The Best Fabric Choice for Your Home Awning
From simple rigid-framed awnings to fully retractable models, awnings come in a wide range of styles, designs and materials. While the more traditional-style awning is made of wood, cotton canvas or metal, their modern counterparts tend to feature more durable materials that require a lot less maintenance. The secret to today’s modern awning is in the fabric.
Natural material
Historically, natural fiber canvas and wood were used to create building awnings. These natural materials offer the advantage of being inexpensive but they require their fair share of maintenance, including frequent replacement. While natural materials may be a first choice, they can pose an increased risk of fire damage, which can be a concern in places of frequent wildfires.
Vinyl
If you look long enough you’ll likely find a vinyl awning fabric supplier. Once popular, but still available, vinyl material is a good choice for illuminated and backlit awnings due to their translucency. Vinyl-laminated polyester can be a good choice for high-humidity areas while vinyl-coated polyester, which has a thinner protective layer, is good for UV rays and mildew, but less effective in humid areas. Vinyl coated fabrics come in limited styles and colors.
Acrylic
By far the most common type of awning fabric, acrylic and acrylic-coated synthetic fabrics tend to effectively hold up a lot longer, repel water and reduce fading. Homeowners can choose from a wide variety of acrylic fabrics including cotton-polyester blends, polyester coated with acrylic and 100 percent acrylic fabric.
However, uncoated polyester is not considered suitable for awning use because it is very susceptible to sun damage. Polyester and acrylic awning fabrics are often opaque and heavy but work well in areas of high humidity, UV rays and are great at resisting mildew.
Here at MrCoverAll, we recommend and use only the best in acrylic fiber, utilizing DICKSON® solar protection for all our awnings. This new generation Orchestra fabric offer incomparable properties and performance levels that revolutionize the outdoor market. The technical characteristics of Dickson solar protection fabric means greater water resistance, better UV protection and more stability. It is the highest performance fabric on the market.
Article Author: John Kerkhoff. MrCoverAll.ca is the leading supplier of retractable awnings in Canada. Retractable awnings are a chance for you to choose between sun and shade. A chance to get up close and personal with nature, while still preventing UV rays from damaging your skin. Whether you want to block the sun or allow it to reach your deck partially, we make it a simple matter of pressing the right button. Click Here to receive a consultation.
Article Resources:
http://www.dickson-constant.com/en/UK/solar-protection/orchestra
http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/decorating/outdoor-fabrics
http://fabricarchitecturemag.com/articles/0409_f1_awnings.html
Photo Source: courtesy of worradmu / Free Digital Photos
Tags: Awning styles, awnings, Fabric choices, John Kerkhoff
