have the benefit of it being waterproof.
I used what is called in france "Tenders" to attach the tarps through the gromets to the frame of the pergola. Tenders with steel wire. Taht worked great but 3 of my gromets ripped out, sigh... Then I fixed the gromets with Gorilla Glue and they have held just fine. I really wish the tarp manufacturers would use gorilla Glue when making the tarps, that stuff is amazing.
I had a secondary project. In our Guest House there is a sun porch and gosh almighty it is hotter then heck in there in the summer. I can't imagine what the previous owner was thinking building that. The roof is all plexiglass and the sides are fixed glass with about 1/3 of the wall beig sliding glass windows. We rent out the guest house for vacation rentals and I needed to get some protection form the sun, oh yeah it faces west on top of it. I did'nt want to go up on the roof twice a year to put up and take down a covering and I needed something real low budget, we ahve after all only had 3 harvests of olive oil so budget was a big factor. At Cover Me Tarps and Canopies they had painters cloth real cheap, I think I paid $15 for a 10' x 12' piece so I used that for inside the sun porch of the guest house, again using the steel wire and tenders to connect to the aluminum frame fo the sun porch. i bought L shaped elbows with two holes. The hole closest to the center of the room is to hold the fabric on the ceiling and the second hole, closest to the wall will be to hold long curtains. When I can borrow a sewing machine I can cut off the painter cloth fabric that is hanging over the windows and sew it up to just the size of the ceiling, and then have nice drapes on the rest. For now it hangs down and does what it is supposed to do, it blocks out the sun.
I was not that thrilled witht he color of the tarps on the pergola but within 2 weeks the color had faded to about 25% of it's orginal insenstiy and i think it looks great now that it has faded.
In the pics you will se the steel wires hanging off the sides of the pergola. I just used those zip tie things that you used to bundle wire together and secured them to the frame so now everthing looks neat and tidy. I did not use tenders for every grommet, mainily jsut for the corners and a couple extras in the middle, but for the rest of the grommets i used those wire zip ties (srry I don't knwo the official name for them but i think you know what they are). We have had winds i would say that were 50mph winds and it works ike a charm. The bottom edge of the upper tarp lifts up a bit with the elastic cords and lets out the wind. i really like having a completely waterproof covering. In the winter I will jsut need to unscrew one end of 6 tenders, cut the zip ties with a scissors and it can be taken down fairly quickly.
The last two pics are jsut some farm pics, I really like the last one, now tht we have prunned down the trees to a more reasonable height we can see the stone borie (shepher house) form our covered pergola
.
Because we get a lot of wind, our wind even has a name, the Mistral, and our home in particular being in a valley we get a lot of wind. So what I did is I laid two tarps each 10' x 20' lengthwise. The bottom tarp at the edge of the patio is totally anchored down. The upper tarp overlays the bottom tarp by about oh maybe 3 and a half feet. I Anchored it at the top to the roof by drilling holes in the roof and screwing into the roof where the metal gromets were, and also anchored the sides. But for that overlap, I bought elastic cord and in the 2 center grommets on the bottom of the tarp, I pulled the elastic through and tied off to the is bolted to the house and the legs were anchored in holes that were filled in cement, that if we completely covered it that the wind would pick it up and tear the whole pergola off the house. We literally get hurricane forced winds here.
That top tarp with the elestic cords in the center (the sides are anchored)raises up in the center and allows the wind to escape. It works really great and we have the benefit of it being waterproof.
I used what is called in france "Tenders" to attach the tarps through the gromets to the frame of the pergola. Tenders with steel wire. Taht worked great but 3 of my gromets ripped out, sigh... Then I fixed the gromets with Gorilla Glue and they have held just fine. I really wish the tarp manufacturers would use gorilla Glue when making the tarps, that stuff is amazing.
I had a secondary project. In our Guest House there is a sun porch and gosh almighty it is hotter then heck in there in the summer. I can't imagine what the previous owner was thinking building that. The roof is all plexiglass and the sides are fixed glass with about 1/3 of the wall beig sliding glass windows. We rent out the guest house for vacation rentals and I needed to get some protection form the sun, oh yeah it faces west on top of it. I did'nt want to go up on the roof twice a year to put up and take down a covering and I needed something real low budget, we ahve after all only had 3 harvests of olive oil so budget was a big factor. At Cover Me Tarps and Canopies they had painters cloth real cheap, I think I paid $15 for a 10' x 12' piece so I used that for inside the sun porch of the guest house, again using the steel wire and tenders to connect to the aluminum frame fo the sun porch. i bought L shaped elbows with two holes. The hole closest to the center of the room is to hold the fabric on the ceiling and the second hole, closest to the wall will be to hold long curtains. When I can borrow a sewing machine I can cut off the painter cloth fabric that is hanging over the windows and sew it up to just the size of the ceiling, and then have nice drapes on the rest. For now it hangs down and does what it is supposed to do, it blocks out the sun.
I was not that thrilled witht he color of the tarps on the pergola but within 2 weeks the color had faded to about 25% of it's orginal insenstiy and i think it looks great now that it has faded.
In the pics you will se the steel wires hanging off the sides of the pergola. I just used those zip tie things that you used to bundle wire together and secured them to the frame so now everthing looks neat and tidy. I did not use tenders for every grommet, mainily jsut for the corners and a couple extras in the middle, but for the rest of the grommets i used those wire zip ties (srry I don't knwo the official name for them but i think you know what they are). We have had winds i would say that were 50mph winds and it works ike a charm. The bottom edge of the upper tarp lifts up a bit with the elastic cords and lets out the wind. i really like having a completely waterproof covering. In the winter I will jsut need to unscrew one end of 6 tenders, cut the zip ties with a scissors and it can be taken down fairly quickly.
The last two pics are jsut some farm pics, I really like the last one, now tht we have prunned down the trees to a more reasonable height we can see the stone borie (shepher house) form our covered pergola
.
