Outdoor Awning Type Thingy...

[Premiershipman]

Currently I have a tiny single garage that is quite frankly rammed with tools etc, which leaves me with no room whatsoever to actually make anything comfortably.

I am considering an awning type thing to mount above the garage door which could be pulled out to allow an 'outdoor' working area that can be folded/rolled away afterwards.

Allows me to make stuff on the drive without having to rearrange half of my garage to do anything. There could be the possibility of mounting holes in the drive for uprights to allow the awning to clip to and maybe add sides to it to cut down breeze etc.

Any thoughts / suggestions ??

Thanks

Shady

 

[brokenbiker]

get a cheap gazebo and modify it? My father had one with telescopic legs, that hinged at the top. One man build type thing. If you take 2 legs off and mount it to the wall you are done

 

[Jan]

I erected a couple of those 'gazebo' things on my back garden a couple of years ago to cover my larger car so I could work on it under cover. Unfortunately the roof material wasn't UV proof, although the blurb it came with said it was. This meant that after several months of use the roof material shredded and scattered all over the neighbourhood with the first strong winds of the Autumn.

Although not a cheap option, a retractible motor home awning might be a good long term investment. They are designed to permanantly attach to a vertical surface as much as 3 metres off the floor and, when retracted, can withstand hurricane force winds and even ignore severe gales with the right tie down kit. Support legs can be rested on the ground or folded inwards to slot into wall mounts. Front and side walls can be added as needs require or funds permit. The 'standard' lengths are 2.5 and 3 metres, but shorter or longer ones are available.

The pics aren't very good, but this is the kind of thing I mean.

 

[steve.h]

I would get the pole and mechanism for a roller blind as big as you can get and then fit tarp type material to it and like you say add some uprights at full stretch of the material, you may need to add a couple of bars in a X back to the garage to hold the canopy up a bit higher as it would probably droop.
Another Idea would be to fit some metal eyes in several places and stretch a tarpvia the eyelets then just unhook and fold up when finished.

 

[gordon stephenson]

If it would fit, A wind out shop type awning, make some hanging sides to cut down on draughts.

 

[Robotstar5]

I've put cuphooks into the lintel above the garage door and hang a plastic tarp off them, the other end hooks onto a piece of timber that spans the fences leading to the garage, takes a few minutes to put up or down.

 

[octo0072000]

lots of pop up gazebos on fleybay depends on how big you want it they also do them in black so wont show dirty finger marks

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=pop up gazebo waterproof&_frs=1

 

[sardine]

I was given two of the cheap gazebos with no sides, from Argos, drove me nuts, every puff of wind they take off, and end up in the next county in a mangled heap. Basically they are very effective sails, whatever you tie it to will take off with it, paving slabs, cars, small houses, continents.

 

[Wedg1e]

I erected a couple of those 'gazebo' things on my back garden a couple of years ago to cover my larger car so I could work on it under cover. Unfortunately the roof material wasn't UV proof, although the blurb it came with said it was. This meant that after several months of use the roof material shredded and scattered all over the neighbourhood with the first strong winds of the Autumn.

Although not a cheap option, a retractible motor home awning might be a good long term investment. They are designed to permanantly attach to a vertical surface as much as 3 metres off the floor and, when retracted, can withstand hurricane force winds and even ignore severe gales with the right tie down kit. Support legs can be rested on the ground or folded inwards to slot into wall mounts. Front and side walls can be added as needs require or funds permit. The 'standard' lengths are 2.5 and 3 metres, but shorter or longer ones are available.

The pics aren't very good, but this is the kind of thing I mean.

Nursy and I took our hols in the Canadian Rockies earlier this summer and we had a 26 foot RV with an electric awning: in an idle moment I was studying how it went together, it was mostly made from lengths of thin-wall channel that slipped into each other as it retracted (kept the profile down I guess). I recall it used two gas struts to push the canopy taut as it was extended.