NEW PRODUCT!

We are pleased to debut our new Split Rail Fence. This fence is a much cleaner look than our original Picket Fence and we think that our customers will be much happier with the results at their events.

Why we made the switch:

Because of the the way the picket fence was designed, it did not stand up well to shipping. When we would unload at the job site, we found that some pickets would be broken off or damaged. Because we try to deliver the highest quality products to our customers, we recognized that it was time for a change.

After researching a handful of options and consulting with other rental companies regarding best practices, we settled on the new split rail design. We feel this product has a cleaner look and most importantly, it will ship much better, saving a lot of the wear and tear on the product.

For more information about this or any other product you may be interested in renting, please contact us at 614-837-6352 between 8 am and 4:30 pm. You can always visit us online at www.oneiltents.com.

Repair & Replace -- Keeping our tent inventory top notch.

Every Winter, we painstakingly go through every one of our tent tops to ensure that the quality of our rental inventory remains high. After hours of scouring, the tents pictured have been rotated out of the inventory for the upcoming rental season.

This means that we need to start the process of replacement. First, we determine if we have the tent sizes and colors that our customers have requested. Second, we look at the last time a certain tent color was used that we are getting rid of. For example: In the pile shown above, there are all Yellow 10x10 Frame Tents. This has not been a very popular color for this size, so they will not be replaced. However, the Blue and White tent tops that are pictured are popular, and they will be replaced. Enter: O'Neil Manufacturing.

The first step in the manufacturing process is to hand cut all of the vinyl triangles that will weld together to make new tents. After the vinyl is cut, it is placed on the staging table until our manufacturing team is ready to assemble and weld the new tent. The pictures show the pieces necessary to replace the Blue and White tents discussed earlier.

The final step is to weld the tents together and to put them into inventory. The tents we're making today will help you to enjoy your event this Spring/Summer/Fall.

Start Planning Your 2014 Events Now!

It's never too early to start thinking about your event plans for 2014. The benefit of early planning, in terms of rentals, is that you are almost guaranteed what ever equipment you would like to rent. Depending on time of the year, we may run low on tent rentals or table and chair rentals. By reserving your rental items now, you are first in line and don't have to worry about that graduation party tent or the tent for your wedding. Please give us a call at 614-837-6352 to confirm your event details today!

Busy July.

July has been extremely busy. Take a look at the pictures below to see some of the events we had the pleasure of working on. This is a small sampling of our events. We are very proud of how hard our install crew works on these events. Without them, none of these great events would be possible.

The Ohio State Fair

160+ tents at the Dublin Irish Festival

Cleveland Browns Training Camp

Arts Festival 2013

Dayton Celtic Festival

May 2013 - Busy, Busy, Busy!

May usually kicks off our busy season and this May has been no different. O'Neil Tents has had the pleasure of working with many customers from years past but also have worked on some new projects along the way.

One of the new projects this month was the Spring Commencement at The Ohio State University. Spring Commencement is held at Ohio Stadium but this year's festivities had a bit of a twist to them. The seating area normally used by most of the graduates is under renovation so the University decided to seat the graduates on the field.

Once the entire field was covered by terraplast flooring, our team delivered and set up 10,000 folding chairs. This was no easy task. Each row had to be spaced very precisely and the seating plan had to be followed to perfection or the whole ceremony would be thrown off. We are happy to say that it only took 2 days for delivery and set up and a day and a half for tear down and load out. If it weren't for our experienced installers, this could've been a logistical nightmare.

President Obama was the keynote speaker for the event, which meant close work with the Secret Service to deploy tents for all sorts of functions including security checks and other tasks.

The day after the OSU Commencement ceremony install was completed, our crew took their talents on the road to Cleveland to set up an event structure for a Graduation Ceremony. The structure set up in Cleveland was 98' wide and 298' feet long with a couple of smaller structures set off to the sides.

Our installers were able to complete this mammoth structure in 14 hours.  We are confident in saying that there aren't too many crews who can install over 30,000 sq. ft. of temporary space in such a short amount of time. Our guys also decided to try a new method for installing the large structure that surely added to their time savings.

Cleveland 2012 Commencement

The middle of May also kicks off Festival/Fair Season for us at O'Neil Tents and Party Supplies. This year we have about 20 Fairs or Festivals on the books. We will provide tent, table and chair rentals for all sorts of events from the Susan Komen Race for the Cure, County Fairs, State Fairs, and Festivals celebrating cultural heritage like the Asian Festival at Franklin Park at the end of the month.

In addition to Fairs and Festivals we are happy to team up with another local rental company on a major music event in the Columbus area. We will be providing the structures for the event and they will install flooring for the structures as well as other items. It's a great partnership that we've been able to forge throughout the years. It really shows that a lot can be accomplished when you're willing to work together rather than fail separately.

 

New Water Ballasts for Tents

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.

New containers sitting next to the old ones.

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!

New Inventory Available for the 2013 Season!

Part of remaining a relevant equipment rental provider is keeping current with industry trends. O'Neil Tents and Party Supplies is pleased to be the first tent rental company in the Columbus, Ohio market to offer curved beam structures.

Our inventory selection for clear span tents has followed the mold of peers in our industry: A frame structures that are engineered to be safe and leave as much unobstructed event space as possible for our customers. While these A frame clear spans work well, they can seem a little industrial, which isn't exactly what our gala and wedding customers are looking for. By adding the curved beam, you soften the look of the structure and achieve a result that is aesthetically pleasing as well as engineered for safety.

CAD Rendering of a Curved Beam Structure

Gable end view of a Curved Beam Structure

Our curved beam structures will be available in 49', 66' and 82' widths. Depending on popularity, we may expand that offering across all of our clear span rental inventory.

Please contact our sales team at 614-837-6352 to discuss how our NEW Curved Beam Clear Span Structures can work with your next event!