When it comes to ballasting tents and clear span structures, there are a few acceptable ways to do it in terms of connection configurations and ballast choices. The IFAI - Tent Rental Division, of which we are members, recently commissioned a study with Clemson University as described here. This study showed how much weight should be used and in which set up configurations to meet your manufacturer's specified requirements.
The tent industry commonly uses several cement blocks sometimes weighing 5,000 pounds or more to secure their structures. These blocks are great and very effective, but aren't the most economical things in the world to get to and from a project. The cost associated with moving large amount of concrete and equal or exceed the tent itself. Depending on the customer, this could be a deal breaker. Enter water barrels.
Some companies use large 550 gallon barrels filled on site to replace the concrete blocks. The barrels weigh a fraction of the concrete when empty, that's a definite plus for shipping. Water (at roughly 8 pounds per gallon) does a nice job of meeting weight requirements for most instances. The major drawback? Have you ever seen how large a 550 gallon tank is? The tanks we were using were about 8' in diameter and 4' tall. We could fit 6 on a 24' box truck. Not bad but when you use 18 or so for a job, transportation gets expensive.
Last week, we acquired several 275 gallon, stack-able water containers that are cased with a steel frame (see below). These containers meet all of the criteria of excellent ballasts: they are heavy when full. Because the containers are stack-able, we can meet any load requirement called for. The real bonus? We can ship 28 on one 24' box truck. That is a capacity of 61,600 pounds of water on one truck. The only loose end to be tied up is to call a water truck to fill the containers on site (which we would've had with the 550 gallon barrels.) Water trucks are generally pretty cheap to hire so that expense really is a non factor.
We can manufacture covers to cover the industrial look of the caged containers to hide some of the industrial qualities on higher end projects like galas, or fundraisers. This is also an opportunity for our customers to enhance their event branding as they can put logos or any other message on the ballast cover that they would like.
We are thrilled with this investment and are sure that other rental companies would be as well. If you are interested in purchasing 275 gallon, steel wrapped, stack-able ballasts, please contact us at 614-837-6352 and we would be happy to quote you some prices.
Also -- for more information on the IFAI - TRD Ballasting Study, please contact the IFAI through their website linked above.
Happy Tenting!
The tent industry commonly uses several cement blocks sometimes weighing 5,000 pounds or more to secure their structures. These blocks are great and very effective, but aren't the most economical things in the world to get to and from a project. The cost associated with moving large amount of concrete and equal or exceed the tent itself. Depending on the customer, this could be a deal breaker. Enter water barrels.
Some companies use large 550 gallon barrels filled on site to replace the concrete blocks. The barrels weigh a fraction of the concrete when empty, that's a definite plus for shipping. Water (at roughly 8 pounds per gallon) does a nice job of meeting weight requirements for most instances. The major drawback? Have you ever seen how large a 550 gallon tank is? The tanks we were using were about 8' in diameter and 4' tall. We could fit 6 on a 24' box truck. Not bad but when you use 18 or so for a job, transportation gets expensive.
Last week, we acquired several 275 gallon, stack-able water containers that are cased with a steel frame (see below). These containers meet all of the criteria of excellent ballasts: they are heavy when full. Because the containers are stack-able, we can meet any load requirement called for. The real bonus? We can ship 28 on one 24' box truck. That is a capacity of 61,600 pounds of water on one truck. The only loose end to be tied up is to call a water truck to fill the containers on site (which we would've had with the 550 gallon barrels.) Water trucks are generally pretty cheap to hire so that expense really is a non factor.
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| New containers sitting next to the old ones. |
We are thrilled with this investment and are sure that other rental companies would be as well. If you are interested in purchasing 275 gallon, steel wrapped, stack-able ballasts, please contact us at 614-837-6352 and we would be happy to quote you some prices.
Also -- for more information on the IFAI - TRD Ballasting Study, please contact the IFAI through their website linked above.
Happy Tenting!
