Below is a series of photos and comments on how to create your own shade cloth that will cost you 1/3 of what you will find in the market place. All the materials shown can be obtained from any home improvement center (i.e. Home Depot, Lowes).
What you will need:
Pictured is one roll of New York pool screen, enough to do a 6 x 24 foot section. In my case I wanted 6 x 12 sections so one roll yielded two sections. Two boxes of 3/8th grommets, a grommet fastener set, two packages of ball bungees, re-enforcement backing for grommets (not pictured), scissors, hammer, and a block of wood.
Assembly:
Assembly is quite easy and takes about an hour for a 12 x 6 foot section which includes installation. In fact my 13 and 11 year old daughters assembled one section on there own after observing the first section being assembled.
First off, as I stated above I wanted three 12 x 6 foot sections. I pulled off 12 foot six inches of fabric from the roll giving me 3 inches either end to double back on itself for better re-enforcement.
Next the grommets were installed. I suggest across the width, grommets be place every 18 inches and every 3 feet along the length.
To install grommets in screen is a simple task. Across the width of the screen, where you have placed the fold, you slide in a piece of re-enforcement. Any material that has some strength, thickness and is weather resistant will do. I choose pot screen doubled over as it will allow moisture to escape. However a piece of vinyl, rubber, even an old cut up rain coat will do.
Next use the hole punch from the grommet fastener set to punch a hole for your grommet.
Insert the male side of the grommet through the hole, and place the female side (round edge up) on top.
Insert the fastener tool in the grommet and hit with your hammer a few times to fasten the grommet.
You should end up having the lip from the male side curl over and fasten to the female side.
You repeat this as many times as is needed till your places for the bungees has been completed. The netting is ready for installation. The bungees that I used are loop bungees. They look like a loop with a ball on the end. Simply slide one end of the bungee through the loop, then around the frame. Bring it back on itself and use the ball on the opposite end to secure.
The completed project:
Three sections 12 x 6 took one morning to make and install. Total cost for the materials was $56.80.
The framing is from a tent kit I use for winter storing my trees. I simply removed the canvas and installed the netting. If you need to create a frame light weight materials can be used as said before this screen is about half the weight as commercial netting.
