Posted on

DIY Marquues have all the answers

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

Posted on

Read what advice DIY Marquees give you on buying a marquee

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.

Posted on

SHOULD I PAY CASH OR LEASE?

This is a message from DIY Marquee finance partner which makes buying a marquee or a DIY Party Tent and Pop-Up DIY Marquee an easy option

 

We have partnered up with Gable Asset Finance in the UK to provide businesses with individually tailored finance packages.

About Gable Asset Finance

✔ Financial Solutions

✔ 98% acceptance rate

✔ Rates from 3% Flat!

✔ Decision within 2 hours

✔ Immediate Funds Available

✔ 100% Tax Deductible

Financing

Gable offers a full range of equipment leasing and financial solutions which can offer many advantages over outright cash purchases for all businesses in the private and public sectors; from sole traders to local authorities.

Gable Asset Finance funds a diverse range of assets, for all shapes and sizes of business. The customer negotiates the purchase price of the asset then Gable Asset Finance arranges the right financial package. Quite often the facility is already in place, being part of a pre-negotiated credit line. Financing in this way allows you to let your equipment pay for itself over a period of time for a small monthly payment.

Financing equipment is becoming a popular way to start a business or to improve the cash flow within an existing business.

With little or no capital expenditure, many business owners have reaped good financial rewards, by utilizing tax efficient finance agreements.

Small business finance

Gable Asset Finance provides tailor-made finance solutions to small businesses, medium enterprises and start-up companies (subject to status). Offering competitive rates on small business finance, Gable Asset Finance leads the market in providing affordable solutions in a challenging economic climate.

Corporate asset finance

Corporate asset finance provides a solution to companies that are in need of new capital assets. Gable Asset Finance, one of the leading providers of corporate asset finance in the UK, offers several different types of funding that can help businesses secure the assets and equipment they so desperately require.

WHY LEASE?

Leasing is probably the most popular method of financing new equipment today. Virtually any item of equipment can be leased from a Sunbed to a total new refit i.e. from £1000 to several hundred thousand pounds.

SHOULD I PAY CASH OR LEASE?

You may be able to afford to buy the equipment outright, but before you make this decision you must consider the following:

  1. All leasing payments are rental payments and as such are an allowable business expense, therefore if a business is making profits they reduce the profit by the amount of the rentals you pay each year which in turn reduces your tax bill.
  2. Lease payments are the same throughout the lease contract. This means that increases in interest rates do not affect you and enables you to budget your cash flow more effectively.
  3. Leasing enables you to save your cash for other purchases such as new stock, staff training, advertising and new business opportunities.
Posted on

Come rain or shine DIY Marquees won’t let you down

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.