My husband, son and a good friend installed our Coolaroo Sail shade yesterday. You kinda need three people, but hubby says my daughter and I could have been the second and third person easily enough. She's athletic, but I'm a weakling. It's important to know before you purchase that the point of this shade is not going to go up into a corner of your house and give you a triangle of shade. Houses have right angles, this sail shade is an equilateral. However, don't be afraid to get creative. If my hubby had known this shade wasn't a right triangle(he's an engineer)we probably wouldn't have purchased it, but he's glad we did.
My husband's advice...plan for your space before you make your purchase. Then, when you get yours and lay it out, plan again! The square(not the one we purchased)is bigger(almost twice the shade). However with the triangle you don't need as many attachment points. That wasn't an issue, though for us since we have an existing pool cage. We consulted with our screen enclosure contractor and he said it would be no problem and wouldn't compromise the integrity of our cage. He installed it 12 yrs. ago and makes repairs for us annually, so we trust him completely. The reviewers that say, they wish they had bought a bigger one hit the nail on the head. We may add a second for more shade and other reviewers say it's a nicer look than one large one anyway.
Hubby went to the Marine store and Ace Hardware and bought about $10 worth of extra hardware because he wanted to be able to get ours down in case of a hurricane. 1/4" braided nylon rope (won't stretch), 2 small pulleys (marine store)and a deck cleat.
I wanted to address the point some reviewers are making that the sun shade is plastic(y) and tarp like. It is NOT cloth, but it is not simple plastic either. It is porous to allow air to move through it and rain. Therefore the shade it puts out is not dark. I'm glad for this because it would make the house too dark. The material blocks UV and lessens glare, therefore cooling your area, in our case quite a lot.
Also, we have the ocean blue which is muted. Maybe some of the colors are bright and even ugly but the ocean blue is nice!
We are very, very pleased so far. We keep hoping for a storm so we can see how it will hold up, we think it will.
July 20, 2011 Just wanted to update my review. This shade sail is a huge advantage for us. We are enjoying our patio a LOT more! The shade from it keeps our screen porch cooler in the afternoon and we think it is even helping to keep the algae at bay in the pool since it shades part of the pool. We enjoy our patio all day now!