PA Series Polycarbonate Door Awning

This is a well-designed and solidly constructed product. What drew us to this one is the way that the awning is connected to its supporting brackets. On many others (typically less expensive ones), the brackets are on the edges of the awning, which is held in place by the inward compression exerted by the brackets. On this one, however, the brackets sit under the awning and are attached to it by 6 bolts. There is thus no danger of the awning falling, slipping, being blown out of the brackets.The assembly was simple and straightforward (with one exception, to be mentioned below), if time-consuming. The installation of the assembled awning-and-bracket combination was another matter. Part of our difficulty, I admit, was due to us: I am 82, my wife is 71, so we are not the ideal pair to be doing this sort of work. Another part was due to some peculiar features of our project: there is a greenhouse on one side of the door, and a large Wisteria bush on the other, so there was no way to offset the ladders to the outside of the doorway. And, yes, two ladders (and two installers) are required for this project, as the instructions make perfectly clear.Since we were mounting the awning into the siding directly above our door, and were not confident that there were structural members behind the siding where the brackets would be screwed in, we decided to mount a pair of 2x4s above the lintel. We screwed the 2x4s into the studs, and then attached the brackets to the 2x4s. (Naturally, the mounting holes for the brackets did not themselves align with the studs.) To keep the mounting brackets perpendicular to the ground, we attached reversed pieces of siding first, before screwing in the 2x4s. You can see all of this very clearly in one of the attached photos.There are some odd lapses in the Owner's Manual. Although for the most part the assembly instructions are very clear, they do not stress that one must be very careful about the orientation of the awning bar relative to the awning sheet. There are two ways it can be done, and only one of the is correct. If you do it wrong, it is exceedingly difficult to separate the bar (with its rubber strip) from the sheet. (They are obviously not meant to be pried apart once connected).When it comes to the installation, you are told to "make sure to use the appropriate sized drill bit for the mounting screws," but you are not told what that size is. Fortunately, a call to Advaning yielded the answer: 15/64". (Thanks to Jesse, at Advaning, who was very helpful.)Another peculiarity is the odd mix of metric and SAE hardware provided. The lag screws that attach the brackets to the wall are metric (13mm), but the bolts that secure the awning to the brackets are SAE (1/2"). Not a serious problem, since the well-equipped DIYer will surely have both kinds of tools. Or, you might even do the whole job with an adjustable wrench. (Interesting sidelight: the installation video, when displaying the tools you'll need, shows a Crescent wrench, but then the installers in the video are shown using a socket wrench (with an extension). I definitely recommend the socket wrench -- it takes many, many, turns of the wrench to drive the lag screws all the way in -- and you'll need the extension for the upper lag screws in order to clear the acorn nut that secures the awning to the bracket.So, putting this in was quite a workout, but we think the results were worth it. This is an unobtrusive but attractive awning, and it appears that it will last a good long time.

The media could not be loaded. Update at the bottom.For me, this works well outside my house and keeps the back stairs to my garden clear. I chose this particular model because the braces are actually underneath the roofline not on the ends which in our area that gets a lot of snow will give it extra support. I’ve only had it up for a couple months. I will update this review when we get some snow and see how well it does. I did watch some videos and also read each of the reviews carefully on the different ways people hung this up. I followed the directions in the box. Everything was fairly easy to do and we were able to hang it in only a couple of hours. *The Big thing is getting the rubber gaskets on !! Absolutely use soap and water and a rubber mallet, after the rubber gasket is soaked in soap and water use the rubber mallet to tap slow and carefully. It’s going to take some time. It’s great if you have somebody else who can help hold it while you’re tapping and making sure it goes in. Towards the end we were definitely hitting it with some force but you certainly don’t want to bend the metal. Putting the gaskets on was the longest part of this entire process. It did take two of us. For hanging outside, having somebody who can hold it up while the other person puts the lag bolts in was very useful,Update -We have made it through our first winter. And as expected, we did get quite a bit of snow. It looks like one of the lug bolts pulled out from the wood backing three of them managed to stay in securely. We did use the bolts that came with it . We will probably take it down and try to secure it with anchors in a better fashion, but the metal itself did not bend and the product itself is still stay intact.

First, the supports are a sort of cream-colored plastic, the metal edges front and back are a bright white.Assembly/install hints: when you install the metal edges with gaskets it’s easiest (but not easy) to start on one end and work your way to the other - a plastic mallet is a must install and flush the ends.If you’ve installed the metal tight to the top when you try to assemble the brackets you may have to adjust the metal to be less tight to the top - a screwdriver and mallet are helpful.Installing to the house requires at least two people and two ladders (at least the awning is light). I made a template and pre-drilled the holes which made everything much easier (check your template carefully).