Thank you for all of the posts. We did a few examples of finding what appeared to be a stud on the inside and measuring from the edge of the glass on a window (no doors on this wall) to transfer the location to the outside. Sometimes this worked, sometimes not. I was certain that we would find a stud above the outside of a window and was very surprised when DH probed in there and it went right through much too easily... no stud.
DH ended up just doing many small holes, probing deep with a narrow metal skewer and if it felt promising he tried with a long screw thinner than the lag bolts we would be using. I showed him the suggestion about probing with an extended hanger. That didn't work as the 2 layers of siding were thick enough that it got in the way. Eventually, he found 2 solid points and from there he could go 16" on either side and keep exploring.
Our 18 ft awning needed 6 solid studs and he found enough where he needed them. Our son cut shims from pressure treated wood so that the brackets could fit flush against the angles of the siding and he secured the brackets to the house.
The next step was to lift the 130 lb awning off the lawn, up 6 steps of the deck and balance it on one of the railings while some of us scrambled around to the other side to get into the proper positions. Then we balanced one end on a step ladder, lifted the other end onto another ladder and my daughter-in-law and I stood on chairs under the middle and we all lifted together to get it onto the mounts. We held it there until our son got all the holding bolts tightened.
Outside of getting bogged down in the hunting and pecking of trying to find studs this went better than I expected. The awning came pre-assembled in a 20 ft shipping tube, was very well packed and the instructions were very clear. Just that one instruction, "Find the studs" was a bit frustrating!
By 4:30pm today the awning was mounted and we were playing with opening and closing it using the remote. Our son and DIL had tickets to the Cleveland Indians vs. Detroit Tigers game in Cleveland so they needed to get going. This is her first American baseball game as she just moved here from Beijing. Our son has a friend who works in the scoreboard room at the ballpark so he arranged to get her on the big screen with a birthday message. Her birthday is Sat 7/8. The Indians won and the weather was great for a game so I hope she had a good time!
Tomorrow DH and I will adjust the height of the open awning. The factory setting is too low and we need to raise it a bit. We have an instructional DVD and it doesn't look too difficult, you just need two people.
Going back to yesterday (Thursday), the first step was to remove our old manual awning which we installed in 1991. I found the receipt and it was $600 26 years ago. I think we got our moneys worth out of that purchase! The old one was still in decent shape, had some fading, but still operated just fine. The problem was that it involved rolling out the awning and then lifting each side to it's proper open position. We were 36 years old when we bought this and we are now 62. The last few years the lifting has become an issue. I had a hip replacement 3 years ago so DH often would help with the lifting. Then a few months ago he had a very bad episode of sciatica. He was in terrible pain and could not lift anything for about 6 weeks. I could do the lifting myself but it was just about at the limit of what I wanted to be doing. So it was time to move up to a motorized awning!
When we took the old awning down we disassembled it enough to take it out to the front of the house for trash pick-up in a few days. There was the 18ft vinyl awning on a roller and 2 sets of aluminum arms and a couple of brackets. Before we went to bed I looked out front and it was all GONE! I hope somebody likes their 26 year old awning, or at least gets some cash for the metal parts.
DH ended up just doing many small holes, probing deep with a narrow metal skewer and if it felt promising he tried with a long screw thinner than the lag bolts we would be using. I showed him the suggestion about probing with an extended hanger. That didn't work as the 2 layers of siding were thick enough that it got in the way. Eventually, he found 2 solid points and from there he could go 16" on either side and keep exploring.
Our 18 ft awning needed 6 solid studs and he found enough where he needed them. Our son cut shims from pressure treated wood so that the brackets could fit flush against the angles of the siding and he secured the brackets to the house.
The next step was to lift the 130 lb awning off the lawn, up 6 steps of the deck and balance it on one of the railings while some of us scrambled around to the other side to get into the proper positions. Then we balanced one end on a step ladder, lifted the other end onto another ladder and my daughter-in-law and I stood on chairs under the middle and we all lifted together to get it onto the mounts. We held it there until our son got all the holding bolts tightened.
Outside of getting bogged down in the hunting and pecking of trying to find studs this went better than I expected. The awning came pre-assembled in a 20 ft shipping tube, was very well packed and the instructions were very clear. Just that one instruction, "Find the studs" was a bit frustrating!
By 4:30pm today the awning was mounted and we were playing with opening and closing it using the remote. Our son and DIL had tickets to the Cleveland Indians vs. Detroit Tigers game in Cleveland so they needed to get going. This is her first American baseball game as she just moved here from Beijing. Our son has a friend who works in the scoreboard room at the ballpark so he arranged to get her on the big screen with a birthday message. Her birthday is Sat 7/8. The Indians won and the weather was great for a game so I hope she had a good time!
Tomorrow DH and I will adjust the height of the open awning. The factory setting is too low and we need to raise it a bit. We have an instructional DVD and it doesn't look too difficult, you just need two people.
Going back to yesterday (Thursday), the first step was to remove our old manual awning which we installed in 1991. I found the receipt and it was $600 26 years ago. I think we got our moneys worth out of that purchase! The old one was still in decent shape, had some fading, but still operated just fine. The problem was that it involved rolling out the awning and then lifting each side to it's proper open position. We were 36 years old when we bought this and we are now 62. The last few years the lifting has become an issue. I had a hip replacement 3 years ago so DH often would help with the lifting. Then a few months ago he had a very bad episode of sciatica. He was in terrible pain and could not lift anything for about 6 weeks. I could do the lifting myself but it was just about at the limit of what I wanted to be doing. So it was time to move up to a motorized awning!
When we took the old awning down we disassembled it enough to take it out to the front of the house for trash pick-up in a few days. There was the 18ft vinyl awning on a roller and 2 sets of aluminum arms and a couple of brackets. Before we went to bed I looked out front and it was all GONE! I hope somebody likes their 26 year old awning, or at least gets some cash for the metal parts.
Last edited:
