WET MONDAYS

WE DON'T LIKE WET MONDAYS

By Claremont Marquees, Marquee Hire Surrey.

Many marquee hire events are at the weekend. 

Walls drying above roof being cleaned

We make every effort to get customers sites back to normal as soon as possible. This means that most of our tents are cleared back to our Surrey marquee hire warehouse on Mondays.

Of course it is a huge help if it isn't raining when a marquee is taken down, as if it is dry (and clean) we can pack it away as soon as we get home. If it is wet we have to hang it until dry. Then clean it if necessary, then dry it again. This is the way to guarantee we stay mildew and mould free.

We are well equipped with drying poles and pulleys which enable us to  hoist our marquees into the roof of the warehouse. This is something we have done a lot this summer. Whilst it has not been unusually wet, almost every Monday has delivered just enough rain to spoil things. In fact we have probably spent more time drying than we did in 2012, the wettest summer in 100 years!

Mildew stains

Not all marquee hirers are geared up in this way as you will discover if you see a marquee roof or wall full of mildew. I have just visited a marquee site in Sussex where the main wedding marquee was clean and tidy. Sadly though, the catering marquee hidden away around the back was filthy with mildew stains. The customer probably never went into the catering marquee, though I should think the  caterer would have been worried as it looked unhygienic. 

WRONG! - It turns out the marquee company was also the caterer, and was sensibly hiding the bad stuff  away from their client in the catering marquee! We think you should hire your marquee from a marquee company and get your cooking done by a caterer. A casual google search turns up dozens of companies across the UK  who do both, but won't catch us cooking for you. We have occasionally organised catering for our clients, but when we do this we carefully select a caterer we know and trust to do what they do best. 

THIS SEASONS BIG IMPROVEMENT

We are constantly trying to do things better. We can't give everyone a brand new marquee, but we can try to keep our stock looking good. This season we have implemented a new storage regime for marquee walls. They are now rolled around poles, rather than folded and then bagged for storage. This reduces unsightly creasing. 

Of course our older walls still have crease marks (but no mildew!). We are phasing these out, but in the meantime they go out of sight or in catering marquees!  Anyway this improvement is now paying dividends. We have just hired 18 walls out to another marquee hire company for a prestige event in East London. They were not happy with their own! 

THIS WEEKS LITTLE IMPROVEMENT

It is hard to stay on top of maintenance when we are busy in the summer, but we have found the time to give all our our stage tops a new coat of black paint.

SUMMER'S HERE!

Well, perhaps it has been and gone. After the dryest winter in ages things went wrong in April as soon as a hosepipe ban was implimented. By the end of April one of our sites was partially flooded. We then had a lovely few days at the end of May, but with June the wet (and windy) theme is resumed.

We have just erected 400 sq m of pagodas held down by weights on a tennis court.The met office then predicts 55mph gusts (this is June!) so some of us have had an uncomfortable and noisy night in the pagodas keeping an eye on things and making sure the weights don't shift. It never hurts to take extra precautions as if we ever do have to make an insurance claim, such things count. (The event organisers were also very grateful as we kept an eye on all the other marquees there.)

All was well and the winds have now dropped; weather still very dull though. Those not sleeping in the pagodas were erecting a giant awning in the teeth of the gales, again without incident, though the work was twice as hard.

Only a month ago we were told that the hosepipe ban was unlikely to be lifted until winter. It has already been lifted in the west and is likely to go here soon.

Oh how we long for summer to return, but no sign in the forecast.

NEW SEASON

The 2012 Marquee season starts in earnest in April, and all preperations are well in hand. New marquee walls, roofs, linings and coir matting are all being delivered shortly. Second hand coir matting, trestle tables, and pvc are on sale. (see sale section on our website)
All electrical equipment has been safety tested & a first aid refresher course completed.
New pagodas (sometimes called oriental canopies) arrive shortly

This weekend sees the Boat Race, for us traditionally the start of the season. For this event we have built a bespoke marquee for the roof of a Putney boathouse - it is being erected today. Everything has to be carried through the boathouse, and then up 2 flights of steps followed by a spiral staircase, so erecting it is the easy bit!

Our only remaining non compliant vehicle for the London low emissions zone is being upgraded this month. (We have had enough compliant vehicles for the winter period.)

Otherwise all is ready, and we are just waiting for is some better weather. Perhaps we had our summer in March.

LOW EMISSIONS ZONE MADNESS & MARQUEES

This post is not strictly about marquees but as transport regulation has a big impact on how we run our business, it does occupy rather a lot of our time! Of course we are all in favour of improving London's air quality, and a Low Emissions Zone will help to do this. However what follows really does not make sense.

Phase 3 of London's low emission zone (LEZ) came in to force at the beginning of this year. This requires vehicles over 3.5 Tonnes to meet the Euro IV standard for particulate matter emissions. Sadly the LEZ system seems to be based on the mad idea that a vehicle registered in September 2006 is not LEZ compliant whilst one registered in October is. Guess what - one of our trucks was registered in September, and has according to the manufacturer identical engine & emissions with the same vehicle registered in October. However LEZ says that doesn't matter. Even if we have it tested and the emissions are below the required level, we will have to have abatement filters fitted to make it compliant. Worst of all we have been informed that as we are not doing long motorway journeys the filters will not get hot enough to operate properly, and within a few months will not be doing their job. Never mind - we only need to get them tested annually, and can send them off for cleaning just before testing. Cost of filters for one vehicle is over £4000, + cost of annual cleaning & retest in excess of £200. Surely it would be better to allow vehicles that comply with the emissions requirement to be checked annually and providing they still meet the requirement not have filters fitted.

All this after phase 1 of the LEZ caused us to scrap a truck and phase 2 a van!

I understand that even LEZ estimates indicate that the reduction in pollution expected from this phase is a fraction of 1%. Surely there must be better ways improving air quality in London.

Of course we could stop erecting marquees in London!

CLAREMONT MARQUEES PHOTO PRIZE 2011

2011 WINNER

Once again a wedding photo has won the prize for last year. This time the photo was taken by the professional photographer Benji Barnes. To see other winners please follow the link to our website action=photo_gallery&cat_id=22&recordsPerPage=50 . If you would like to enter a photo for the prize do look at the details of the competition on our website Many thanks to all those who entered this year. As always it was very hard to choose a winner.

April 23 2010.

WEATHER OBSESSION
As you may guess marquee contractors are weather obsessed, so here is an update on 2010 for you. After a very cold winter and the wettest Feburary in 10 years, we had fairly average rainfall in March. Virtually no rain in April so far. The April average for the last 10 years is about 50mm; thats a lot of rain to come in the last few days if we are to hit the average, though in 07 we only had about 3mm all April.
Actually this has led to some problems. For example the ground was so waterlogged on one local site even after half of April with no rain, that we had to erect a wedding marquee for the weekend of 17th April at an alternative site. All went well however (link to thank you letter), and brilliant weather on the day.
MARQUEE MATTERS. The new season is very much underway. Our cleaning & maintenance has gone according to schedule and should complete before the end of next week just in time for the busy period to really get going.
Bookings continue to come in, though our last minute modern world means that many are coming in later & later! PLEASE MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR EVERYONE. If you are planning to get married, it is a good idea to book your marquee at the same time as you book the church or registry office, and in any case at least 6 months in advance. That way you should be able to get exactly what you want. Our shortest lead time from first contact to event date last year was 1 day (not a wedding thankfully). Whilst if we have stock, vehicle and manpower availability, we will always try to help, you are taking a big risk if you order late - we are already fully booked for many weekends this summer, and sure lots of other marquee companies will be in the same position.

January update. Computer & software upgrades started.

Long awaited upgrades are now underway with only minor glitches. Also orders for new hire stock for the coming season and a new van have been placed, so it is spend spend spend! Not a good time with VAT due at the end of the month. At least last quarter was only at 15%!

Things are booking up well for the summer, but please keep the orders coming in everyone. Alistair and Gordon are depending on us to pull the country out of recession!

The new vehicle is slightly sad news as we will be saying farewell to our good old P reg Renault Master Van. She's been with us since new, and until last year when she had to have a new clutch and water pump, was hardly ever off the road. Another old workhorse condemned by the governments scrappage scheme.

On a happier note, this years photo prize winner (above photo) has had the champagne delivered. Any of you champagne houses out there can get your name all over this blog & our website if you give us a really good deal on a case for next year!