26th March 2014
What We Have Been Up to Over The Winter
People often ask us what we have been up to in the winter. Funnily enough we sometimes feel like we are just as busy during the ‘off’ season than we are in the busy season. There are still plenty of events going on and with a slightly reduced workforce and reduced daylight the jobs take longer to install.
This winter has been particularly challenging with the hurricane force winds. We were forced to bring in water weights , extra stakes and extra straps in order to make sure one party in February went ahead. Unfortunately during the party the power supply for the area was taken out by a falling tree in the midst of 80 mile per hour gusts. Our client has a back-up generator built into the house but the electrician had not set up the marquee supply to be routed through the generator. Therefore we had to run lines from the house to the various points around the marquee to get the show back on the road. The party was in full swing again when the next crisis hit, our client’s built in generator had broken down. Luckily we work with event generators most weeks and we were able to use our experience to fix it after 20 minutes, the party was then able to continue long into the night without a hitch. When weather like this occurs you can rely on us to be on standby, we also regularly go back to sites on Saturday morning to make sure everything is still running ok and there is no damage.
Added to the odd marquee installation we are kept busy with maintenance. For example at the beginning of every March all of our vehicles are rigorously checked and serviced to ensure they are going to be ultra-reliable when we need them most.
Despite the fact our marquee PVC is cleaned if necessary before each installation the bulk of our cleaning and maintenance is done during the winter. This is something that keeps the warehouse team busy at least 3 days a week, it is a costly and time consuming process but the end result is definitely worth it!
Other warehouse duties are stock checks on furniture, grading our coconut matting, meticulously going through each and every lining to check for damage before it is sent for cleaning.>We are also currently refurbishing some of our marquee doors, they are being re-powdercoated and some of the panels are being replaced. As the doorway is the first thing everybody is going to see, keeping them smart is paramount.
We are just about to take delivery of two new dance floors. This is something we have always been very strict about. Every year we replace at least one dance floor, we find if somebody smashes a glass and it is not immediately cleared away the remnants are caught up in peoples shoes and can really damage wooden dance floor panels. Every year we go through our stock of dance floors and demote them to hard flooring (which usually has a carpet covering) when they are not up to standard.
Similarly to dance floors coconut matting is something that is very hard to clean effectively, we find it easier and more cost effective to replace it when necessary. We always reserve the very best of our stock for wedding marquees. We recognise that not everybody is going to be able to afford a new event carpet for their event, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the marquees floor should not be in the very best condition possible. Older matting is used for trade events, sports events, catering marquees and finally outside matting. We expect to replace the majority of our wedding coconut matting for 12m and 9m for this summer’s events.
