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How long can a marquee stay up for?

This is a question I’m asked often – how long can a marquee stay up for?

There are two parts to this -one is the structure, the other is the state of the ground.

Marquees are only designed as temporary structures, if you have them up for a long time then certain precautions should be taken. Checking it regularly for signs of wear & tear, checking the strength of bungees, making sure there is no water or snow gathering on the roof, not leaving it up in extreme weather conditions. All common sense stuff really.

The ground is only a problem if it’s going up on grass. As Legend mentioned on the forum recently if grass is covered for a long time the groundsheets underneath can become covered in rotting grass which smells. Badly. Can barely stay in the same vehicle badly! But I’ve only ever found that smell to be once the flooring has been taken up, never while the marquee is in use.

You can put flooring down for a week or two and all that will happen will be the grass will yellow a bit. A few weeks later and it will have recovered no problem. If it’s down for longer than that then the grass is likely to die off and need re-seeding.

Please don’t think about ‘breathable' flooring/matting. As mentioned previously it allows a build up of condensation but also if it’s left down long-term the grass just grows up through the mesh. I can’t stand the stuff which is why we don’t sell it.

Spencer