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!

Road Trip!

Winter time in the tent business can be a very slow time of the year. Sure there are some smaller projects here and there, but more often than not, our guys are in the warehouse day after day doing maintenance and repairs. It gets a little monotonous.

If you are looking for some real action in the winter you have to go South, I don't mean Chillicothe South, I mean Dallas South. Last week, 6 of our guys loaded up the semi trailer and headed down to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to install an impressive 98'x328' structure as an exhibition hall. Personally, I think the guys set a record: 1 day to install the frame, 1 day to install all of the fabric. There is a reason we have some of the best installers in the business. Our customer had some tight time lines but we were able to get the job done in an effective amount of time. My hat is off to our our installers. Great work guys!

For more info about this, or any other structure, please visit us on the web at www.oneiltents.com.

Frame loaded and ready to go.

Safety first! Laying out the frame and staking the base plates.

All of the arches are up. Ready to connect the wind bracing cables.

Ours in the 3rd structure in. We enjoyed working along side some real pro's for this event.

Wintertime Wind Down

This time of year we have a handful of jobs being installed but the majority of the work being done by our crew is maintenance. In order to keep the highest quality of tents and party supplies available for your events, it is imperative to do this work.

Because our tents go out so much over the course of a summer, each tent top is inspected for any pin holes that can be patched, or if they just need a washing and some TLC, those needs are addressed. Most of our tables are being sanded and re-stained to keep them fresh as well. The items that are far past saving are either recycled or turned into another item that we may be able to use (60" round tables can be cut done to 48" round tables, etc...)

As I mentioned before, there are some projects going out but working with vinyl when it is this cold out can be a real pain. The vinyl loses its flexibility and to be honest, none of our crew really want to be out in single digit temperatures.

As the 2013 starts, we at O'Neil Tents would like to thank our customers in and around Columbus as well as other places for choosing us to be their event equipment rental provider. We have enjoyed working with you in the past and look forward to the opportunity to help you celebrate in the future!

O'Neil Manufacturing

O'Neil has been manufacturing our our tent tops, clear span tent panels, tent wall, and other related items for over 30 years now. We have relied on our vinyl welding, heat sealing and sewing machines to bulk up our own rental inventory but now its time to put our experience in manufacturing to work for you.

We acknowledge that our expertise is as a frame tent manufacturer and would like to build relationships with other rental outfits, helping to replace, enhance and bolster their tent inventories. We specialize in "Indiana" style frame tents but are capable of making a top to fit any tent our there. In addition to tent manufacturing, O'Neil is going to jump into the contract sewing and welding industries.

What the heck is a derecho anyways?

"According to the National Weather Service, a derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms. Generally, derechos are convection-induced and take on a bow echo form of squall line, forming in an area of wind divergence in the upper levels of the troposphere, within a region of low-level warm air advection and rich low-level moisture. They travel quickly in the direction of movement of their associated storms, similar to an outflow boundary (gust front), except that the wind is sustained and increases in strength behind the front, generally exceeding hurricane-force. A warm-weather phenomenon, derechos occur mostly in summer, especially during June and July in the Northern Hemisphere, within areas of moderately strong instability and moderately strong vertical wind shear. They may occur at any time of the year and occur as frequently at night as during the daylight hours."

In other words, derecho's are fast moving bands of thunderstorms in the Midwest that can create hurricane force winds. On June 29th, a derecho came through town, clocked at 83 mph. The storm was so fast moving that it left little warning or preparation time. We had several projects set up and we had several projects go down because of that storm. While the toll was rough for a tent company in terms of loss, over a hundred thousand people lost power due to the storm, some for over a week.

We have not seen storm related damage like that since Hurricane Ike blew through the Midwest before it finally fizzled out. All told, a couple of dozen tents were lost due to the winds. More amazing to us were the tents that didn't fall down. There was no rhyme or reason as to why they were left standing. A structure engineered to with stand 80 mph winds got yanked 15' into the air and tossed about 75' through and past a chain link fence, but a 20x20 frame tent with no engineering or wind load design was o.k. in an open field. It's mind boggling.

In the end, no one was injured by our tents or structures and that's the most important thing to consider. It was an awesome reminder of just how powerful mother nature can be. Some times there is nothing that you can do but sit back and pick up the pieces when its all over.

What derecho damage looks like in person (photo by NBC4i.com):


What a derecho looks like on the radar (photo from the National Weather Service):

A Truly Special Event

A lot of talk in the industry goes on about what makes a special event. There are special event planners, special event managers, special event services companies like ours, and the list goes on and on for all things special event related. I got to thinking about it recently and the only thing that really makes one event special next to all the others is the cause that it is being held for.

Sure, birthday and graduation parties are great. We enjoy setting up weddings because of the elegance associated with them. Local fairs and festivals bring people from various communities together. In our jam packed schedule, we probably work on 2,000 "special events" of varying sizes and scope every year. To us though, probably the most special of all of those events is going on this weekend at The Ohio State University with the Special Olympics.

From the Special Olympics Ohio website --

The concept of Special Olympics began in the early 1960's when Eunice Kennedy Shriver started a day camp for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The first national meet was held at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1968 for 1,000 athletes from the United States and Canada. Shortly thereafter, Ohio began a Special Olympics program under the name of the Ohio Athletic Association. Special Olympics Ohio became incorporated in 1975. Today, there are Special Olympics programs in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and 150 different countries around the world.

Special Olympics Ohio has approximately 200 local member organizations and over 23,000 athletes who are in training and competition. These organizations originate from County Boards of MR/DD, public schools, developmental centers, parks and recreation departments, churches and parent and community groups.

We have been participating in this awesome event for as long as I can remember and I hope that O'Neil will continue to participate in it as long as possible.

New Clear Span Structure Inventory!

Great news! O'Neil Tents and Party Supplies is now offering 40' wide clear span structures.

We are expanding our clear span structure inventory, which is already the largest in the state of Ohio, to include 40' wide structures.

The benefits of these structures are numerous:

1. Our new 40' structures are engineered to withstand winds of up to 65 mph. That's strong!

2. While our traditional 40' frame tents offer no center pole or support obstructions under the body of the tent, our new structures take that a step further with modular addition of sections in 10' increments. The real benefit here is to our long term renters. If you need more space than originally planned, we won't need to come out and take down your existing tent to add more space to it. We can simply add sections to the existing tent while its still in the air. This gives you more space in less time! Rather than a full day to add an additional 20' to an existing tent, our time will be cut to about 1-2 hours on site.

3. Side heights are extendable up to 10'. Currently, our frame tents come in 7' or 8' side heights with limited opportunities to extend those sides higher. We can easily extend our clear span structures to the side height of your choosing. This is ideal for using stages under the tents.

4. Easier uses of mixed media tops and covers. Our new structures make it worlds easier to use different types of roof and side fabrics. We can transition between opaque, translucent and clear tops to give your event a high end feel without breaking your budget.

O'Neil now offers engineered tent solutions in 33', 40', 49', 66', 82', and 100' widths making us the leading tent and structure renter in terms of safety and choice. Starting in the second week of July we will be expanding our huge inventory even further to include 20' wide engineered structures. Truly now, ALL of your tenting needs can be met safely and efficiently.

For details on pricing, please visit us on the web at www.oneiltents.com.

Commencing of Commencement

It's graduation season, not only for high school seniors but also for those at colleges and Universities across the country. It's a great time to celebrate achievements and to look forward to whats ahead. Some will move on to college and further their education, others will be moving into the "real world" and begin their careers and count down to retirement.

We are lucky to be a part of so many celebrations, not only in the central Ohio area, but also in various locations around the state. In partnership with Advanced Tent in Cleveland, we erected a MASSIVE 100'x300' clear span structure for the Lakeland Community College commencement ceremony. Believe it or not, an 82' x 245' structure was not large enough to house the ceremony. As far as classy ceremonies go, this one takes the cake.

It took us only 2 days to erect and finish this huge clear span structure. The first day was comprised of laying out base plates and frame as well as driving stakes to secure the temporary structure able to withstand 70 mph winds. The second day was for erecting the frame with the help of some heavy lifting equipment and pull through the vinyl tops. Who would think that in only 2 days you could have 30,000 sq. ft. of unobstructed space set up and ready to use? It's pretty amazing when you think about it.

Take a look at the photos below to see our results. All photos are courtesy of Lakeland Community College.

Graduation Party Tent Check List

As the season approaches for graduation and commencements, there are several items that a renter must consider. Hopefully, this check list will make you're party planning go smoothly and allow you to enjoy the celebration rather than stress over the details. Of course, please visit us at www.oneiltents.com to view our full product assortment and party options.

1. Do I need a permit? - Depends. If your tent is less than 400 sq. ft. (20x20), you generally do not need a permit. Check with your local building department and fire department to be sure of their requirements.

2. How large of a tent should I rent? - Depending on the number of guests and how you'd like to use the space, different tent sizes can accomplish different atmospheres. For a good guide of spacing requirements, please see the seating arrangement page on our website at http://www.oneiltents.com/pages/seating.aspx.

*** It is important to keep in mind that depending on the size of your space, you need to allow some extra room on the perimeter for stakes to be driven to secure the tent. For example, if you have a 20x20 space, we may be able to only set up a 15x15 tent when allowing for the stake line along the perimeter.

3. Can I cook or grill under the tent? - ABSOLUTELY NOT. According to the 2009 International Fire Code,     Outdoor cooking shall not be located within 20 feet of tents. (2404.15.6)

4. Should I rent a pole tent or a frame tent? - Depends. Pole tents are generally less expensive than frame tents but there are certain benefits for each. A pole tent is great if you don't mind center poles partially obstructing your event space. Also, pole tents MUST be staked into the ground for proper set up. Frame tents offer no obstruction throughout the event space and do not have to be staked. Frame tents can be secured using water barrels or concrete ballasts. Depending on your situation one may be a better option than the other.

5. Do I need to rent lighting? - Depending on the time of day for your event, the answer may be no. Of course night time events should be properly lit for the safety of your guests. However, if its a daytime event, odds are you probably don't need to rent additional lighting. If you're looking to add a little flare to your tent, string lights and Christmas lights always look nice.

6. How soon should I be placing my order? We would recommend placing your order as soon as possible. Placing your order early guarantees that our full inventory selection will be available for you to choose from. As we get closer and closer to the event date, supplies go quickly. Also keep in mind that all orders for linens must be placed at a minimum of two weeks ahead of time.

I hope this guide is helpful. If you aren't sure about the size of the space you have available, please call our office at 614-837-6352 and we can schedule a time for one of our representatives to give you a free on site consultation.

3

IFAI Tent Rental Division - Expo Follow up

For those IFAI - TRD members who weren't able to attend the meeting in Vegas, you missed out on an exceptional learning experience and an all around great time with peers and leaders in our industry.

The conference started on Sunday with the Golf scramble. My foursome didn't win but we finished pretty respectably for a group without an NCAA golfer on our team. Overall, it was a great opportunity to have fun with friends old and new.

Monday was the first day of meetings. The topics covered were great. Several members put on a panel of what to do when an emergency occurs at an event, how to prepare for emergencies and how to speak with the media after catastrophe. The board brought in speakers that talked about the best way to hire and retain good employees, as well as (my personal highlight of the day) a sales strategist. The strategist/mentalist covered a wide range of topics from personal interactions to how the words you choose to use can make or break sales. VERY informational.

The highlight of the meeting was the presentation of the initial results from the ballasting study from the Clemson University staff. I will not say too much about the study as it is yet to be completed other than this: This study will absolutely revolutionize the way our industry ballasts tents and structures in the near future.

I am proud to be a part of a professional organization that is so forward thinking. Being on the leading edge of the industry is an interesting place to be. We all saw how well received the staking survey was. I believe that the ballasting study will be of even greater importance.

IFAI Tent Rental Division Expo

O'Neil will be sending 2 representatives to the IFAI TRD expo in Las Vegas this weekend. We are both extremely excited about the Ballasting Study Results that are going to be presented. This study has been a long time in the making, and has been a hot topic of conversation for most of the rental companies in the IFAI. The study focuses on the best way to ballast structures instead of staking them down.

It's very satisfying knowing that a group we're involved with has safety concerns for event goers in the front of their minds.

More to come from the weekend in Vegas... Stay tuned!

For more info about our company and the products we offer, please visit us on the web at www.oneiltents.com.

The Super Bowl Shuttle

Four 33'x33' heated temporary structures with glass double doors at the Indianapolis Airport. Photo by Indianapolis Airport Authority.

O'Neil Tents and Party Supplies was in Indianapolis last week for the Super Bowl. Although we didn't provide any of the big party or event tents, we helped the city in another way. We worked with the Indianapolis Airport Authority to bolster their existing infrastructure.

Normally, when travelers arrive at the airport they take a shuttle to the car rental depots and are on their way. With the extreme influx in passengers looking to rent cars during the week of the Super Bowl, the Airport had to supplement existing drop off and pick up locations. In addition to needing more, covered space, the Airport also needed temporary structures that were strong enough to stand up to the 40 mph winds that would blow the week of the event.

We erected a couple of 20'x20' heated structures complete with glass entry doors as waiting areas for shuttle pick ups. After the shuttle would pick up passengers, they were then taken to one of four 33'x33' heated structures where they could wait for rental car service (pictured above). These structures allowed the Airport to better handle the increase in traffic as well as providing a safe, warm place to wait.

Out with the old, In with the new.

 We're currently going through a rigorous inventory assessment right now which the result is scrapping a whole pile (see picture) of our tent inventory. From frame tents, canopy tents, and pole tents our rental inventory is getting a major upgrade this winter.

Our manufacturing team starts the process by opening up tops in our facility and assessing their quality. Those deemed to be unfit to rent have all of the reusable hardware removed and the vinyl is scrapped.

Please know that once the vinyl is scrapped, we do not take it to the dump! We donate the used tents to local farmers and others to be used as tarps, covers, etc... We care about the environment we operate in. It's awesome to be able to help out those in our community and the environment at the same time!

When we go through old inventory, we look at rental trends and see if the tents are worth replacing or not. For example, 15 years ago, a customer would ask for 60' wide tents and we would automatically set up a pole tent. Anymore, tents of great size must be engineered. We won't be replacing too many of those pole tents as O'Neil has been on the front lines of clear span structures and engineered pole tents.

It is important to keep our inventory as fresh and new as possible in order to remain relevant in the tent rental market. As discussed in a previous post, our manufacturing capabilities give us a competitive advantage. We can replace our inventory cheaper than our competition and we pass those savings directly to you, our customers.

Web Site Updates

We've recently updated the layout and functionality of our website to make it more user friendly for our current and prospective customers. 

A look at the newly revamped website!

O'Neil is proud to be the rental destination for tents, canopy tents, tables, chairs, etc... in Columbus, OH. We just wanted to make our customer's online experience as stream- lined as possible. 

Our team made it so all of the content on our www.oneiltents.com homepage is visible when the page loads. This means if you're looking for tent, table or chair rentals you can more easily navigate to your destination.

In addition to making the page easier to navigate, we've added menu's for our sale items. This allows us a unique place to offer the market great deals on our used inventory.

Speaking of deals, we're giving our customers a chance to opt-in to our mailer. We will send email campaigns to those interested in event equipment rentals offering sales and discounts, as well as keeping folks up to date with industry trends.

Take a minute to go over to our site and let us know what you think about the recent changes made in the comments section. We're thrilled to hear feedback!