Exterior Shades
Exterior Shades offer practical solutions to counteract the environmental challenges of outdoor spaces
Expand your living and entertaining space beyond the exterior walls
of your home.
With our onsite consultation, we bring the store to you.
Valley Shade and Shutter installed this custom exterior patio shade to protect this outside space from harsh elements.
Get to know your “Patio” shades and “Zip” shades
Patio (or cable-guided) shades: This style of exterior shade makes use of stainless-steel cables along the sides of the shade that are anchored to the top of the shade as well as the material below the bottom rail at its lowest point of travel (such as deck railing, exterior kitchen countertop, or concrete floor).
The wires are spaced apart to ensure that the bottom rail of the material doesn’t “swing in and out” of the occupied space.
Patio shades can range in size from 18 inches in width and 24 inches in height, all the way up to over 20 feet in width and 12 feet in height. These can be used to cover varying sizes of openings in between porch posts for protection from glare, heat, wind, etc.
Exterior patio shade with a guide wire anchor top
Exterior patio shade with a guide wire anchor bottom
Exterior patio shade fully drawn
“Zip” (or side tension/side-track guided) shades: This style of shade gets its name from the composite “zipper” strips that are “welded” down the side edges of the solar screen material. These “zippers” fit into specially engineered sidetracks that are mounted to the side framing around the shade. These can also be used to cover varying sizes of openings in between porch posts for protection from glare, heat, and wind however they can also be used to give you a “screened in” living space on demand!
Due to the material being anchored at the top and the sides, we have had several customers add outdoor heaters and fans to their exterior kitchen/living space, while others have used them to keep autumn leaves, winter snow, and spring/summer pollen and insects to a minimum during year-round use.
Most “zip” shades are rated to withstand a minimum of 35 mile per hour winds, some advertising ratings over 80 miles per hour. “Zip” shades can range in size from 36 inches in width and 36 inches in height, up to virtually any size you can think of!
Zip shade fully drawn. Notice the sidetracks.
Close up of the left and right tracks described as “zipper” strips.
Exterior Shade Manual Operation Methods
“Patio” Shades up to roughly 64 sq ft (8 feet by 8 feet) can be controlled manually with a stainless-steel chain loop that’s anchored for safety. These side-cable guided shades can generally withstand up to 10-15 mile per hour winds and gentle breezes. It is imperative that shades be rolled up with more intense winds or during storms!
“Zip” shades up to roughly 100 sq ft (10 feet by 10 feet) can be controlled manually with a hand-crank handle that operates a gear inside the headbox. Wind ratings would be whatever the manufacturer guarantees, but generally at least 35 miles per hour minimum.
An eample of a chain loop for manual operation
Exterior Shade Motorization Operation Methods
“Patio” shades of 36 inches in width and up can be operated using exterior rated motorization. On any patio shade that utilizes motorization-make sure your installation team installs a wind sensor so that your shade(s) will automatically retract once the wind reaches 15-20 miles per hour so that the shade material is not damaged.
“Zip” shades of any size can be motorized. Wind sensors are recommended but depending on the wind resistance guarantees of the manufacturer they may not be needed.
* See our motorization page for info on remotes, integration, etc
This patio shade wind sensor is one example of an exterior shade motorization operation
