Gale Pacific 339586 Block Shade Fabric, (6' x 15'), Grey

After watching my sunroom chairs bleach out like crazy from two huge, old skylights I decided to recover them. But before I did i wanted some protection from all those UV rays. I looked into purchasing semi custom or custom skylight covers from an online vendor. The cost was something like $450 for two!!! NOT!I purchased a roll of this Coolaroo shade fabric and measured my existing rectangular skylights. They are flat topped not dome which made measuring and making up the shades easy. I cut out rectangles allowing for a few inches of overhang in every direction. I then cut bungee cording long enough to wrap the entire perimeter and again left at least 2' of extra. All I had to do was put a knot in one end of the cord, fold the edge over the bungee cord, hold it in place and run it through my sewing machine using a thread that would withstand the elements. I then tied a knot in the other end so it wouldn't slip back through.My husband and I laid the cover over the skylight and he held the cord pocket over the sides as I pulled on the cords to tighten it up. Once it was securely around the skylight we tied off the two ends of the cord and VOILA! Custom skylight cover for a fraction of the cost. It literally took less than two hours from start to finish. I didn't have to do anything to treat the cut part of the fabric. It didn't fray or unravel where it was trimmed.These covers immediately improved the glare in our sunroom and made it easier to watch tv. They also seem to reduce the heat in the room. They held up no problem all winter and we will see how they do blocking the UV in the summer.

We live in Arizona! We bought 3 of these Coolaroo shade cloths in gray to match our house color. They are very nice. They shipped individually in tightly rolled and sealed packages. I opened and unrolled each of them; then I rerolled them much much looser and let them lay out, full length, over the guest room bed for about 4 days. We had to wait until curtain hardware came anyway. We installed curtain hardware on back porch. Then I cut one side of shade cloth to match our porch openings and hemmed both short (6 ft)sides. It was very easy to hem them on a standard sewing machine with standard thread even with material tripled - I folded material and then tucked end underneath of itself so it would look nice and there would be no possibility of fraying. Then my husband bought a grommet kit to install grommets. We actually hung the cloth with the longest length (15 f5) going side to side, as we needed the width on the porch and didn't care if the shade cloth did not reach the ground - as we mostly wanted the sun out of our eyes and protect the furniture - plus the dogs could go under it then. The only problem we had was that the grommet tool we bought did not want to go through even one layer of the cloth, so we just ended up making holes with a screwdriver and then using the grommet tool. It worked perfectly. The shades are up, they hung out nice - no wrinkles, and sliding them on an overhead curtain track is so much better than having shades to roll up and down plus there are no mechanisms to go bad or rope pulls to rot in the sun and break. To keep the bottom from flapping in the wind, we installed a grommet in each bottom corner, put eyelet screws into the porch columns, and then got those clamps with a toggle clip, and we just clip them if there is some wind. When they are to the side we just bungee them to another eyelet we put into the column.

WOW!! This stuff is AMAZING! I have a western facing back yard in Indiana. The sun is so hot in the summer that the back yard is generally unusable. This year I was going to replace my stone slab with a wood deck and pergola. The pergola was meant to help keep the sun from heating up my house all summer as well. I researched and researched for months wanting to have all of my information before pulling the trigger. The reviews on this were great.The second issue I has was a 3 door sliding glass door which was great for turning the house into a sauna. I needed to find something that would make the deck usable and help keep the heat out of the living room and keep my AC from overworking the whole summer.I moved forward with the deck and pergola build in June. Once the pergola was up, I installed the fabric. I used larger head nails and furring strips to have keep it secure. Well, the first hot, sunny day on the new deck was AH MA ZING!!! It felt 20 degrees cooler under the shade than out in the sun.The inside if the house has stayed cool and nice. My AC does not need to work overtime. I would HIGHLY recommend this for any shade seekers.

I just made indoor shades with the Coolaroo. A few thoughts -1. The color is good, I'm happy they have it in a light neutral.2. Its not fabric, its plastic. Not a complaint, but I wasn't expecting that. I ended up gluing the edges instead of sewing.3. It definitely cools the rooms, from our West facing Living Room windows.4. It also blocks a great deal of light, even in the light color.I would absolutely recommend this for indoor shades to keep your cooling costs down. But I'm going to alter the shades to be retractable, so I can let light in sometimes. The biggest bonus is that this was relatively easy to work with and install, using hot glue and the Coolaroo thread. Hot glue isn't the best option - with more time i may have added fabric edges.

This stuff is great.I installed some on top of my pergola. I simply nailed the cloth into the boards with several dozen roofing nails. We've had severe weather, hail, drought, and the fabric looks exactly as it did when I installed it.It definitely provides effective protection from the sun, though I did wind up modifying the design of the pergola to better position more fabric in the best spots.The price is hard to beat, and the stuff is forgiving and easy to work with.

We have a small deck with a glass roof. It was too hot to sit under and also heated the house. Other options were too expensive (like replacing the glass with another opaque material) so we saw this and thought we would give it a try. We used spring loaded shower curtain rods and hung the material like a pergola shade. It is doing the trick of keeping it cooler but still lets in a lot of light. You have to be careful because the material wrinkles like crazy. We basically kept it flat when sewing but did manage to get a few wrinkles that don't look as serious one the material is hung up. Great value for the price.

I have a 6’x12’ pergola on my deck. I needed the full 15’ to accomplish the weaving in and out that I was trying to achieve. It took a little work on my part but I am thrilled with the end result and how little it cost me to achieve it.Only one size of the material is finished and hemmed. I measured my space, cut into three strips. I folded the edge about 3/4 of an inch all the way around to create a hem. I flattened the hem material with a wooden spatula from my kitchen that has a square, flat edge. Then I did a basic herringbone stitch that I watched someone teach on YouTube. I used a heavy duty polyester thread which won’t mildew. (P.S. I also attempted to sew using a sewing machine, also after watching YouTube tutorials, but after breaking three heavy duty needles, I conceded and decided I would do it by hand.I mounted the finished product using three closed eye hooks that just screw in by hand and attached white zip ties. I think I will upgrade to a chain link tie in the future and install the grommets I have purchased. I attempted to install them and found it challenging and decided to wait for fall to do so when I wasn’t so desperate for sun relief. Right now I just have the zip ties going through the actual material.Does it provide adequate shade? YES! It is very comfortable to sit underneath. It’s still bright, but does cast a shadow on my deck and allows me to sit out for hours on my deck when I usually would find it unbearable.I am so impressed with this product that I have two more coolaroo products on order, one of which is a 10x10 sun shade for my dog kennel. :)

We covered several skylights with this cloth and a south facing window, using tension rods by sewing a rod pocket at each end.It seems to be keeping out the heat, while letting in a decent amount of light. I would recommend a heavier duty machine if possible and a denim needle for working with this.

Ordered 2 and had my mom fabricate a retractable awning for the pergola I built. She didn't have some high dollar sewing machine (far from it actually) and seemed to manage just fine with it. Was lots of work in sewing so much bulk though, and have to use specific outdoor quality thread. Fabric seems very durable, provides lots of shade and we absolutely love how everything turned out for our west facing deck (hot as can be in the afternoon before this addition.) Also purchased coolaroo roller shades for South and West side of the structure. All seem to be great products.

Part of our patio cover has glass and we needed something to shade it in the heat of the afternoon. We decided to do something like a retractable pergola cover and this material worked well. Very cost effective.