Owning An Awning; FAQs For The Restaurant Owner
Installing an awning is a great way to increase the amount of useable space outside a restaurant. Apart from providing your customers with the much-needed shade, installing awnings, like luxaflex awnings, may have the positive impact of lowering the electricity utility bills for the food service establishment.
Because awnings are often a one-time purchase, you want to ensure that you get the most out of your investment. Here are answers to a few questions that will put you on the right track.
Why Would A Folding Arm Awning Be Advantageous?
Folding arm/retractable awnings are different from standard awnings in the sense that they have a V-shaped arm, which allows the awning to roll out and to retract as required. It's likely that a retractable awning will cost you more than a standard awning.
As a result of the folding mechanism, retractable awnings will often be larger and wider than standard awnings. You can take advantage of the larger and wider awning surface by using it as an advertising platform whenever you have special offers for your clients or even when you change the menu.
What Are Some Of The Must-Have Awning Accessories?
Accessories are often a necessary expense when it comes to awnings. For example, one might rightly argue that an awning repair kit is the most important accessory for a DIY-minded restaurant owner to repair the awning (e.g. repairing patches and holes on fabric awnings).
The contents in an awning repair kit differ from one manufacturer to the other. Some of the important items to look for in one such kit include, but they're not limited to, the following;
- Replacement eyelets and eyelet pliers: These are the small, circular metal rings that are often fitted around the edges of an awning. The eyelet plier is used to fasten the eyelets onto the awning during replacement.
- Awning patches and nylon repair tape: Patches are often made of acrylic and are used to patch up holes and tears on an awning. Self-adhesive patches will stick to the awning on their own without the need to apply nylon repair tape. Patches that are not self-adhesive will need to be held in place using the nylon tape. Nylon tape is preferred for awning repair because it comes in a wide variety of colours that can be matched to the colour of the awning.
Awning gutters may also be considered a must-have accessory. Gutters will drain water away from your awning so as to protect the awning material from possible damage due to the accumulation of rain water.