WeatherSolve Structures - Ultra Span Productive Environments for all Weathers

General Information on Hail Protection

 

WeatherSolve Hail Protection Systems are generally flat and are set to withstand whatever extreme loads might occur.

 

Flat systems can be made stronger and are generally more economical. Both the Swivel and the Fixed Canopies are usually flat.

The fixed systems can be removed for winter, but we recommend that if a system needs to be removed our Swivel Retractable system is used.

 

Traditional hail canopies as developed in Italy and France have a pitched roof. The fabric is hung loose with very few clips along the edges so the hail will spill out between the connection points.

 

The system requires a lot of poles and is difficult to make very resistant to other loads such as wind and snow.

• Pitched canopies catch the wind.
• Snow does not slide off unless the slope is over about 60 degrees, so the canopies are typically rolled up for winter.
• Infrequent clips holding onto bare fabric selvedges are very weak compared to cable in hem systems.

Newer pitched systems have stronger selvedge reinforcement and more tautly installed fabric. Note that if such a system is designed under the assumption that the hail is shed, and it doesn't because the fabric gets loose or because the wind blows a sag into it - then that system will fail causing damage to the structure or to whatever you are protecting.

 

Flat hail protection systems are either strong enough to support the hail above the ground, or elastic enough to let the fabric stretch to the ground (or trees) under load and spring back into place afterwards.

 

This canopy is a shade canopy over a car storage yard in New Zealand which also functions as a hail net and as protection from local vandals who like to throw rocks at the cars.

 

What size hole do you need for bird protection?

The smallest common size for bird protection - exclosure- control is 3/4" (20mm).

It is enough to deter birds such as finches and tits.

 

1" (25mm) is common for larger birds and 2" (50mm) for very large birds such as ducks and for flying foxes (Australian fruit bats).

 

For bird and pest control a simple rule is that as long as your protection is better than your neighbours, the pests will take the path of least resistance!

Note that if you have a little problem one year, it is common to have a big problem the following year as more birds etc "hear" about the source of food.