Garden Parasol rant!

I'd like to see a sink which comes with taps and drainage included!

We bought a big parasol which came with long ‘feet’ in the shape of a plus sign. The base, which is designed to slot onto those ‘feet’ was extra. Quite a lot extra. My DH improvised. He put a length of wood across one of the plus-sign’s metal struts and weighted it down with the anchor off our boat. We’re in a marina, so don’t need the anchor on board. Works a treat!

Gabrielle56

I've literally just bought 2x garden spikes and knocked into ground, sorted!! The base that I bought for the very expensive brolly was a waste of time! Too small ! Spikes on Amazon cost £9 as for clothes drier but do the job brilliantly!

I can't knock it into the patio! ?

The base may outlast three or four parasols, Oldwoman70 so it makes sense to be able to buy them separately.

Oldwoman70, we found that there was already a sturdy base here. Somebody had made a concrete cube with a pipe embedded in the middle. It works just fine!

Might not be in a convenient place for you but we put our big parasol into the deep hole we have for the circular washing line and that seems to work OK.

I'm off to dig out the parasol we got for the DS wedding - great idea, thank you.

I’ve just bought a pretty parasol with a UV proof lining. Used it on Saturday at the summer fair in a scorching field and it was amazing. Everybody kept asking me where I got it. (Amazon of course!) it also doubles as an umbrella apparently.

I can actually. see the logic........if they included a base it might not be to everyones taste - there's so many different types after all. Some people would want a plastic one that is filled with water rendering it easy to carry home until filled, others might want an ornate cast metal one, very heavy and impractical if you cannot get it home easily and some might want to replace a tired parasol. There selling parasols, not parasols WITH bases.

I agree with the OP.

We have a cantilever (banana type) parasol and the fabric has worn. Whilst looking around for a replacement we bought a 'straight up and down on a pole' one as I wanted immediate sun screening (v hot sunny back garden) and anyway, we could do with two - one for the table and one for loungers.

The base cost a fortune and it's really only two plastic shells that should be filled with sand. Why so expensive? Perhaps because 'they can'?!

I realise that post-Covid almost everything has risen in price but these bases are really dear for what they are (unless there is some space-age technology involved that I am not aware of..).

I must add that we tried using borrowed bases from friends and family but they were all too light and the thing kept toppling over so it's worth (unfortunately) shelling out for a heavy base. We didn't try the cheap ideas (actually thought of them but as we need to move the parasols, they wouldn't be a good solution for us) but I can't see why they wouldn't work for a not too large parasol which wouldn't ever require moving. Must be worth a try ....

If there is even a light wind and the base isn't the correct one (and even if it is) parasols easily blow over - at least our new one does - the cantilevered one has been fine for many years - and many storms, too.

Thanks, NotSpag for the website on parasols, I will read it and see if they have the correct replacement parasol for our cantilever one.

I wish I'd not bought a cantilever parasol, it caught the wind when I was away once and it broke

Henetha I bought a lovely hand held parasol which is designed for the job. Three layered, outer layer pretty, inside layer black fabric. Excellent so you can enjoy the breeze without a hat on. It was about £15 on Am...n.

My parasol base is a flat piece of concrete. It does tend to blow over on windy days. My table is quite heavy, so I stood one leg on the concrete base and it hasn't blown over since.

Had the brake discs renewed on my car,before it was scrapped,the old ones where left in the boot
The parasol I have is a cheapy but the pole fits nicely into the disc pads and are very heavy,just need to get round to spraying them to match.

cantilever needs a very substantial base, the cross frames are best and you can put a concrete slabs on each corner with granite slabs on top of those, you need 4+4 slabs. We had a large cantilever paraol, a small one would likely only need the 4 slabs

I have a half cross frame for my suncomfort flex parasol. It needed two thick 45cm slabs. There is a heck of a force when even a light wind starts. I am going to dismantle the cross section after summer and keep under cover, it will last longer

Parasols quickly discolour and I used to look after ours with covers and winter storage but fabric would not last nearly as long as a good base

#OR WHAT?!

Tibbs

Selling a parasol without a base.? It’s like buying a sink & taps are ‘extra’ !!

Taps? Try the plug and drainage kit!!! Tight orcehag nowadays?!

I've literally just bought 2x garden spikes and knocked into ground, sorted!! The base that I bought for the very expensive brolly was a waste of time! Too small ! Spikes on Amazon cost £9 as for clothes drier but do the job brilliantly!

silverlining48

Oh i see Jess beat me to it. We have done it and it worked,

Not a great solution when it’s windy though, because it still blows over. I agree with kwest, I got a Kettler base and parasol last year, the base is steel and flat, and it won’t move however windy it is. It was about £80.

Oh i see Jess beat me to it. We have done it and it worked,

A large deep bucket filled with concrete with a hole for the umbrella shoukd work, heavy to move though. Can be painted when its set.

Kettler garden furniture and parasols are expensive but excellent and the garden centre we bought ours from matched the best online price available.

Maybe get an old plastic basin filled with concrete and a hole in the middle while still damp....

Selling a parasol without a base.? It’s like buying a sink & taps are ‘extra’ !!

Perfectly sensible to sell them separately. Not everyone needs a new base.

We had the opposite problem. Our fabric parasol is fine but the cast iron base and the part that the pole fits into both rusted and broke. DH found a piece of metal tubing to fit the pole (he never throws anything away) and we made a new, larger base with poured concrete. Problem solved! Though I have to confess I'd like to change the fabric on the parasol, it's just dark green and very boring.

I got a beautiful Chinese paper parasol from TKMaxx a few years ago. They also have some similar ones on the auction site