Shade Net

What is shade net and how is it made?

Shade net is a flexible sheet woven from UV-stabilized HDPE tapes at a set density, blocking part of the sunlight and letting the rest through. The tighter the weave, the smaller the gaps across the surface and the higher the share of light that is blocked. The nets we sell are green and are priced by the square metre.

The range of uses is wide: shading greenhouses and nurseries, canopies over car parks and open areas, cafe and restaurant terraces, children's play areas, animal shelters, screening around sports grounds, and visual screening on construction sites and storage yards. We sell the product and ship it from our Ostim base to anywhere in Turkey. You can order it together with perimeter products such as panel fence for the same project.

What really governs how long a net lasts is the UV additive. A net made without one, or with too little of it, may look fine through the first season, but by the end of the second summer it turns brittle and separates into loose fibres when you pull at it. The green colour has a job here too: the pigment slows down the effect of ultraviolet light on the yarn. So when you choose a shade net, look not only at the percentage but at how many seasons the product will survive outdoors.

Shading percentages we hold in stock, with technical data

We keep four percentages. Picking one is not a matter of appearance; it follows directly from what the net has to do.

Roll width and length can vary from batch to batch; before you order we tell you the most suitable roll size we have on hand, because choosing the right width cuts the number of seams and the amount of offcut waste noticeably.

What does the shading percentage actually tell you?

The percentage is the share of sunlight the net blocks. A 75% net stops roughly three quarters of the direct light that falls on it and passes the rest. That figure is not only about light, though; the same percentage also sets how freely air moves through. The higher it goes, the harder it is to ventilate the volume underneath, and in hot weather a humid, stagnant layer can build up below the net.

The second point to grasp is that shading does not cut the temperature by the same proportion. The air under a net that blocks 75% of the light is not 75% cooler; the difference you feel comes from cutting the radiant effect the sun has on skin and surfaces. That is why a high percentage brings clear relief on a cafe terrace yet may not give the drop you expect in the internal temperature of a closed greenhouse.

The percentage shows its hand again in rain and hail. A high-percentage net holds part of the rain on its surface, and water pooling in the middle can pull it into a sag; on horizontal canopies you therefore need a slight fall so the water runs off one edge. Low-percentage nets pass most of the water and never run into this.

Choosing a percentage for greenhouses and nurseries

Inside a greenhouse the light requirement of the crop sets the percentage. On light-loving species such as tomatoes, peppers and aubergines a low percentage is enough to keep the leaves from scorching in summer; the 35% band is the usual pick here, since anything heavier costs yield. During propagation and rooting, on the other hand, young plants are far more sensitive to sun, and 55% serves them better.

Nurseries growing ornamentals and container stock have to separate by species: shade-loving indoor plants go up to 75%, while 55% is generally enough for outdoor shrubs and saplings. Another practical habit in greenhouses is to hang the net on a pulley run so it can be drawn open and closed instead of being fixed to the roof; light is then never restricted on cloudy days.

Car parks, cafe terraces and play areas

In this group the benchmark is human comfort rather than plant health. Over parked cars the aim is to bring down the interior temperature and keep direct sun off the paintwork, and the 75% band is the common choice. At lower percentages the shade falls short around the middle of the day.

On cafe and restaurant terraces 75% is close to standard as well; going up to 95% deepens the shade but darkens the area noticeably and cuts air movement, which can work against you on hot days. In children's play areas 75% is the preferred figure. It is worth adding that on sites finished with artificial grass fence or other green-textured elements, a green net also sits well visually.

Use on tennis courts and sports grounds

On sports grounds the net does two jobs: it breaks the wind and gives a plain backdrop that makes the ball easier to follow. On a tennis court the back screen has to be unpatterned and as opaque as it can be so the player can track the ball, which is why the highest percentage, 95%, is chosen around courts.

The same logic carries over to artificial turf pitch and basketball court projects, where the net normally goes behind the goals and along the faces open to wind. Once you choose a high percentage, the supporting structure has to be designed to carry that load; otherwise the posts bend in the first strong wind.

Wind load: what changes as the percentage climbs?

This is the most widely overlooked part of the job. A low-percentage net passes a good share of the wind straight through; a 35% net behaves like a windbreak and hands only a limited load to the structure. As the percentage climbs, permeability drops and the net starts to act like a solid surface. In wind terms a 95% net is very nearly a full screen; the posts take a horizontal force and a large overturning moment at the base.

The practical measures are these: on high-percentage installations reduce the post spacing, brace the corner posts, run a steel cable along the top and bottom edges of the net, and make the ties every 30-40 centimetres onto that cable. In exposed places where severe wind is expected, leaving the top edge free as a pressure release, or taking the net down over the winter, is what saves the system.

The second consequence of wind load concentrates at the fixing points. A net rarely tears in the middle; it tears at the holes it is tied through, because the whole force lands on those small points. Increasing the number of ties spreads that force and is the cheapest way to delay tearing. Products with a reinforcing band along the edge carry less of this risk.

Working out the square metres, tensioning and fixing

Because the net is sold by the square metre the sum is simple: multiply the length of the surface to be covered by its height. As an example, covering a 45 metre fence line to a height of 2.5 metres gives 45 x 2.5 = 112.5 m². Add 10% for overlap and tensioning, and the order comes to roughly 124 m².

The same method covers horizontal canopies, except that you need to allow 20-30 centimetres on every edge for the hem. Where sections are joined side by side, leave at least 10-15 centimetres of overlap between them. The weave can unravel where it is cut, so hot cutting or an edge reinforcement is advised. Fix the net with plastic clips, a perimeter cable and clamps; tensioning it straight onto the wire leads to tearing over time. If insect and pest control is wanted around the same area, an insect screen should be treated as a separate layer.

How tightly the net is strung tells on its life as well. A net pulled up too tight expands in heat and contracts in cold, sits under constant tension and eventually parts at its fixings. The right approach is a balance: tight enough that it does not flap in the wind, free enough to allow thermal movement. Going over the ties at the turn of the seasons and taking up any that have worked loose extends the life of the net considerably.

What sets the price, and how do ordering and delivery work?

The items that set the price are these: the shading percentage and the weight per square metre that goes with it, the grade of the HDPE raw material and the UV additive, the roll width, the order quantity and the delivery distance. High-percentage nets hold more yarn and so weigh more, which feeds straight into cost. All our prices include VAT and exclude carriage; current figures appear in the price table on this page.

To order, all you need to give us is the percentage and the square metres. The site survey is free within Ankara; seeing the area in person cuts waste on both the percentage and the roll width. Delivery is always charged, and on deliveries within Ankara the carriage is added to the order in the same way and is never built into the product price on any shipment. Installation is not a standard service; we sell and ship the product, and our teams attend site only on perimeter projects of approximately 1000 metres and above.