Wednesday November 10, 2021

This is a great question sent to us by David who is based in Melton Mowbray. David wanted to know if our PE marquees could stand up to bad weather or would he need to go for PVC tarpaulin.

Unfortunately this question doesn’t have a straightforward answer and it will depend on a variety of circumstances. You would have to ask yourself the following questions:

Will this structure be used long term?

All of our marquees are perfect for regular short-term use but our professional range is most suitable for longevity. The Pro range has a ground bar to hold the structure in place and a thicker 550g tarpaulin.

What time of the year will your marquee be in use?

Our research shows PE marquees are a better in the summer and in the winter we advise our PVC marquees due to the 500g-550g tarpaulin thickness.

Is the structure going to be moved often?

If you want to move the marquee around PE is a great option as it’s light and very easy to move. PE is also easier to build and would require less people to construct.

Once you have gone through our options you will realize the famous “What is better PVC or PE” debate really does boil down to what you need the marquee to do. Both offer something different and in summary PVC is a heavy-duty marquee and PE is lighter. It’s really important to note that all of our PVC marquees are 100% waterproof and are UV resistant. The professional ranges are the only marquees to have fire resistance, which is perfect for commercial use. The PE structures aren’t fire resistant and also don’t provide UV protection so if you need to use a marquee for a public event PVC would be the better option.

I thought it would be a good idea to ask to customers that have previously bought both PE and PVC marquees to get an honest opinion. I came across the owner of the George pub in London who bought 3×4 PE marquee for personal use and a 6×12 professional for his venue.

I wanted to know why he picked PE for home use and PVC for his business. I also wanted to find out how both marquees were performing.

UK Tents advised me to take the professional marquee range for my pub and I have to agree it was the right decision. The extra height you get with a professional marquee enabled me to make the marquee look stunning and the 550g 100% helped us keep the marquee warmer when I compare it to my PE tent I have at home.  I suppose it’s horses for courses and the PE option really is a good for some circumstances.  We use our PE marquee often but not for long time at once and having the ability to dismantle it without fuss is great. It’s lightweight, only needs two of us to build and to be honest I could probably do it on my own if I needed to.  To answer your question both marquees are performing well and as predicted by UK Tents PE for my home and the PVC professional range for my pub has worked out really well.

We hope this blog helped you make a more calculated decision and we have answered some of your questions. If we have missed anything get in touch with us. If you want me to write a news article on something regarding our products or marquees in general please fill in the form below.