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this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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Yeah, I do, and I have good reason to, because I am a structural engineer and have designed them myself on occasion. A lot of these canopies over car and bike shelters are just a sheet of plexiglass.
Where are you designing these that they don’t need to support hundreds of pounds of snow or rain, or stand up to hail?
Northern/Western Europe.
Hail bounces off, rain flows off. For a very light duty structure like a smoking shelter, bike shelter or trolley corral, they sometimes have a curved plexiglass roof that snow can just fall off or be blown off. A person is a much more intense load than snow (a person's whole weight can be on one foot). The frame might take it, but the cladding may not.
Usually they are just a product off the shelf.
My parents just bought and installed a small off the shelf carport, it has its own built-in gutter system and the ability to hold 100s of pounds on its metal roof. Nobody is covering cars with plexiglass, that would literally defeat the purpose of having shade.
Here's one for sale in Denmark, where I am, and where it snows. Polycarbonate instead of PMMA. Same thing. I wouldn't stand on it.
https://dancovershop.dk/products/carport-arizona-2-89x4-95m-palram-canopia-gra
Get an opaque sheeting if you want to keep UV off. Point stands.
... that thing wouldn’t protect your car from shit where I’m from… that wouldn’t even protect your car from the sun except at like noon.
I've seen the plexiglass ones he was talking about
I’m not doubting they exist, it sure looks cool. I’m just doubting it would stand up to a couple years where I’m from, and I don’t think that you would even need to stand on that to install solar panels anyway.
Which are a canopies or awnings not a roof.
Fuck off lmao. A canopy is a roof.
No it's not, if you asked to have a roof installed and someone installed a fucking canopy over your house, you'd be pissed.
This is like asking for a truck and they show up with a station wagon and tell you well it's got foldable back seats.
Words have meaning.