[DaleDivine]

Originally Posted by villagetinker

If you do not mind manual shades, Lowe's and home depot have shades that can be cut to size.

Exactly the route I went. I installed without much difficulty and they have been up for about 6 years.

[Sunflower33]

I used Micheles hideaway in Ocala twice and she is great and stands behind her products. Great company

Questions for those has have installed wide exterior weather rated shades:

- Who did you purchase them from?
- Did they install them?
- Are there different shade fabric options that allows better shading and air flow?
- Manual versus electric operation?
- Pros and cons of inside versus outside of lanai shade installation?

Thanks in advance for your responses.[/QUOTE]

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by vintageogauge

wait a year as you will most likely end up enclosing your lanai with glass when you find out how little room you have in your new house. Then you can have nice inside shades installed that won't be filthy from all the construction around you and as mentioned above the frogs and anoles that get crushed in them.

Very true took about 6 months for us to enclose with double pained glass.

[damille]

We also have a West facing lanai. We tried window film and even planted a large tree to block the sun. Neither worked; so we had the lanai glassed in and added a mini split air conditioner. Even with that, the sun was too much and as a final step we had vertical blinds put up on the inside which solved the problem. In hindsight I could have skipped the window film and the tree.

[Flyers999]

When we moved to The Villages five years ago, it wasn't long before we realised that our home had the dreaded western facing lanai, actually it's west south-west. I wanted to enclose the lanai with glass windows/ doors, as a few here mentioned. Motorized shades are not cheap and they don't last forever. Cheap manual shades (which we first went with) don't keep out the wind or rain, and you have to manually roll then up and down every day.
But my wife likes the open feel of the screened in lanai.
So we went with RK Sunshades and chose the most opaque fabric available and are glad we did. We can't see out but it helps keep the killing Florida setting sun out, being a northerner I was not ready for this. For 8 months of the year we use it every day. We also opted for the brightest, whitest color, so the room doesn't look dark when the screen is down.
Rick also recommended we get the diagonal fabric, (I forget the term he used) which prevents a heringbone effect (again I forget the term, it was moiyai or something like that). When you put two screens together, if their patterns run in the same direction (up-down, left-right) , it creates an annoying, squirrelly, moving pattern that can give you a headache. That's why one of the screens should have a diagonal pattern.
As someone mentioned, there's also the issue of keeping the shade clean, especially from accidentally rolling up geckos and frogs.

In the long run, it would be cheaper to enclose it with glass IMO. If you could somehow borrow more for your mortgage and spread out the payments.

Good luck

[Flyers999]

Originally Posted by westernrider75

We also have a west facing lanai and instead of shades we went with a Sunsetter awning. We don’t get that closed in feeling some shades will give you and also provides a shaded area that extends your useful space at that time of day. Ours is motorized with a remote control.

I was told that one maybe could get away with an awning if one had a southern facing lanai, but the western sun would shine under an awning. Are you here 12 months out of the year?

[Cool Breeze Roll screens]

Originally Posted by mspicer1234

We are closing on a new house in The Villages next month that has a lanai that is in full sun in the afternoon/evening. I am looking at installing a couple of exterior weather rated shades that would be about 6 1/2’ to 7’ wide each. I have been driving around a number of the areas in The Villages and noticed some have installed the shades on the outside of the lanai and some installed them on the inside.

Questions for those has have installed wide exterior weather rated shades:

- Who did you purchase them from?
- Did they install them?
- Are there different shade fabric options that allows better shading and air flow?
- Manual versus electric operation?
- Pros and cons of inside versus outside of lanai shade installation?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Cool Breeze roll screens, retractable screen doors, interior motorized shades,privacy-hurricane shutters and awning.

We manufacture our products in Odessa, Fl and have the Longest warranty,quality and service in the industry.

888-896-8935
coolbreezerollscreens@Yahoo.com

[Garywt]

We enclosed our lanai and have 7, 30 inch sections. My wife did not want electric shade or anything that cost too much. We found 7 shades for $6.99 each at Ocean State Job Lots up north. I have 1 installed and hope to do the other 6 in the morning.

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by Homer49

Lonnie Ashe and son of CoolBreeze Screens did our large outside motorized screens (3) on our west facing lanai. Very pleased. They were a few $ higher than Shade Brothers but I thought their product design differences were worth it and liked the fact that father & son installed themselves.

Very happy with these guys also. High quality and well engineered product. Great support of something goes wrong later.