Retractable Awnings in Orlando, FL

Retractable awnings suit the way Orlando weather actually behaves: hours of hard sun followed by a fast-moving afternoon storm. A lateral-arm awning mounts to the wall above a patio, deck or open lanai, unrolls to throw shade several feet out from the house, and folds back against the wall when you want sun, rain is coming or nobody is home. It gives you shade without a permanent roof over the yard.

Manual or motorized

A manual awning uses a hand crank and a gear box. It is simpler and costs less, and it works fine on smaller awnings that you open and close yourself. A motorized awning uses a tubular motor inside the roller tube, run by a remote, wall switch or phone app. On wider awnings the motor is more than a convenience: a large awning takes a lot of cranking, and people retract a motorized awning more often, which is exactly what protects it. A motor can also be paired with a wind or motion sensor mounted on the front bar that retracts the awning when it detects gusts or shaking. In a place where a thunderstorm can arrive while you are at work, that sensor is the feature we talk about most.

Open, semi-cassette or full cassette

An open-roll awning leaves the rolled fabric exposed under the eave. A semi-cassette adds a hood over the top. A full cassette closes completely around the fabric and arms when retracted, keeping out rain, pollen, lizards and wasps and protecting the fabric from sun when it is put away. In Central Florida, where fabric spends many months under strong UV, covering it when retracted helps it last.

Sizing it to your sun

Width is set by the wall and the space you want covered. Projection, how far the awning reaches out, decides how much shade you get at a given time of day. Late-afternoon sun on a west-facing patio comes in low, so a longer projection, a steeper pitch or a drop valance may be needed to shade a table at 5 p.m. We note the direction your patio faces and the hours you use it before recommending a size.

Rules for wind and rain

Retractable awnings are shade structures, not storm shelters. Roll them in for thunderstorms and before any tropical storm or hurricane. Do not leave one extended in heavy rain unless the pitch is steep enough to shed water, since pooling can stretch the fabric and bend the arms. The Florida Building Commission has said a retractable awning is still subject to the code's fabric structure wind design criteria in both the extended and retracted position, so the brackets and the wall they bolt into need to be sound. We check that before we quote.

Where they work best

Back patios off a sliding door, pool decks outside a screen enclosure, second-floor balconies and restaurant terraces are the common spots. If you want shade over a screened pool cage, an awning usually mounts to the house wall beside it rather than to the cage frame. If the wall is low or blocked by a roof overhang, roof or soffit brackets can raise the mounting point.