What Are My Options For Different Awning Fabrics?

When it comes to fabric awnings, almost anything goes. Of course, if you’re designing fabric awnings for your business, you want something that looks professional, because your awnings give people a first impression of your business, day in and day out. But no worries – “professional” fabric awnings can have plenty of personality, too.

How you use shape, size, color and graphics to design your awnings tells people who you are, and your options are virtually unlimited. If you can dream it up, a full-service awning company can fabricate it for you. You can create a unique look for a hospital or school, a hotel or restaurant, a spa or computer repair shop, an industrial park or exclusive country club, all with different fabric awnings.

There is literally an entire spectrum of colors available for fabric awnings, not to mention stylish patterns. And, in some cases, you can use the “magic” of digital printing that puts any image anywhere to create your own unique printed fabric.

Fabric awnings can be bold and splashy. You can choose earthy, outdoorsy colors that blend into your landscaping or natural stone exterior. Or select colors that contrast with or give balance to their surroundings. But it’s important to incorporate colors that match your logo, to reinforce your business branding.

Today’s fabrics are technological marvels.

You’ll find solution-dyed acrylics that are woven to look like old-fashioned canvas. These fabrics are breathable, so they won’t trap hot air or moisture underneath. You’ll also find vinyl-coated polyester that can be opaque or translucent and are especially easy to clean. Specialized coatings, laminates or top-coatings give your fabric awnings even greater protection.

Fabric awnings can provide a tremendous variety of looks, but with outstanding strength, durability, flexibility and long life expectancies. Today’s fabrics are far more resistant to fading, stretching, abrasion or other problems brought on by sun, wind, rain, snow, urban grime or beachy sand.

Fabric awnings can even contribute to your LEED energy and atmosphere credits and help reduce your air conditioning costs.

Fabric for awnings is warranted by the manufacturer, and your fabric awnings as a unit should also come with a warranty from the fabricator. Fabric warranties typically cover potential problems such as colorfastness, rot or mildew – characteristics that differ somewhat among different fabrics and the specific purposes for which they are engineered.

It’s not unusual any more for new fabrics to last 5-15 years, depending on the type of fabric you choose, your local weather conditions and how well you care for your fabric awnings. Look for fabrics manufactured by a name you trust, so you can be confident you’re covered should you ever have a problem.

Which fabric awnings are most appropriate for you?

Before you let all those options to go your head, you should bear in mind that not every choice is a good one for every type of business or physical location. But complying with local codes and meeting other functional necessities shouldn’t hamper your ability to design fabric awnings that catch the eye and welcome patrons and visitors.

The staff at your local commercial awning company can give you excellent advice about fabric awnings – everything from which building or zoning codes apply to your location to structural and aesthetic design considerations that will help ensure your awnings give you the best return on your investment.

A full-service company should have a showroom you can visit, so you can see fabric samples up close, and they should provide color renderings that show how your fabric awnings will look when they’re installed.

Whether your goal is better branding, comfort for guests or pedestrians, energy savings or enhancing your landscaping, fabric awnings can do the job. They’re cost-effective, great looking and even with customized design, they can be fabricated and installed in just a few weeks. The only hard part will be choosing your options.

Commercial Awnings