I bought this product to shade a directly west facing block wall on my central Florida house, that also happens to be my master bedroom. Summer sun would cause the block wall to become hot to the touch, causing the inside wall to effectively become a radiant heater until it cooled down. I bought this and secured to my house and two set in concrete 4x4s and it effectively blocks the sun at the time of day the sun usually blasts this wall with heat. On super sunny days, the wall is only as hot as the ambient outside air which accomplished what I wanted. The material of this feels like a high quality tarp, but is not solid and allows some filtered light through. When it rains, it does not come through, but sort of pools at the lowest edge and drips off. It sags when when under the weight of water, but as long as you secure it fine, it will be okay and normal after it dries out. I first installed with 36" 4x4 stake bases with 8 ft 4x4s but a microburst hit my yard and buckled the stakes and bent them, damaging them. This thing really will catch the wind so you need to make sure you have very solid things your attaching the corners too. After this, I set 10ft 4x4s 2 feet deep, and that should solve the issue. Overall very happy with the shade as it does what I wanted it to do to help lower the temperature in my master bedroom!