Is Your Patio Ready for Summer? A Checklist for Proud Pennsylvania Homeowners

Memorial Day Weekend has a way of revealing exactly how ready — or not ready — a patio actually is. The furniture comes out, guests show up, and suddenly it’s clear that the awning hasn’t been cleaned since last September, the afternoon sun is hitting the seating area at exactly the wrong angle, or the bugs are bad enough to send everyone inside by 7 p.m.

None of those problems are hard to fix. But they’re a lot easier to deal with before the season is in full swing than during it.

If you’re a homeowner in the Lehigh Valley or surrounding Pennsylvania counties, this checklist is worth working through before Memorial Day arrives. It covers the things that most commonly keep your Summer patio from being as comfortable and usable as they should be and what to do about each one.

1. Take a Close Look at the Condition of Your Awning

The first step is simple: actually inspect the awning before peak season starts.

After months of sitting through weather changes, pollen, and winter buildup, your retractable awning deserves a proper look in spring. Check the fabric for any staining, mildew, or wear. As you watch it extend and retract, it should move smoothly and the fabric should stay taut. Look over the frame and hardware for any signs of strain or corrosion that didn’t make themselves obvious last fall.

This matters most right before a stretch of heavy use. If something is off, you want to know about it now and not on the Friday afternoon before a family cookout.

Designer Awnings also offers the Sunboot, a protective accessory designed to cover and shield compatible Sunesta awnings while retracted for extended periods. If your awning spends significant time stored between uses, or if it went through a rough winter, asking about the Sunboot during your spring checkup is worth a few minutes of conversation.

2. Ask Whether Your Patio Actually Has Enough Sun and UV Protection

An awning that was the right size a few years ago might not be the right size now, especially if the way you use the space has changed.

By late May, UV exposure is one of the main reasons Pennsylvania homeowners start avoiding their own patio during the day. Direct afternoon sun makes it uncomfortable to sit outside, causes furniture to fade, and limits when the space is actually usable. A good retractable awning addresses all of that at once.

Sunesta awnings installed by Designer Awnings are fully custom, available in widths from 8 feet to 40 feet with a projection of up to 14 feet 8 inches from the house. That range of sizing means there’s a lot of flexibility in how much coverage you can actually get. It also means it’s worth asking whether your current setup is covering the spots where you and your family actually spend time.

A few honest questions to work through: Does the awning provide shade where you need it most, or does the sun still hit the table by mid-afternoon? Is there an angle — low morning light, late afternoon glare — that the awning doesn’t address? Has your furniture layout or how you use the patio changed since the awning was installed?

If the answer to any of those is yes, summer prep might involve more than just cleaning.

3. Decide Whether a Retractable Screen Would Make the Space More Livable

A covered patio can still have real comfort problems if it’s exposed on the sides. This is where a lot of homeowners get stuck: they have overhead coverage, but the space still feels uncomfortably bright in the afternoon, too buggy in the evening, or too visible from a neighboring yard or street.

A retractable screen solves each of those problems without turning the patio into a permanent enclosure. You lower it when you need it and it disappears completely when you don’t.

Designer Awnings offers two options through Sunesta:

The Sentry is the more versatile of the two, designed for patios, porches, windows, and doors. It can be custom-built up to 18 feet wide with a 12-foot drop, and it comes in five frame colors — white, beige, clay, brown, and bronze — with fabric options ranging from insect mesh and solar shading to opaque privacy panels. The Sentry also features an exclusive floating rail design that seals out weather and pests while still allowing airflow, and a flex design that prevents binding under wind load. If you’re not sure which fabric is right for your space, that’s exactly what the free in-home estimate is designed to work through.

The Sunroll is built for vertical solar control on covered patios. Available in motorized or manual versions, it can be custom-built up to 20 feet wide and 12 feet tall, with a choice of more than 190 colorfast fabrics in striped and solid designs. If your biggest problem is low-angle afternoon glare on a covered patio, the Sunroll is the more focused solution.

A retractable screen makes particular sense heading into summer if your patio gets late-day glare, mosquitoes cut evenings short, your seating area faces a neighbor or roadway, or you want a more comfortable setup when hosting.

4. Look at Whether the Right Accessories Would Make Everyday Use Easier

A good awning becomes significantly more useful with the right accessories, and the right accessories are usually the ones that reduce friction in how you actually use the space day-to-day.

Motorized operation is the most impactful upgrade for most households. If your awning is manual and you find yourself sometimes not bothering to extend it because of the extended effort, that’s a problem worth solving. The solution is simple: an awning that is easier for everyone to use.

Smart controls add another level of convenience. Designer Awnings has a helpful post on MyLink awning operation that covers Sunesta’s Tahoma device, which allows compatible awnings and screens to be controlled from a smartphone or tablet over Wi-Fi. For homeowners who already use smart home technology, that kind of integration makes the whole system feel seamless.

Protective accessories like the Sunboot are worth considering if your awning spends periods retracted through weather or goes unused for stretches of the off-season.

You don’t need to add everything at once. The practical question is simply: what’s the thing that most often keeps you from using the patio the way you want to? Start there.

5. Confirm the Setup Still Fits How Your Family Uses the Space

Outdoor living spaces evolve. Furniture gets rearranged. Kids get older. More people start coming over for dinner. A patio that worked well three years ago might need a different setup now.

If you’re hosting more often, spending more time outside, or using the space differently than when the awning was originally installed, it’s worth revisiting whether the size, placement, and accessories still make sense. Designer Awnings offers full customization on every Sunesta product, and their team can work through what the right configuration looks like for your home today. Request a free estimate to start that conversation.

6. Use Memorial Day as Your Target Date — Then Plan Backward

Memorial Day Weekend is useful as a benchmark precisely because it forces the question: would this patio be comfortable and ready if people showed up on Saturday afternoon?

Would you be comfortable sitting outside in the afternoon sun? Would the evening work, or would the bugs drive everyone in? Does the space feel private enough to relax, or do you find yourself too aware of the street or your neighbors?

These aren’t abstract design questions. They’re simple pass/fail tests that reveal whether the patio is genuinely summer-ready. If the answer is “almost,” the right upgrade might be enough to change that, but only if you act before the season is already in full swing.

Your Summer Patio Checklist

Here’s the short version to save or share:

• Inspect the awning fabric, frame, and operation after winter
• Clean away debris and seasonal buildup
• Confirm the awning still provides shade where you need it
• Check whether UV and afternoon glare are limiting daytime use
• Decide if a retractable screen would solve an insect, privacy, or sun problem
• Ask whether motorization or smart controls would make everyday use easier
• Consider a protective accessory for periods of extended storage
• Book the free estimate early — before the busiest stretch of summer begins

Get Your Patio Ready Before the Season Gets Away from You

The best time to prepare your outdoor space for summer is before summer is already here. Memorial Day Weekend is close enough to create a real deadline, but still far enough away to make thoughtful decisions rather than rushed ones.

Designer Awnings has been serving homeowners across Berks, Lackawanna, Monroe, Luzerne, Carbon, Northampton, Schuylkill, and Lehigh Counties for more than 25 years as a family-owned, locally focused Sunesta dealer. Every product they install is custom-built to your space, and every project starts with a free in-home estimate.

Explore retractable awnings, learn more about custom retractable screens, browse accessories, or request a free estimate before Memorial Day Weekend arrives. Your patio is worth getting right.