Maintenance is very important to ensure your awnings stay undamaged and functional, and this is doubly true in the winter where extreme conditions and temperature put additional strain on your awnings.
Learning how to prepare your awning for winter, what to do during extreme weather, and how to approach cleaning your awning during winter months are all essential, and in this blog post, we’ll teach you everything you need to know.
Prepare Your Awning for the Winter
Ideally, before winter arrives, you should do some regular maintenance on your domestic awnings to ensure they are fully operational. This includes checking if your retractable awning functions as intended, whether the awning fabric is damaged in any way, cleaning any debris and dust accumulated on the awning, and more. The start of each season is an excellent time to do some light maintenance work and ensures your awnings last longer.
Take Care of the Fabric
The fabric is the most delicate part of the awning, and due to extreme weather, without taking proper steps, it might get damaged during the winter. Thankfully, if you know what you’re doing, taking care of the awning fabric is relatively easy.
- Make sure the fabric still has its waterproof coating. In most places, rain and snow are increasingly common in the winter, and without its waterproof coating, the fabric will get damaged, degraded, and discoloured during winter. Applying a new coating, however, is inexpensive and simple.
- Before retracting your awning, always make sure the fabric is completely dry. Folding the fabric while it is wet will not only damage the fabric itself, but it will harm the awning as well.
Don’t Use Your Awning During Extreme Weather
Whether it is heavy rain, large amounts of snow, or strong wind, extreme weather is very common during winter, and most awnings aren’t equipped to function in such conditions. Strong wind, in particular, has the potential to completely break your awning if you’re not careful.
Thankfully, modern awnings are fitted with wind and weather sensors and can be programmed to automatically retract during extreme conditions. However, make sure the awning is properly powered and check the batteries before winter arrives to ensure the sensors are online.
Quickly Repair Your Awning in Case of Damages
Keep your awning in tip-top shape before winter arrives. The winter months are long and hard on furniture, awnings, and canopies. A small fracture in the awning casing might render it entirely useless if it goes untreated and the awning experiences the harsh conditions of winter.
So, before winter begins, wash your awning with soapy water, give it a once-lookover for any signs of damage, and make sure it properly extends and retracts. This might sound like a pain, but doing this pre-emptively will save you a lot of trouble later. It cuts down on both time and maintenance costs in the long run.
