Shade sail pole anchor - bolt into concrete slab, or dig a post hole & fill with concrete?

Looking into a shade sail for our new house. I still have to determine where to place it as we will have an outdoor kitchen (no cooking under the sail according to most manufacturers) and we stiil want some direct sun for gardening. There is a concrete driveway on the side of our house. It seems like bolting a metal post in with a few concrete anchors would be easier than digging a deeper hole in the dirt & filling it with concrete to plant a pole. Although there are a few kits for concrete anchors, it seems like a lot of folks are planting 10' poles into holes that are 3'-4' deep instead. I'm not 100% sure how thick the concrete driveway slab is, but at least part of it had a garage on it too, so it's not likely a thin slab. The kist with concrete anchor bolts look like they're about 3"-4" long. I feel like 4 of those sunk into concrete should be plenty strong for a shade sail. FWIW, I live in Northern California. We defintely get wind, but nowhere near hurricane strength. submitted by /u/simononandon [link] [comments]

Apr 22, 2025 - 22:39

Looking into a shade sail for our new house. I still have to determine where to place it as we will have an outdoor kitchen (no cooking under the sail according to most manufacturers) and we stiil want some direct sun for gardening.

There is a concrete driveway on the side of our house. It seems like bolting a metal post in with a few concrete anchors would be easier than digging a deeper hole in the dirt & filling it with concrete to plant a pole. Although there are a few kits for concrete anchors, it seems like a lot of folks are planting 10' poles into holes that are 3'-4' deep instead.

I'm not 100% sure how thick the concrete driveway slab is, but at least part of it had a garage on it too, so it's not likely a thin slab. The kist with concrete anchor bolts look like they're about 3"-4" long. I feel like 4 of those sunk into concrete should be plenty strong for a shade sail.

FWIW, I live in Northern California. We defintely get wind, but nowhere near hurricane strength.

submitted by /u/simononandon
[link] [comments]