Laura:

We appreciate your question. It is a challenging one.

Without seeing the exact context of your project, it is hard to determine whether cedar 6x6's will work, but essentially a stout post, properly anchored and connected will be sufficient. It is advisable to have an engineer look at your goals and provide guidance, because all connections to the house, the posts and ancillary points where the sails are secured will receive tremendous stress. Wind loads will be rather dynamic, in particular, so ensuring that the connections are appropriate for potential storms and any unexpected events will protect your family as well as your investment.

Specific to your question about the purchase of the posts: these were custom fabricated locally in Iowa, and most communities have fabricators that can provide high quality metal manufacturing. Before the fabrication, we defined the aesthetic within the design process, and partnered with a regional engineer to ensure our connections were safe. The angle was an aesthetic decision to draw attention to the canopy, roughly 5%.

We hope this helps you planning, and have fun with your project. It's a great time of year to install a shade canopy, anticipating upcoming summer events. Please post a picture when you are done.

Thank you for your response. I will post a picture once we have the project completed. Much appreciated!

Well, we got the shade sail up...it has been very windy and so far the 6x6 posts have held up. Thank you for the great inspirational photos! For some reason the photo rotated.