Fabrics and mesh, explained

Awning fabric has one job above all others — hold its color in direct sun for years. Sunbrella, made by Glen Raven, is the family we build awnings in; SunPro's 2023 awning fabric catalog runs to around 30 colorways with a great many more available to order.

SunPro also publishes a marine-grade alternative, Weblon Coastline Plus: 34 solid colors, 62 in wide, 15 oz per square yard, made in the USA, with flame-resistance testing to NFPA-701 and ASTM E-84. That weight is the tell — it is a heavier, more industrial cloth than a residential patio awning normally needs.

A screen mesh is a woven fabric with holes in it, and the percentage of the surface that is hole is its openness factor. Everything else follows from that one number. High openness lets you see out clearly and lets breeze through, and blocks less sun. Low openness blocks more sun and more of the view, and cuts more air.

There is no correct answer, only a correct answer for your elevation. A west-facing porch that becomes unusable at five o'clock wants a low-openness solar mesh. A screened room you sit in all day, where the point is to keep insects out and keep the view, wants a high-openness insect mesh. Most projects end up with different mesh on different sides of the same house.

SunPro's mesh swatch book covers Twitchell Textilene in a range of nano weaves, Twitchell Dim Out, and OmegaTEX, alongside Phifer SunTex solar mesh and SheerWeave — each listed with item numbers, roll widths, ASTM test data and shading coefficients. Open Roller 2.0 in particular is offered in premium Phifer SunTex and Twitchell Nano Solar and Dim Out fabrics.

Twitchell's own guidelines for Textilene Dim Out are refreshingly blunt, and worth repeating before you choose it: Dim Out is a privacy fabric, not a blackout fabric. At around half a percent openness you should still expect pinprick 'star lighting' through the weave and visible weave striations. Those are normal characteristics of the material, not defects.

We would rather you read that here than discover it on your porch. If true blackout is the requirement, a screen mesh is the wrong product.

One thing to understand before you pick on looks alone: on screens, the fabric warranty term follows the fabric you choose, because it is passed through from the mesh manufacturer rather than originated by SunPro. Choosing a different mesh can change the warranty term as well as the appearance.

The warranty guide sets out how that works, and what it means for who you call when something goes wrong.