Shade options for a rooftop terrace without anchor points


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Old 05-14-16, 10:48 PM
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Shade options for a rooftop terrace without anchor points

Hello,

I have a roof top terrace with no shade which I would like to rectify. My condo board will not allow anything due to occasional high wind conditions. They are super paranoid of things flying off and don't want the liability, no matter how much I offer to mitigate the risk.

I'm not allowed to drill into the walls or the roof top(floor of terrace) to build a solid structure or for anchor points. I'm not even allowed to have an umbrella.

I am looking for a creative idea to provide shade for a dining table for 4-6 people as we like to eat outside i.e. 10'x8' area that I can implement without anchoring it, or risking having it blown off by the wind. I think my best bet would be a temporary design that can easily go up and come down.

I'm thinking my best bet would be a shade sail using a rectangle steel frame with tubes facing up at the corners that I can put poles in like a flag holder and use a pulley system at the top to tension the sail. I can weigh down the frame by placing planter boxes on two to four sides. I might even put a wood deck on top to make the bottom frame permanent and simply put the four posts in when needed during low wind conditions.

I am not on a high floor, the terrace is on top of a podium of a few floors of my building.

I realize this is a tall order, however I'm a bit deperate, ok not a bit, and would like a solution.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.
 
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Old 05-15-16, 03:54 AM
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Welcome to the forums! Your association has pretty much precluded anything that you are suggesting, especially if you can't even have an umbrella. The flag holders you mention would have to be anchored, so that is going against the grain, also. Shade sails can take some wind, but with their name, you also have to remember they are "sails", and can cause similar problems of becoming airborne as other types of shade prohibited by the association.
 
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Old 05-15-16, 04:54 AM
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I agree. If your condo assoc. will not even allow an umbrella I don't understand how you think a 10' x 8' shade sail would be approved. I would work with the association to find out what might be approved. In the extreme case you might need to hire a Professional Engineer to put their seal (literally) on your plans certifying it to withstand a certain amount of wind but I think you will find the cost prohibitive.
 
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Old 05-15-16, 07:47 AM
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Thanks for responding. Yes, I'm not expecting the board to approve it, I want to do a temporary solution that I can easily put up during low wind conditions and take it down after I'm done using it for an afternoon. I also want it to be cheap enough that if the board decides to be a pain and tell me I can't use it I haven't lost much.

To clarify what I want to do, I want a tubular rectangle frame with the flag pole type holder welded at the four corners that I can weigh down with flower boxes that I would leave in place. If I put a deck over it I can do it so it's pretty invisible to prying eyes of my neighbours and board members who over look my terrace. I would then temporarily stick four poles in each holder and tie a sail between them. I am aware the sail is in fact a sail and can generate significant forces but with some common sense I would only use it in low wind conditions and even then I can rig it to fail at at three points so that even with a sudden gust the points would fail and at worst it will become a flag on one pole with zero chance of anything flying off the terrace.

IMHO the board is being ultra conservative and won't allow anything even if it has a lesser chance of happening than a meteor hitting the building to avoid liability which also IMHO totally unreasonable. We do have insurance after all and even if something does fly off the terrace how much more damage can it possible cause than anything else people keep on their balconies? Using that logic nobody should be allowed to have anything else on their balconies.

I believe I am being discriminated against because I have one of the few terraces but I can't afford nor am I interested in legal proceedings.

You are right, I have been told that the only way they might consider letting me build anything (still without anchoring to the building or any guarantees) is with the sign off of a professional engineer, which even if one were willing to take on the liability of putting his name to paper, I'm sure would be cost prohibitive although I don't know how much it would be. I did ask one person I knew and he basically said he was too busy which I think is a brush off.
 
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Old 05-15-16, 09:09 AM
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so it's pretty invisible to prying eyes of my neighbours and board members who over look my terrace.
Or you could just tell them not to look at your patio. You could say "pay no attention to that shade I have up that I'm not supposed to".

IMHO the board is being ultra conservative and won't allow anything even if it has a lesser chance of happening than a meteor hitting the building to avoid liability which also IMHO totally unreasonable. We do have insurance after all and even if something does fly off the terrace how much more damage can it possible cause than anything else people keep on their balconies?
It could kill someone.

I don't see how we can give you advice for something that goes against the boards requirements.
 
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Old 05-15-16, 11:59 AM
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A sheet of material can kill someone?

You can give advice for a solution that wouldn't go against the board's requirements. This is a solution I came up with and I thought I'd get an oppinion or perhaps a creative idea that I hadn't thought of. For example I thought of some sort of an inflated solution like a jumping castle style frame that can be weighed down and even if it was blown off wouldn't hurt anyone. But something tells me that wouldn't be approved either due to aesthetics.

Trust me, it is not my intention to put anyone in harm's way. But I believe I can mitigate the risks to the point where it's safe. In a previous condo I used to live in, a glass top table was picked up from a balcony and crashed to the ground right in front of the building's main enterance. The board did not outlaw tables on balconies after the incident they just asked owners to take steps to secure their furniture which I think is a reasonable position to take. I am able to secure an umbrella to my terrace to ensure it is never blown off yet despite my assurances that I can chain it to a railing it was not allowed. That is unreasonable IMHO.

I can get killed everytime I step outside my front door or drive yet millions of people do it every day.

In any case, if anyone has any creative ideas that migth work within the parameters I described and within the rules i.e. can't hurt anyone, I would really appreciate it. I know it's a tall order as I am pretty creative and tend to think outside the box but that doesn't mean someone else isn't more creative than me.

I don't expect everyone to understand but I would like to enjoy some family gatherings occasionally during the summer with some protection from the hot sun.

TIA
 
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Old 05-15-16, 02:11 PM
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I would get an easy-up style canopy or patio umbrella.
 
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Old 05-15-16, 02:19 PM
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A sheet of material can kill someone?
The sheet of material fly's off the terrace, lands on somebody's windshield while they are driving and they panic and go off the road killing/maiming themselves and/or others. Yes, a sheet of material can kill somebody.

Your HOA is taking the easy way out and just saying nothing can be put up just to cover their butts, and I don't blame them the way society is now days.

IMO - Anything that you do should be temporary, something that you set up for the gathering and then take down at the end of the night. That way it is not visible all day, every day. That way if somebody complains you can say "look, it is not there".
 
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Old 05-15-16, 03:52 PM
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Since they won't even allow an umbrella with a very safe and easy to take down if the wind starts coming up I don't see how they are going to allow anything at all! The only thing I'm thinking and again I doubt they would approve it would be a pergola with the four posts set into large planters like you suggested in the first post. Pergolas don't really have a lot of area for the wind to catch which may make them more acceptable to them.
 
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Old 05-15-16, 09:11 PM
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Thanks for the suggestion. A pergola was the first thing I put up. A past property manager verbally approved it without checking with the board and when I put it up I received an email to take it down immediately and of course the prop. mgr. denied ever approving at, as I later found out she didn't have the power to approve it. Fortunately I got it at Costco and I was able to return it. They want an engineer to approve a structure like a pergola.
 
 

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