5 Things to Consider Before Choosing an Awning
Orientation, fixing, wind, consent and operation: the five questions worth answering before you order an awning for a Sydney home. From a Luxaflex Gallery Dealer.
An awning is one of the few home purchases where nearly all of the risk sits before the order rather than after it. The product itself is durable and well understood; what goes wrong is specification. These are the five questions we work through on every measure visit, and answering them yourself first will make any quote you receive easier to read.
One. Which way the wall faces
Orientation decides everything downstream. A west-facing opening takes low, horizontal afternoon sun that no overhead awning will stop, so it needs something vertical. A north-facing one takes high summer sun and welcome winter sun, which is the classic case for a retractable projection you can put away in June. Work out the hour the space becomes unusable, and note where the light is coming from at that hour.
Two. What it actually fixes into
A folding-arm awning transfers real load into the wall, and the wall has to be able to take it. Masonry is straightforward; a timber-framed or clad wall needs the fixing set into structure rather than sheeting; a cantilevered balcony above may rule the position out entirely. This is the single most common reason a preferred product changes on site, and it is not something that can be judged from a photograph.
Three. How exposed the site is
Wind exposure is where the difference between products becomes financial. On a sheltered inner courtyard almost anything will last. On an exposed harbour-side or coastal elevation, specify for the worst afternoon of the year: Luxaflex® Evo MagnaTrack® Awnings are rated to 185 km/h and re-seat their own fabric, while a folding-arm awning on the same site should carry a motion sensor that retracts it automatically at around 35 km/h. Paying for the wind rating is cheaper than replacing fabric.
Four. Whether anyone else has to approve it
In an apartment or a semi, an awning fixed to a common-property wall or visible from the street will usually need owners’ corporation approval, and in a heritage conservation area council may have a view on colour and projection. Neither is difficult, but both take weeks, and both are best started before the fabric is chosen rather than after. We are happy to supply the drawings and specifications a strata committee will ask for.
Five. How it will be operated in year three
Almost every unused awning we come across is a manual one in an awkward position. If the handle sits behind a planter, or the run is wide, or the opening is above head height, assume the shade will not be deployed on the days it matters. Luxaflex® PowerView® Automation is the answer to that: scheduled scenes, app and voice control, and a rechargeable battery wand rather than cabling. It is the option clients most often tell us they wish they had taken first time.
And one more: what happens in ten years
An awning is a fifteen-year purchase, so the questions worth asking are about the decade rather than the season. Whether the fabric range will still be available when a panel needs replacing, whether the motor is a serviceable part or a sealed unit, and whether the company that installed it will still be there to service it are all fair things to ask before ordering, and the answers vary widely across the market.
It is one of the practical reasons we only specify Luxaflex® Window Coverings. As a Gallery Dealer we can still source fabric and components for installations we completed many years ago, and because we have traded from Double Bay for twenty-five years the service call comes back to the people who measured it in the first place.
If you would like this checklist as a one-page summary to take around your own home, ask us and we will send it through with your quote.
Book a free in-home measure and quote at astyleofshade.com.au/contact-us/, or call 1300 347 967.
Explore the range
- Evo MagnaTrack® Awnings — Tracked outdoor blinds rated to 185 km/h, sealed edge to edge.
- Folding Arm Awnings — Shade projected over a table with no post in the space.
- PowerView® Motorisation — Scheduled scenes, app and voice control, no cabling.
Book a free in-home measure and quote at astyleofshade.com.au/contact-us/, or call 1300 347 967. A Style of Shade, 430–432 New South Head Road, Double Bay NSW 2028.