How often do marquees need cleaning?

It depends on the frequency a marquee is used, the environment it is erected in, the material in question and the weather conditions but in general marquee hire companies will lightly clean a marquee nearly every time it goes up but do a thorough ingrained clean maybe twice a year.

By lightly clean I mean wipe down any marks or mud that may have splattered on to the sides, this can be done when the marquee is erected on site. By ingrained clean I mean using a power washer, a floor scrubber or brush and strong marquee cleaner product or getting a professional marquee cleaning company in. Ingrained cleaning removes the grey film that builds up on marquees over time.

There are three categories of dirt on a Classic DIY Marquee:

• mud splatters or other marks on the covers. These can be removed by light cleaning
• grey film that builds up over time, to be removed by an ingrain clean
• dirt and residue from trees. If it rains when your marquee is under a tree a lot of dirt gets washed off leaves on to your marquee, there may even be some sap on there too. The dirtiest marquee I ever saw was one erected under a tree. These need ingrain cleaning immediately as they won’t be good enough to hire out and leaving sap on PVC would not be good.

Different marquee materials, different cleaning methods:

• Canvas cannot be cleaned without removing it’s FR coating
• PVC can be cleaned as above; good quality PVC (like ours) will have a laminate coating to make it easier to clean.
• Clear PVC (window panels) must be cleaned very carefully so the clear material isn’t scratched.
• Poly/PVC you have to be careful as the PVC coating is a single layer than can be scratched off with aggressive cleaning.
• PE material can be cleaned similar to PVC though doesn’t have a laminate coating so will not come back as new.

The most important point of all – never put your marquee away when wet. A wet stored marquee will create mildew (PVC & PE) or may rot (canvas & the stitching in any stitched marquee).

Speak to DIY Marquee for further information on their stunning range of marquees and Commercial DIY Marquee