www.colourware.co.uk

DIY Marquees have the largest range of marquees for sale in the UK, they offer honest and valuable advice for anyone who want to buy a marquee. Their friendly team have years of experience and expertise in the marquee industry, so whether you are wanting to start your own marquee hire business or would like to host corporate events or special occasion event hire such as wedding functions, DIY Marquees will give your the best advice around.

DIY Marquee range of Party tents for sale can be used for lots of different functions from weddings and formal events to garden parties and BBQ’s, their final appearance is entirely governed by the accessories you buy. For more formal functions you can buy flooring and linings for your party tent marquee or for less formal events you can decorate the party tent yourself using balloons or decorative ribbons. Whilst all marquees may look the same from the outside it is how you design the interior that personalises the party tent marquee.

Erecting marquees on hard standing

Our DIY Marquees like most Commercial Marquees for sale are quality ones that can be erected on hard standing. There is the small issue of how to anchor the marquee down (answer: longer tie downs to a nearby soft surface, bolting or use heavy weights) but otherwise it is easily done.

There is one small issue which you should make your customer aware of and that is what happens when it rains. If a patio normally floods in heavy rain, a marquee won’t stop that occurring. If the hard standing has a slope then water may try to flow through the marquee.

The risks of this happening are usually very slight and whilst it’s worth mentioning to customers it’s not worth going overboard or scaremongering about it. If the forecast is bad there are some solutions:

• Wooden floor throughout – this raises the floor up so the water passes under. The best solution but also by far the most expensive and most work.
• sandbags or similar round the perimeter of the marquee.
• strips of carpet underneath the groundbars – this was suggested to me recently by a marquee hire company and I think it’s an excellent and resourceful idea. Strips of old carpet rolled up and then squashed underneath the groundbars cuts out all but torrential rain from making its way in to the marquee.

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

Useful information from DIY Marquee will help you make the right decision in purchasing a marquee. This can be especially useful if you are looking at purchasing a commercial DIY Marquee.

6x4m marquee or 4x6m marquee?

In the marquee industry there is not a huge amount of terminology for someone new to the scene to get used to. One is getting used to feet and metres and how to switch between the two (3m=10ft essentially), most customers prefer everything in metres but you still get some that need it in feet.

Another standard to get used to is that when talking marquees the width comes first and the length second. A 4x6m marquee is very different to a 6x4m one for example.

4x6m Classic DIY Marquee

A 4x6m Marquee means that the A-frames are 4m wide and it is 6m long (three 2m bays).

6x4m Classic DIY Marquee

A 6x4m marquee on the other hand has 6m wide A-frames and is 4m long (two 2m bays).

Why offer both?

The most popular way of covering a 4x6m area is with a 4x6m marquee, there are however times when this is not the best option.

• If you already own a 6m wide marquee or have spare 6m metalwork then you can just buy a 6x4m roof and therefore increase your hiring potential without buying a complete new 4x6m marquee.
• If the marquee is going up against a house then it is far easier having the gable butted up for weathering and access purposes. If the customer needs the 6m side of the marquee up against the house then it is best practice to go with a 6x4m marquee rather than a 4x6m one.

So if you looking for a DIY Party Tent or any other Marquee look no further DIY Marquees will assist with the right Marquee to buy.

Summer is here and the perfect time of the year to host a fabulous party, whether it’s a wedding, work function or a 21^st party DIY Marquees for sale has a marquee for every occasion.

I came across some useful information on DIY Marquees site and thought it relevant to share one particular article as this is useful for any party you wish to host.

Tips for Daytime Party Marquees:

Furniture:

Unlike marquees furniture is often too expensive to buy so hiring is usually the best solution

For a formal atmosphere use larger round tables (5ft for seating 8/9, 5ft6in for seating 10)

Use a mixture of smaller tables to create an informal atmosphere.

You can get away with fitting more people in a marquee for a party than for a wedding, a wedding

Requires more space but you can squeeze people up a bit at parties.

A marquee can hold more people standing than seated (generally around 1.5 times the number seated)

but it’s  always worth having some seats in rows against the sides of a marquee even if you are

leaving the middle completely clear for standing (or using it as a dance floor area)

For formal seating remember an easel for table plans (or two for larger functions)

Furniture is often scattered around outside the marquee so a weatherproof chair option is popular

(white plastic bistro chairs for example)

Ideally have a marquee just large enough to house everyone (even if it very cramped) in case of

Sudden downpours.

Dance Floors:

Dance floors are only usually required at evening functions

Other:

With our DIY Party Tent if it is light outside it will be light inside so for a daytime only function

lighting is not usually required. In October to April you will need to heat the marquee have

the heating on for an hour before people arrive to ensure they walk in to a wall of warmth

In May to September you might need a heater just to take the chill off in the seating area later

in the evening, think of how your guests will arrive – a simple path of carpet with flower pots

makes an attractive and inviting entrance to the marquee.

You would normally allow one toilet per 40-60 guests. If you don’t have enough

available then consider hiring in a luxury toilet unit In general there is less drinking

and therefore you require less toilet facilities for daytime only parties.

DIY Marquees have a fabulous range of marquees for sale, the largest ranges in the UK. They are a professional team of people who pride themselves in being the leaders in marquee sales, they will give you advice on Marquee Flooring, décor and size of the marquee. Read some useful information on BUYERS GUIDE when making a decision on what marquee to purchase.

As you may have noticed our website has changed, this is due to our expansion in to other ranges of marquees. We now have five ranges of marquees across 23 different sizes of marquee culminating in over 70 different marquees to choose from, we believe this means we have the largest range of marquees available for sale in the UK and hope to have the marquee to suit any requirement. We also now stock a heavy duty range of pop-ups and pagodas.

Our two new cheaper ranges probably won’t be of interest to you as a hire company – the party tent range including DIY Party Tent and Pop-Up DIY Marquee range uses PE fabric (only suitable for occasional domestic use) and our new Classic range is made using 500gsm PVC but without the features we believe are essential to hire companies – I wouldn’t recommend hiring out a 6m marquee without eave braces for example.

Our new Professional range should prove popular in the hire industry; it is based on our Commercial framework but with a heavier duty 650gsm PVC roof.

As always our new products and ranges come from feedback from customers (thank you) and our own experience. This is why we are one of the leading designers and suppliers of marquees in Europe. Which we’re quite chuffed about to be honest.

We always like to hear feedback regarding our marquees or website so if you have anything to add or any new product ideas please always send them along.

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.