Thursday July 14, 2022

We have a wide range of customers from hire businesses to first time marquee buyers and today I want to simplify the industry lingo. This blog is to avoid all confusion when talking to our sales team, I want to explain terminology you may have come across and don’t understand. This will help you make an informed decision when purchasing a party tent, storage tent or Industrial Titan tent.

Lets start with the most misused word of them all…

What is the meaning of Clearspan marquees?

Many people use the word “clearspan” incorrectly and this could cause huge problems when purchasing a marquee. If you are about to order a “clearspan marquee” and expect the following you will be greatly disappointed, here are the most common ways the term clearspan is misused:

• See-through roofs – A clearspan party tent does NOT relate to the roof at all.
• No windows – This one has puzzled us for years, many customers have been wrongly advised by other companies that the term means either plain PVC panels or no sides at all.
• Extra fittings – Ground bar, cross bars and any other extra is not related to the term clearspan.

So the actual meaning of a clearspan marquee is.. Drum roll please!… It’s when a marquee has no poles running through the middle, in fact there’s nothing in the middle at all regarding the structure which will keep the space clear. Here are some examples:

PE Marquees (Polyethylene)

UK Tents sell PE Party Tents and many people don’t actually know what PE (Polyethylene) means.

PE Marquees definition: Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most common plastic in use today. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bottles, etc.). As of 2017, over 100 million tonnes of polyethylene resins are being produced annually, accounting for 34% of the total plastics market.

In summary PE (Polyethylene) is a type of plastic UK Tents use for a range of marquees. It is thinner than our PVC marquees 200g/m² compared to 500g/m² 

Our PE Marquees:

GSM definition regarding textile/tarpaulin

The actual acronym stands for “grams per square metre” and when referring to our marquees it’s a way to determine the thickness of our tarpaulin and sides. In general, the higher GSM, the thicker and more hard-wearing it’s likely to be.

We have two types of plastic we use to make our marquees: PE and PVC. The PVC we use is thicker as the professional range is 550gsm where the PE range only goes up to 200gsm.

Lateral and Ridge Height

The height of a marquee can be very important especially the lateral height and an example of this is when a recent customer needed to park a folklift truck in a 6×12 marquee. The lateral height had to be 2.3 meters, which meant he needed to purchase our professional marquee range as the lateral height is 2.6 meters. The lateral height is measured from the ground to the eves (Top of the window) in the 3x6m picture below it is 3,0m. The ridge height is measured from the ground to the vert top of the marquee and using the example picture below again its 3,8m.

Ground Bars

Ground bars come with our premium and professional ranges but what are they? Ground bars are designed to hold the structure together from the bottom keeping it square. It is very easy to install simply use the connectors, poles and follow the step by step guide provided with all UK Tents structures.

As always we want to hear from you, we rely on customers to send us blog ideas. This blog was suggested by Peter ironically from Peterbough who sent us the following email:

Hi UK Tents, I love reading your blogs and I wondered if we can have one about marquee terms? I run a marquee hire business and we often have customers ask for clearspan marquees but annoyingly this can mean loads of different things. I know you can’t write a blog all about clearspan marquees but maybe you can add some other industry specific words. I had a very helpful conversation with a lovely lady called Jane who talked me through the definition of lateral height which was a big help! Thanks for your help and keep up the good work

Peter from Peterbough

If you have a marquee related question you can of course call us on 01234233234 or email the UK Tents customer service team: info@uktents.com

For blog suggestion fill in the form below, we aim to publish at least 3 articles a week so look out for our next one soon.