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There’s no doubt that a marquee imparts a unique allure with the power to elevate any occasion to an occasion to remember. A marquee offers a certain elegance for both daylight and after dark events, while offering adaptability to suit the needs of any function. The mere mention of a marquee evokes thoughts of the charm it can bring to any event. It offers a fresh and spirited alternative to the traditional, often-used venues like pubs or clubs that have been favourite options for generations. A marquee transcends seasons and this versatility is one of the main reasons why many people may opt to invest in a marquee for their venue and catering needs.

Not everyone knows the many options that marquees can offer and so it might seem to be a daunting endeavour when one first starts investigating the options. This is where DIY Marquees comes to the fore front. DIY Marquees offers expertise in all thing’s marquee related. As specialists in marquees sales they offer comprehensive assistance throughout the purchasing journey. DIY Marquee, driven by their unwavering confidence in their products, enthusiastically offers advice regarding the exceptional qualities and diverse marquee options available for sale, are always available to help you delve into the world of marquees.

For DIY Marquee’s most popular marquee for the accommodation of small groups while still providing ample ventilation and space, take a look at the DIY Green Marquees. These marquees are the epitome of versatility, enabling companies to host multiple intimate events with no compromise on attendee safety. Despite the vast array of marquee options provided by DIY Marquees, the DIY Marquee green marquee takes centre stage, capable of fulfilling your clients’ venue needs and facilitating the creation of a standout event.

If unsure, prospective buyers are encouraged to explore the online interactive marquee planner, to check out the choices available, prior to the purchase of their marquee. All DIY marquees not only adhere to stringent health and safety standards but also comply with legislative requirements, all while retaining the charm of a picturesque setting.

DIY Marquees takes great pleasure in customising packages to precisely match your unique requirements. Enhance the ambiance with elegant chandeliers, exquisite carpeting and efficient marquee heaters all of which play a crucial role in ensuring that your party tent is compatible for any event expectation. DIY now stocks indirect diesel-powered heaters available to ship right away which are ideal for marquee hire companies, events companies and venues. These marquee heating packages give you absolutely everything you require for marquee heating during parties, events, general warehouse heating and factory heating too.

DIY Marquee remains dedicated to enhancing the marquee experience, continually introducing innovative and interactive ideas to ensure safety and convenience throughout the marquee’s lifespan. Head over to the DIY Marquee website to find all the necessary information for acquiring a Green Marquee including sizes, options, additional features, materials used and recommendations based on specific conditions. Providing answers to questions that you didn’t know to ask, DIY Marquee will ensure that your decision to purchase from DIY Marquees is a seamlessly informed choice.

Marquees in summertime … what could be a more romantic venue for the perfect outdoor celebration, from baby showers to wedding, anniversaries to work functions, there is nothing that quite matches the allure of a marquee venue. Moving into the Autumn the marquee hiring for sale business may well become a little slower, especially in the UK. But as Winter comes, there are many ways for marquees to remain the quintessential destination venue for celebrations. With a few clever additions and adjustments to your basic DIY Marquee and how you use it, business could bloom well into the colder months of the year.

DIY Marquees UK provides marquees and accessories that are designed especially to withstand the harsher seasons. With a variety of all year round, 4 season marquees available, there is definitely a marquee for all seasons. From traditional, romantic style marquees to green commercial marquees, Deluxe and Demi marquees, DIY Marquees boasts a spectacular array of features to fail-proof your marquee while ensuring the longevity of the marquee lives up to any UK Winter.

While it is common sense that some weather conditions simply mean that you cannot erect your marquee for fear of life and limb, DIY trusts that this same common sense will prevent clients from risking the integrity of these quality products. Floods, tycoons and other displays of Mother Nature’s greatness should never be taken lightly. However, a good solid rain fall never stopped a DIY marquee from standing tall and true which is mostly down to the superior quality of the products and materials which are used when creating our extensive range of marquees.

Why settle for 500gsm Rip-stop Duracoretex PVC when we can offer a 650gsm Rip-stop Duracoretex PVC Roofs and side panels for marquees with a roof top less than 90sqm. An excellent example of what we have on offer is the Deluxe Demi range that is excellent value for money and quality, for those who want the strongest, most durable and most impressive marquees. This specific is designed for easy use when standing against buildings or toilets. Wind-stop Velcro seals the panels securely preventing the cold from penetrating into the marquee, especially at night or late afternoon events where the weather may have turned. The core of our DIY marquees is a frame of steel pipe work preferred because of the superior strength of this material when compared to other popular materials used for marquee framework. Ground bars anchor the marquee with cross-bracing eaves providing that additional security against any Winter weather.

DIY Marquee experts can also offer you advice on how to set up your marquees in order to buffer against the weather and increase the innate strength of the marquee. Obviously you need to consider your marquee heating options to guard against the Winter chill and DIY Marquee professionals are happy to advise you on the best way to heat your marquee as well as the worst (and most dangerous) ways which must be avoided at all costs, so to ensure that safety always comes first. DIY Marquees now sells Indirect Marquee Heaters.

We love DIY Marquees blog posts, they are not only informative but make an interesting read from the experts who have been in the industry for many years; having tried and tested every area of marquee for sale business.

I found these interesting articles especially for those that would like to set up their own small marquees for sale business.

Why are most marquee linings ivory?

In the UK marquee industry now just about all professional marquee linings are ivory, this has come about from years of experience and customer feedback not just from us but from all lining manufacturers in the country.

From a customer’s point of view ivory just adds a touch of class to the marquee, if you have two lined marquees side by side one with white and one ivory customers choose ivory every single time – whether they go for flat/shaped, pleated or ruched is personal opinion and another matter altogether!

From a hirers point of view ivory is much lower maintenance than white, marks and creases show up far more on white than ivory. It also ages better than white – we used to have 10 year old ivory linings right next to brand new ones without any issue. Try putting  a 10 year old white t-shirt next to a brand new one and see the difference!

The only down side to ivory used to be there were many many different shades of it from different material suppliers in the marquee lining industry, fortunately in the last 10 years or so everyone has settled on a similar shade generally referred to as mid-ivory.

That’s why 99% of professional marquee linings are ivory now.

Especially for marquee companies for sale

Check list for completed marquees

Its good practice when you’ve finished a marquee (and before the event) to have a check list, one copy for the customer and one for you.

What goes on a check list is entirely up to you but here’s some suggestions:

• Sign to say that they are happy with the marquee. It won’t cover you completely, they may find something and call you back but it does help to have a paper trail should anyone try to take action against you after the event (I’ve never heard of this happening but it’s simply good practice).
• Sign to say that all furniture is there (by sign I mean one signature for everything)
• Sign to agree to take responsibility for all of the equipment (unless you have separate insurance/damage waiver).
• Sign to say they have been shown how to use any marquee heating and/or lighting.
• A note to say where any equipment can be plugged in (and not to plug in anywhere else)
• A note asking for any decorations around the marquee not to be attached using staples or non-removable tape.
• A note mentioning no metalwork should be removed and side panels only removed if good weather.
• A note asking for pets (dogs) not to be allowed in to the marquee. There were a couple of occasions I can remember finding presents from the family dog, they were not pleasant experiences!

It’s also good practice to have the emergency contact number on the bottom.

Note this is a check list for the customer (they have a copy, you have a copy) which may be separate from your own erectors check-list, something the team leader might fill in ensuring everything meets the required standards. Flooring is well fixed down, all straps are done on the outside of the marquee, no lighting or heating could come in to contact with PVC/lining, furniture all laid out, dance floor laid flat etc etc.

For those who are starting out this may all understandably be a bit of overkill. If you’re in charge and just putting a 6x6m shell of a marquee then that’s fine. The above should always be the aspiration though, as you get bigger, as your equipment becomes more diverse, the jobs become bigger and when more of the responsibility is delegated to others having check lists is simply good practice.

Some see setting up a marquee hire business as very easy. Others see setting up any business as a potential headache. At DIY Marquees we work very hard helping people set up marquee hire companies by taking a lot of the stress and worry out but promoting good practices so they can thrive in the long term.

Uplighters and marquee spotlights are becoming more popular but require a professional to fit and so unsuitable for the DIY market. Similarly buying lightweight globe lights whilst excellent in small walkways or gazebos are not powerful enough to light marquees of any serious size as each bulb is limited to 25 watts.

Options for marquee lighting. There are many different marquee lighting for sale and each come with their own pros and cons. The most popular option in commercial marquee for sale are chandeliers (gold or otherwise), they give a good quantity and quality of light and from an erectors point of view relatively easy to fit which means they can also be used and fitted by any domestic user.

Strings of festoon lighting offer a perfect solution for those wanting to light any size of marquee. They give flexibility in the power of lighting supplied but can also be used discretely behind an interior roof lining. They are available for sale with a dimmer system and can usually take any dimmable bulb up to 100W for greatest flexibility.

DIY Marquees commercial marquees for sale have the most useful interesting tips on how to go about erecting a marquee, looking after your marquee and loads of information on general marquee maintenance.

Following (always useful) feedback from customers DIY Marquees have introduced a marquee tool section. This enables them to become more of a one shop stop for start up or existing marquee hire companies.

Keep a look out for further tools which will be added soon.

They are particularly proud of the marquee stake puller that could be a great help when dismantling marquees, unlike most stake pullers it is also very light so fits in nicely with their marquees that pack down to surprisingly small volumes.

Should you require any tools that are not listed please contact DIY Marquees who will design/source them for you.

Have a look at this interesting article I found on HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU CLEAN YOUR MARQUEE?

The obvious answer is whenever it needs it so maybe a better question would be how often should you expect to clean a marquee.

A marquee is far more likely to get dirty when being erected/dismantled rather than when it is actually up. If you’re careful when erecting and especially when dismantling the marquee then you can usually get away with a thorough clean only once or twice a season.

There are however a few exceptions:

The dirtiest marquee I have ever had was one that was erected under some trees. When it rained all of the dust and grime was washed off the leaves down on to our lovely marquee. If you’ve got to put a marquee up under trees expect to clean it immediately afterwards.

Rain-skirts by their very nature will always get muddy in the rain, these should be given a wipe over on pretty much every job.

Traffic-film – eventually PVC can have a grey layer build up which is especially difficult to remove. It takes a long time for this to happen (a year or two normally) but at this stage it needs a thorough clean using a chemical. The material also needs irritating (gone over with a brush or similar) to get this off. Once thoroughly cleaned the PVC should be as good as new.

Tree sap is a nightmare to remove.

There are also some things that will never come out:

Petrol/Diesel can stain PVC. This will never come out so avoid them at all costs.

Ingrained mould – this affects many marquees especially those that are stored when still wet. PVC is made of many layers, if a marquee is put away wet or if cheap PVC is used then water can get inside the layers and create mould which will never come out. Incidentally this is one of the reasons we use better quality 500gsm PVC than available elsewhere, it takes far longer for the layers to break down in better quality PVC.

Some garden chemicals can stain – I was shown a marquee recently that had green stains around the rain skirt which seemed to have come from a chemical added to the lawn.

Better quality PVC always helps, we use a lacquer coated PVC as it is easier to clean and lasts longer than the cheap alternatives.

For more information on commercial marquees click here

Expert advice from DIY Marquees your number one specialists in DIY marquees for sale

Should I remove the sides of my marquee in strong winds?

No, a marquee is far more wind resistant with the sides on rather than off. For some reason there are many people who believe that leaving the sides off a marquee ‘lets the wind pass through’. I will try to explain below why this is not true and why leaving the sides off of a marquee actually makes it far more susceptible to the wind than leaving the sides on.

The diagram above shows how the wind passes over a marquee and how any wind going in to the marquee gathers and lifts the roof up.  The best way to avoid this is simply to have the sides on the marquee facing the wind and have the marquee well anchored down.

Please note that this article is dealing with marquees in strong winds but not extreme weather. Marquees should not be left erected in extreme weather conditions.

The people who advocate taking the sides off in strong winds believe that the above scenario is best solved by removing the remaining side panels, thus allowing the wind to pass harmlessly through the other side of the marquee. It doesn’t. There are two factors in play if the sides are off.

i. Wind building up under the marquee roof – this still happens even if that other side is taken off. Don’t believe me? Try walking across a field in windy conditions with an umbrella – by taking the sides off your marquee you’re turning it in to one very large umbrella.

ii. Lift being created by the wind that DOES pass through the marquee:

This shows the wind passing over or through the roof only marquee. The wind passing over the top of the marquee has much further to travel so has to go faster to keep up. This may ring some bells for those who stayed awake during Physics lessons:

The reason a wing attains lift is by the air passing over the top at a greater speed than underneath and so the differing pressures caused creates lift.

A marquee roof isn’t as aerodynamic as a wing but a lifting force will still be created, not only that but the steeper the roof the more force there will be – another reason for having a20degree roof/3m apex on 6m marquees as discussed last week.

This post isn’t intended as scare-mongering, it is purely aimed at dispelling a myth. At DIY Marquees we try to encourage all of the marquee hire companies we help to follow best practices:

• Ensure the marquees are well anchored down, that means tie down kits as a minimum.
• Leave the walls on any side likely to face strong winds (have the entrance on a different side)
• Never take all of the sides off a marquee in strong winds
• Know your marquees limitations -if Michael Fish states there definitely won’t be a hurricane then resign yourself that the marquee has to come down (this is rare, it happened once in the 10+ years I ran a hire business).

Thanks for reading, diymarquees.co.uk appreciate your feedback which is gratefully received.

How to erect a marquee on hard standing?

The easiest way to erect a marquee is on grass using a tie down kit to hold it in place but sometimes a marquee has to go up on hard surfaces. With our DIY Marquees heavy duty marquees for sale (and indeed most quality marquees) this isn’t a problem as long as you fit groundbars. Groundbars don’t hold the marquee down but they do make it more rigid – imagine the marquee as a box, securing the bottom line makes it a much stronger and more rigid box.

When erecting a marquee on hard standing:

Look around the site, if the marquee is to be erected on a patio often there are flower beds or other soft surfaces to gain anchoring points from and just use longer tie downs.

Assuming there is no existing anchoring point the remaining options are heavy weights or drilling in to the ground.

Drilling is usually only an option on car parks or old tennis courts (be sure to fill the holes afterwards with an appropriate filler).

Concrete blocks or sand bags can be used as weights but my preference is water butts. These are light to carry round but you only fill them up once they are strapped to the marquee (this does rely on having a hosepipe on site).

When using weights strap them directly to the marquee, having them a distance away just gives the weight room to drag slightly and then it’s lost most of its use.

Click here for many other marquees and Party tents for sale

Thank you to everyone who visited us at The Showmans Show last week. For those that didn’t make it we displayed one of our new pop-up marquee for sale including linings, we also had a new pagoda style marquee that will be a standard stock item next year. We’re confident both will prove popular and really add something to the marquee hire industry.

The Show itself was again very quiet, personally I think a change to Fri/Sat would really help increase visitors. I know ourselves and many other suppliers will be monitoring the leads generated carefully as it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify the large expenses incurred. 

As an erector of smaller marquees it is always a joy to see what can be achieved in larger structures, some of the two story marquees are very very impressive. Saying that I wouldn’t like to put them up!

Thanks for reading.