FAQ

Building your structure from scratch? Then a standard size is the simplest path of all — choose the sail first, then set your fixing points to suit it. You get a known price, a known lead time, and no measuring puzzle to solve.

Structure already in place? Then check whether one of our standard sizes fits your space with room for hardware. If it does, order it.

A made-to-measure sail is the better option if nothing quite fits, your fixing points aren't evenly spaced, you need more than four corners, or you want particular corner heights. Start with our custom shade sail enquiry — approximate dimensions are enough for a price guide.

One thing worth knowing: made-to-measure isn't a premium tier. We price both the same way — a custom sail simply takes a little longer and needs more detail from you. Nobody should end up with a sail that doesn't suit the space because they assumed custom would cost more.

Mostly your fixing points decide for you — you work with the posts, walls and structures you've got or can install.

Rectangles give the most coverage per square metre and suit patios, carports, driveways and pool areas. Squares work well for compact, balanced spaces.

Triangles need only three fixing points and suit corners and awkward spaces — but bear in mind a triangle covers noticeably less ground than a rectangle of similar dimensions. Two or three overlapping triangles can cover a large area with more visual interest than a single sail.

Whatever the shape, a sail shades where the sun puts the shadow, not where the sail sits. Think about where the sun is at the time of day you actually use the space, and offset the sail toward it.

For a deeper look at shape, coverage and storm-season considerations, read Shape, Shade and Storm Season: How to Choose a Shade Sail That Lasts from GP Motor Trimming.

Z16 for almost every home. It's a 200 GSM professional-grade knitted HDPE shade cloth — the same fabric specified for council parks, schools and commercial installs, not the lightweight retail cloth sold by the metre at hardware stores. It's what we use on the large majority of what we make — residential, pools, and commercial work where the span doesn't call for anything heavier.

E32 when the job demands more. At 320 GSM it's substantially heavier, with significantly higher breaking strength and better tear resistance. That earns its place on very large spans, exposed sites and demanding installations. It isn't a better sail — it's a different tool for a harder job.

Most people who ask this are weighing up whether to spend more on E32 for peace of mind. For a typical home it's usually overkill — Z16 is the right fabric for the job, not the budget option. Order it with confidence, and if anything about your span or exposure makes us think otherwise, we'll say so before we cut.

More than most people expect, in two ways.

UV block varies by colour. Darker colours block the most — black sits at the top of the range at around 99%. The lightest colours block noticeably less. If UV protection is your first priority, particularly over a pool or a play area, lean darker.

Light underneath changes too. A dark sail feels cooler and shadier below. A light sail keeps the space brighter but you'll notice more glare. Neither is wrong — it depends what the space is for.

Colour doesn't affect the price, so choose what suits your home. Every colour on our product pages shows its own UV figures — select a swatch and you'll see the UV block and shade percentage for that specific colour.

Close, but treat what you see as a guide rather than an exact match. Screens vary, and fabric colour shifts with the light it's under — a sail looks different at midday than it does at dusk, and different again lit from below versus above.

If you're deciding between two colours, or matching something existing, ask us for a physical sample before you order. It's the only way to be certain.

Standard shade cloth isn't waterproof, by design. It's a knitted fabric, so air passes through it and heat escapes from underneath instead of building up. A well-tensioned sail will shed a light shower off its low corner, but it isn't a roof and won't behave like one in real rain.

If you want rain cover, we make waterproof sails to order in DriZ — the same Z16 base fabric with a clear waterproof coating on the underside.

We don't lead with them, because they need a much steeper pitch than a standard sail — around a metre of fall for every four metres of span — so water runs off rather than pooling. A pool of water on a sail is heavy enough to do real damage. Ask us and we'll work through whether your site suits one.

This is the one worth getting right, and it catches people out. The size on our product pages is the finished fabric size — not the distance between your fixing points.

Your sail needs room at every corner for the hardware that tensions it — turnbuckles, shackles and fittings. Order a sail the same size as the gap between your posts and it simply won't go up.

So the method is:

1. Measure between your fixing points — post to post, or wall bracket to wall bracket.
2. Subtract 400–600mm from each side — the typical allowance for standard tensioning hardware.
3. That figure is the sail size to order.

Dashed line: your fixing points. Solid shape: the sail. The gap between them is where the hardware lives.

Treat that as a guide, not a fixed rule. How much you need depends on the fittings you're using and how much drop you want — longer turnbuckles or a length of chain need more, compact fittings need less.

Replacing an existing sail? If your hardware is already in place, measure the actual gap your fittings leave rather than working from the guide.

If you're between two standard sizes or the numbers don't quite work, send us your measurements before ordering. Standard sizes are made to order, so we can't take them back if the wrong size is ordered — a two-minute check now saves that.

You don't need detailed manufacturing measurements just to get a price. For an initial price guide, approximate outside dimensions of the space or sail you're planning are usually enough, along with a few photos if you have them.

If you're happy with the price guide and decide to proceed, we'll send you a precise measuring guide specific to your sail and walk you through the final measurements before manufacture. These include the outside anchor-point measurements and the diagonals needed to accurately map and cross-check the shape before anything is cut.

For a four-anchor-point sail, that means the four outside measurements plus the two diagonals. More anchor points require additional diagonal measurements, and we'll show you exactly which ones we need for your design.

How close do your first numbers need to be? As long as the final measurements land within about 150mm of the ones you gave us, your price guide holds. Bigger differences may shift the price — but you'll always see the firm quote before anything is made.

Read our shade sail measuring guide for the full quote-to-manufacture process, or start with our custom shade sail enquiry if you'd just like a price guide.

First, before you panic: an untensioned sail almost always looks too small. The fabric only reaches its proper dimensions once it's under load, and how much force that takes surprises most people the first time. Hang it, tension it properly, then judge.

A little short? Hardware is usually the answer. A longer turnbuckle, an extra shackle, or a length of stainless chain at a corner will make up a surprising amount of distance — that's exactly what the hardware is there to do.

A little long? Go the other way — shorter fittings, or attach direct at a corner rather than through a turnbuckle. Just make sure you keep enough adjustment left to tension it properly.

Substantially too big? Honestly, there's not much to be done short of moving a fixing point or having the sail altered — and moving a fixing point isn't an option when it's the house or a concreted post. That's why we'd rather check your numbers before we cut.

Then a standard size isn't your answer, and that's completely normal — most real backyards aren't square.

Our standard sizes suit spaces where the fixing points form a true rectangle, square or equal-sided triangle. If yours don't, or you need more than four corners, use the custom enquiry instead. You describe the space, Geoff works out the sail — and we cross-check the numbers before anything is cut.

A tensioned sail pulls hard — far harder than most people expect. Whatever you fix to has to take that load permanently, in wind, not just on a still day.

Generally suitable: purpose-installed posts, structural house framing via a properly fixed wall bracket, and solid masonry with appropriate fixings. We supply wall and roof brackets made for the job — worth using purpose-made fittings rather than improvising, since this is the point where sails most often let go.

Treat with caution: fascia and guttering, cladding, fence posts, pergolas and carports not designed for lateral load, and anything you can flex by hand.

Sails are supplied without installation hardware and we don't provide engineering or structural certification. If you're unsure whether a structure will take it, have a builder or engineer look before you fix anything to it.

Yes, and it's overlooked more than almost anything else.

Sails move. Wind lifts them, drops them, and pushes them against whatever's nearby — a gutter, a fence, a beam, a roofline. Over time, contact means wear, and wear means a shorter life for the sail. It's one of the biggest differences between a sail that lasts and one that frays out early.

So allow room where the sail needs it, and account for how it will sit and shift once it's up rather than where it hangs on a still day. Keep trees trimmed back too — a branch that doesn't reach today may well reach in two years.

There's no standard height, and that's not a dodge — the right answer depends on what you're shading and how the space is used.

Clearance underneath. Comfortable headroom at the lowest corner is a minimum, not a target. Vehicles, doors, gates and anything that swings all need thinking about.

Where the sun actually is. A sail shades where the sun puts the shadow. The higher it sits, the further that shadow travels — so at the times of day you use the space, a very high sail can end up shading somewhere you don't need it.

Wind and clearance. Higher sails catch more wind and put more load into your fixing points. The sail also needs room to move without touching gutters, fences, branches or beams.

And the corners won't all be the same height anyway, so you're setting a range rather than a single figure. If you're about to set posts, this is the point where a conversation is worth having — it's a lot easier to move a post on paper.

No — and a sail with every corner level is usually a sail that will sag and flap.

Height variation between corners is what gives a sail its twist. That three-dimensional shape is what holds tension, sheds water instead of pooling it, and stops the fabric drumming in wind. It's also what makes a sail look like a sail rather than a tarp.

On a four-corner sail, a common approach is two diagonally opposite corners high and two low. Which corners go high depends on where your sun comes from and where you want water to run off — worth thinking about before you set your posts.

Worth knowing where the line sits, though. A degree of curve and height variation isn't decoration — it's structural, and every good sail has it. Past that point, extra twist becomes a design choice, and a dramatic shape can come at the cost of coverage. Knowing the difference between the shape a sail needs and the shape it's been given purely for looks is a big part of what we do.

Tight, yes. Drum tight and dead flat, no.

You're aiming for firm, even tension with no loose edges and no visible sag — with the shape of the sail still doing its work. Our edges are cut with an inward curve for exactly this reason: as the sail is tensioned, that curve pulls the edges straight and taut rather than letting them go slack.

A new sail will relax slightly in the first weeks under load. That's normal — re-tension it once it's settled, then check it once a year.

Plenty of our customers do. It's easier with two people, though it can be done solo with the right approach.

If your fixing points are already in and sound, hanging and tensioning a sail is a straightforward job. If posts still need to go in, that's the bigger part of the project — post size, footing depth and structural load depend on your soil conditions, wind region, span and sail size, and they're best worked out on site by a local building professional.

Tensioning is the step people underestimate. It takes more force than expected, which is why turnbuckles exist rather than rope.

One word on safety, which applies every time you touch the sail: hanging, tensioning, inspecting and removing usually means working at height with something under load. If you're not set up for that, get someone who is.

Requirements vary between states and councils, so the only reliable answer is your local one.

As a guide from our own region, certification is commonly required for structures over 10m², over 2.4m in height, or close to boundaries, driveways or pools. That's Queensland, though — your council may set entirely different thresholds.

What holds everywhere is what drives the requirement: it's the posts, footings and anchor points that get assessed, not the fabric. The sail itself isn't a cyclone-rated structure and comes down in severe weather — the structure holding it is what stays up.

Check with your council before you build. It's a phone call, and it's much cheaper than finding out afterwards.

In Mackay and the surrounding area, yes — installation, removal and refitting through GP Motor Trimming's Shade Sails Mackay service, our local installation business.

Everywhere else in Australia we supply the sail and you arrange installation. That local install work is the reason our sails are made the way they are — we've spent twenty years hanging them, so we know what makes one easy to put up and what makes one a fight.

Professional-grade knitted HDPE shade cloth in two weights — Z16 at 200 GSM and E32 at 320 GSM. Both are monofilament and tape construction, UV-stabilised, and tested and compliant to Australian Standards.

This is not the same material as the lightweight shade cloth sold by the metre in hardware stores, and it's not what most cheap ready-made sails are cut from. It's the grade specified for council parks, schools and commercial installations.

Up to 99% for Z16 and up to 95.8% for E32, both depending on the colour you choose. Darker colours sit at the top of those ranges and the lightest colours noticeably lower.

Two different figures are worth understanding. UV block is how much harmful UV radiation the fabric stops — that's the sunburn number. Shade factor is how much visible light and heat it stops — that's how dark and cool it feels underneath. They're related but not the same, and a colour can rate higher on one than the other.

Every colour on our product pages shows both. Select a swatch and you'll see the UV block and shade percentage for that specific colour.

A well-made sail, properly tensioned and looked after, should give you many years of service. Cheap ready-made sails often give up in a fraction of that.

The fabric holds up remarkably well. In independent 15-year weather endurance testing, a Z16 sample left exposed to real weather for fifteen years still blocked 95.1% of UV and retained close to 80% of its original strength.

In practice, most sails fail long before the fabric does — at the stitching, at the hardware, from rubbing against something, or because they were left up through weather that should have brought them down. That last one is entirely within your control, and it's the most common of the lot.

The oldest sail Geoff made independently went up in 2001 at his parents' place in Mackay. It came down in 2024 — still structurally intact — because they were refreshing the pool yard with new tiles and a new pole. There's a photo and the full story on our homepage.

Coats Helios P — a premium bonded, UV-resistant thread that costs us considerably more than standard thread.

Here's why it matters. Our workshop restitches other people's shade sails every year — sails where the fabric is still perfectly good but the seams have let go. The customer usually assumes the whole sail is finished. It isn't; the thread just gave up years before the fabric was ready to.

After seeing enough of them come across the bench, we moved to Helios P on every sail we make. It's engineered to last as long as the fabric it's holding together, which is the entire point.

Every corner gets a 316 marine-grade stainless steel triangle, sewn in behind heavy-duty seatbelt-grade webbing reinforcement. Not D-rings, not bolted corner plates — a sewn stainless triangle that spreads the load across the corner rather than concentrating it at a single point.

Webbing is black as standard, which stays neutral and doesn't show dirt. White is available on request.

Both — webbing as standard, cable-edged sails made to order.

Webbing is our default for residential work. Properly specified webbing is more than strong enough for typical residential spans, it gives the edge a little useful flex, and it makes a sail lighter and far quicker to take down before a storm. In cyclone country that last point matters more than people expect — a sail that's a fight to remove is a sail that stays up when it shouldn't.

Cable earns its place on large spans, where the edge needs to stay rigid across a long run, and on jobs where a specification calls for it. If that's your situation, ask us — it's a choice we make deliberately, not a capability we lack.

It's also a wear point. We restitch a lot of cabled sails where the cable has worn through the hem over time. That's our own repair-bench experience rather than an industry rule, but it's a large part of why we don't reach for cable by default.

In our workshop in Andergrove, Mackay — North Queensland. Every sail is cut and stitched here by Geoff and Paula. Nothing is outsourced and nothing is imported ready-made.

The machines matter as much as the materials. Sail seams run through several layers of heavy fabric and webbing at once, and that needs purpose-built industrial machinery — long-arm walking-foot machines made for exactly this work, not general-purpose equipment doing its best. It's what lets us put a consistent, even stitch through every layer, every time.

GP Motor Trimming has operated here since 2011, and Geoff has been in the trade for over twenty years — a QBCC-licensed builder restricted to special structures (shade sails), and a member of the Specialised Textiles Association.

Take the sail down, and take it down early. Shade sail fabric is not engineered to withstand cyclonic conditions, and that's true of every fabric shade structure sold in Australia regardless of who made it or what it's fixed to.

Remove your sail when there's an active cyclone watch or warning, or a Bureau of Meteorology severe weather warning for destructive winds in your area. Warnings usually give you a day or more — that's the window to use, because a sail is far easier to remove in calm conditions than in rising wind. Store it somewhere cool and dry, and check your fixing points are secure while it's down.

If you've run out of time and it's already blowing, leave it. Removing a sail means working at height with a large piece of fabric under load and catching wind. Nothing on your property is worth being up a ladder for in those conditions. Secure what you can at ground level, stay inside, and deal with the sail afterwards.

Two reasons this matters. A tensioned sail transfers enormous load into whatever it's anchored to — your posts, your fascia, your pergola all have limits. And wind-borne debris will tear any fabric, however well made.

The best thing you can do is have a plan before the season starts: know how your sail comes down, keep the hardware accessible, and make it a job you've done once already rather than one you're working out under pressure.

Ordinary weather — storms, gusty afternoons, summer downpours — is what these sails are built for. We make them in the tropics, for the tropics, and we see our own installs come through wet season after wet season.

The limiting factor is rarely the fabric. It's tension and anchoring. A slack sail flaps, and flapping destroys fabric and stitching faster than anything else. Keep it properly tensioned and keep your fixings sound.

Every six to twelve months, or as needed. A soft brush and a sugar soap solution, worked into the fabric and left for fifteen to twenty minutes, then rinsed thoroughly, handles most of it. For heavier soiling, a product like Wet & Forget works well — follow the instructions on the label.

Keep on top of leaves, bird droppings and debris too. They stain, hold moisture against the fabric, and over time do more damage than general grime — particularly on a sail sitting under a tree.

What not to do: never use bleach, mould removers, acid washes or abrasive cleaners, and never direct high-pressure spray at the fabric. If a sail needs more than a soft brush, a rotating brush head attachment is fine. Harsh chemicals and pressure damage the weave, shorten the life of the sail considerably, and can void both our workmanship warranty and the fabric manufacturer's warranty — which is worth knowing before someone reaches for the bleach.

Some colour change over many years of full sun is normal for any outdoor fabric. Professional-grade shade cloth holds up far better than cheap alternatives — the pigment is built into the fibre rather than applied to the surface.

Worth knowing where it happens, though. On the very old sails we've taken down and replaced, fading is almost entirely on the top surface — the side facing the sun, which nobody ever sees. The underside, which is the face you actually look at from below, holds its colour remarkably well.

In practice a good sail looks tired long before it stops working. The fifteen-year test sample was still blocking over 95% of UV at the end of it.

Very little, but not nothing.

Re-tension as needed. Every sail relaxes slightly after installation as the fabric settles under load — that's normal, and a quick turn of the turnbuckles fixes it. Check annually after that. A loose sail wears out faster than a tight one.

Check your hardware. Turnbuckles, shackles and fittings should be secure, properly locked off, and free of wear or corrosion. Do this after any removal and re-install, and once a year otherwise — hardware is where sails most often let go.

Inspect the stitching once a year. Sun weakens stitching over time on any sail, and catching a seam early means a small repair rather than a replacement. If you're local, we can look at it for you.

All of this means working at height with the sail under load. If you're not set up for that, get someone who is.

Around four to six weeks from order confirmation. We're a small Queensland workshop and every sail is made to order — we'll always aim to beat that, but we'd rather be upfront than have you planning around a date we can't hold.

Made-to-measure sails add time at the front end — we send a measuring guide, you send measurements back, then we draw it up and confirm a fixed price for your approval. The clock on the four to six weeks starts once you've approved that drawing, so how quickly you get your measurements back to us sets the pace.

Included: the sail itself — professional-grade fabric in your chosen grade and colour, 316 marine-grade stainless corner triangles sewn in at every corner, heavy-duty seatbelt-grade webbing reinforcement, and Coats Helios P stitching throughout.

Not included: installation hardware — turnbuckles, eye bolts, shackles and snap hooks. These are available separately from our hardware range, and we're happy to advise what suits your specific design.

Yes. We make made-to-measure and standard-size shade sails in our Mackay workshop and send them by courier anywhere in Australia — every state and territory, capital cities, regional towns and remote addresses alike. Whether it's a new sail, a replacement for one that's given up, or a DIY project you're fitting yourself, we make it here and freight it to you.

Shipping is $69 per sail with no surcharge for Perth, Darwin or Tasmania. Hardware ordered alongside a sail travels in the same parcel at no extra cost. Hardware on its own is $15 under $200, or $69 for orders over $200.

Every sail we make is cut to order for one customer, so we're unable to offer refunds or exchanges for change of mind, or where an incorrect size has been ordered.

That's why we go on about the finished fabric size, and why we'd genuinely rather you check with us first than guess. It takes us five minutes and it's free.

This does not affect your rights under the Australian Consumer Law for goods that are faulty or not as described.

Three things cover you.

Our workmanship warranty. We warrant our workmanship for 3 years from dispatch — the stitching and seams, webbing reinforcement, and the corner fittings sewn into the sail. If something we've made comes apart in that time, we'll repair or replace it. Full terms are here.

Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law apply to every sail we sell — goods must be of acceptable quality, fit for purpose and as described. Nothing we write changes that.

The manufacturer's warranty on the fabric. Shade fabric carries the fabric manufacturer's own limited warranty against UV degradation. It's their warranty on their terms, with its own conditions and exclusions. If you think you have a fabric claim, send us photos and your order number and we'll help you through it.

What we don't warrant is an installation we haven't done. On a supply-only sail we don't control the fixing points, the tension, the maintenance, what it rubs against, or whether it comes down before a storm. And because we can't assess a sail we can't see, a claim starts with photos and a bit of history.

If something goes wrong with a sail we made, talk to us.

Yes — for installers, landscapers, builders and trades ordering regularly. Sails are supplied unbranded so your customer sees your business, not ours. There's no application form and no minimum order. See Trade & Installers for the detail.

Please do. Send us your measurements, a photo of the space, or just a description of what you're trying to shade — email or the contact form is best. We'll come back to you within 3–5 business days, usually sooner.

We'd rather you write first than call. Between the workshop and installs we're often not near a phone, and we get enough sales and scam calls that unknown numbers tend to go to message. Drop us a note and we'll ring you back at a time that suits — having already had a look at what you've sent.

Either way, you'll be talking to the people who make the sail, not a call centre.