Shlak for Sukkah | Imamother

amother

OP ↓

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 1:20 pm

Does your sukkah have a shlak (awning) for rain?
Which type?
In your opinion, is it important or not?
In my case, dh is not handy so he says its totally unnecessary... if it rains, you eat inside and then you wipe up the place before the next meal....
ugh, I want an awning!

watergirl

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 4:02 pm

I'm with your husband. While I'd love one, it's super expensive and really not necessary. Is it nice to have? Of course! It's on my list of things to get for the day after I pay off all my bills and can pay full tuition, and and and.

honey36 ↓

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 4:13 pm

I'm on team NO shlak. Either very expensive or if your DIY, it takes SO much extra time to put it together. Half the time it leaks anyways or has other issues.

So many of my male relatives have spent DAYS!!! (Not just a few hours) Building and tweeking them to make them work only to have them break/fall apart halfway through the chag or not work all together. The whole chag is only 7 days, so even if it rains every single day, and even if it works, still not worth it in my opinion because it took them 7 days to build it and your not getting a mitzvah out there anyways!!!

Elfrida ↓

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 4:34 pm

I've never heard of this. My father had very idiosyncratic opinions about a sukkah, so we never had anything like this growing up, but plenty of my friends did. It was literally a tarpaulin sheet, and you got up on a ladder (conveniently left outside the sukkah) and pulled the tarpaulin over it. Some people went as far as attatching a rope in the corners, to make it easier to spread out. When going in the sukkah, you did the same in reverse. It wasn't elegant, but nor was it expensive or time consuming, and it was effective.

↑ honey36

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 5:24 pm

Elfrida wrote:

Not effective according to my male relatives since the water just pools on the tarpaulin. You need to have some sort of a tripod so the water slides off. So you need to figure out a way make the tripod and also make sure it's secure and also that the tarpaulin is secure on to that. They also have some pulley system, not sure what that is for but according to them it's essential yadda yadda. And since "Jews" and "home Depot" don't even belong on the same sentence, this is basically a disaster waiting to happen, but no one asked me so I keep my mouth shut (and just vent about it on here when all the males are MIA on erev yuntif leaving us to cook for 20 meals with all the kids underfoot 😂)

amother

Pink

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 5:27 pm

Elfrida wrote:

If you live in NY, for example, and it's a year with heavy rain, the rain pools on top and can break the schach. It's happened to quite a few people. And then instead of a wet succah, you have no succah.

Editing to clarify that the water pools on top of a flat tarp. That's why there are people spending hours with pvc piping, or wood frames with angles and all other sorts of contraptions. We put a plastic tablecloth over the chair and tables, pull it off after the rain and use towels to wipe up the rest.

doodlesmom ↓

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 6:15 pm

Elfrida wrote:

If your sukkah is on a porch like most in Brooklyn, this isn’t an option.

↑ Elfrida ↓

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 6:35 pm

Our sukkah was in a garden in London, and believe me, we had plenty of rain!

As I said, we never had one, but my friends seemed to manage very well without either broken schach or tripods or a pulley system. People didn't get soaked, either. We sometimes helped remove the tarpaulin, and it was just a matter of knowing how to pull it.

amother

NeonGreen

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 7:11 pm

Elfrida wrote:

London is drizzly. Does it comes down in heavy sheets and weigh a ton, taking down roofs with it?

amother

Goldenrod

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 7:14 pm

watergirl wrote:

Agreed. Dh decided to build one this year (he is handy and really wanted one) but I don't think it's necessary.

amother

Acacia

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 7:22 pm

We have one we built ourself. We enjoy it.

But honestly we were shocked at home much it cost us at the end doing it ourselves and being frugal. Everything was expensive wood, tarp, brackets, string. And the tarp needs replacing every so often. (I’m trying to research buying vinyl )

↑ doodlesmom

Mon, Oct 14 2024, 8:33 pm

Last year when rain was expected and we had no plans for a shlock, we covered a few feet of our very large sukka permanently (easier than arranging something that goes on and off). And when it rained we pulled the table and chairs etc to that side so that we don’t have to shlep everything in and out or be busy wiping…it really worked well.

↑ Elfrida

Tue, Oct 15 2024, 1:27 am

amother NeonGreen wrote:

London is drizzly. Does it comes down in heavy sheets and weigh a ton, taking down roofs with it?

Depends on the year. One year it was enough to take the entire sukkah down. (That sukkah was built of the shelves from my grandfather's shop, and the wood was old and brittle, and not in such good condition to start with.) We had invited friends home for kiddush, and got home to find no sukkah - but also not the kind of weather where eating in the sukkah would have been an enjoyable option.

We never had a very thick schach, and it was made of branches cut off the trees in the garden (sometimes with apples still attached). The water just ran through the leaves. It doesn't absorb water and get heavier like bamboo mats.

amother

Phlox

Tue, Oct 15 2024, 1:39 am

Some designs can be built once & reused for many years, especially if it's your own yard by a wall where you can leave a beam & pully system attached to the wall permanently. Then you just need to attach the frame (with attached tarp) to the beam with hinges. Every so many years you replace the tarp & attach with staples.

Last year in NY the rain was so insane the decorations fell off the walls on the first night. The tarp didn't do much.