Shade sails · Rouse HillShade for a suburb that grew faster than its trees.

Shade in Rouse Hill

What a Rouse Hill block is up against

Streets that were paddocks not long ago run wide and pale here, and the houses sit close together with driveways that come all the way to the kerb. Blocks are generous, and plenty of them face north or west, so the afternoon sun lands square on the alfresco slab and stays there until it drops behind the back fence. Eaves on the newer houses are shallow, so they run out of shade early in the afternoon. The town centre has the same trouble at a bigger scale, with open paving between the shops and the carparks and nothing over it.

There's usually nothing on a new block to measure off. No old pergola to hang a corner on, so we come out with the tape, work off the house and the ground itself, then draw the structure over a photo of your place. You see the shape and where the posts land before any of it exists. The measure and the blueprint are free, and the quote is put in writing. For a number tonight, our instant estimate sizes one from your own measurements.

Around Rouse Hill we build shade cloth on posts we set ourselves, over a pool or along the run of driveway a corner block brings. Those posts will also carry a waterproof PVC roof if you want the space usable in the rain. A carport sail keeps the cars off hot bitumen, and a cantilever umbrella covers a terrace where a post in the middle of the lawn would be in the way. There's more backyard work on our residential page.

Carparks, retail forecourts, childcare yards and community sites get the T-post structures the job above is built from, and that end of the trade lives on our commercial page. If council is on your mind, our guide to council approval in NSW lays out the full picture.

Colour does more work than people expect. A dark cloth knocks the glare down and reads well against brick, though it sits hotter overhead. Pale cloth stays cooler underneath and throws more light back at the windows, which you notice if the yard is already bright. A tighter knit blocks more UV and also catches more wind, which the posts and footings have to allow for. Over a pale slab facing west we'd lean dark, and we'll say so when you ask.

We're family owned, licensed in NSW (294924C), four decades and more than 3,000 jobs into the trade. Every sail is cut and sewn at our own factory at Rydalmere, and it carries a 10 to 15 year warranty. On a young street the ground around a house is often fill left from the build, so a footing wants to reach past it and sit in the undisturbed soil underneath.

Rouse Hill is about 30 minutes from our Rydalmere factory, where every sail we install is measured, cut, welded and finished. Repairs and re-skins too, including sails we did not build.

We also cover Kellyville, North Kellyville, Box Hill, The Ponds and Schofields.