[Doro22]

Originally Posted by EdFNJ

I have an 11 footer which covers just about my entire patio mainly for my grill. It survived hurricane IRMA without problem closed of course . I did get a heavy (250+ lbs) base (you fill it with 6+ bags of play sand).

The only downside I have found is we have a little BAT that makes his home in it when it's closed so when I open it he ends up on TOP and isn't happy in the sun and flies off It was a lot cheaper than any of the other options.

Edit: It can be turned and angled so it blocks the sun and the rain when it blows in where a pergola likely couldn't have. The whole thing was around $350 including base, sand & umbrella. Not as pretty as a pergola but quite effective.

This is the one we got: Amazon Umbrella

And the base: 260# base

If anyone gets this make sure you get absolutely dry sand from INSIDE a store (Home Depot stores it inside) and fill it using a funnel or you will go NUTS.. DO NOT use water.

Aha! The bats. We’ve gotten bats in our small round umbrellas when they are down. Also a neighbor across street got several bats in their offset umbrella. Wonder why they like the umbrella.