How To Care For Your Instant Shelter Okay, so you’ve made the plunge into flash, fine events equipment, and are waiting for your order to arrive. It’ll pay dividends for your hope of securing a larger footfall: rain, shine, and the perils of travel aren’t something to worry about, are they? Well, like any investment, your treatment of the materials will go a long way to deciding how useful they are. Caring for your instant shelter doesn’t have to be a chore; actually, once you read through our maintenance tips, you’ll be dying to tweak and test the properties of your event setup… Remove canopies when you’re on the road A good portion of Surf & Turf’s instant shelters have fixable canopies to deploy. While they’re an optional extra, we find that a lot of our customers like having the added security and visual spark for their exhibitions, especially those outdoors. Once you get the hang of it, it’ll only take a few minutes to attach the canopy to the head of the shelter model. We don’t recommend keeping it affixed 24/7 – if you’re hurtling around in a van, say, with the shelter in the back, the joints and framework will be knocked, stretched and rattled with the motion, reducing their effectiveness over time. Always take the canopy off when you’re packing up. Dry the material before storage No-one likes damp and mildew. Unsurprisingly, at some point, rain is going to seep across your shelter, covering those carefully emblazoned sidewalls in a layer of water, so thin you may not even register it until a nasty smell invades, and the fabric begins to crinkle. Take the safe route when you’re dissembling the shelter by drying every inch you can. A couple of towels will do the trick, as well as a thorough airing of the flattened material. If you’re pressed for time, fold it away for a night, then air it out the next day. This could also be a prime opportunity to check for mud splats on the inner shelter; clean them with a soft scrubbing brush and soapy water before leaving it to dry. Anchor the weaker spots in your frame In an open field, or a bustling morning of market activity, there’s no telling how high the winds might creep up. A strong gale can knock your shelter for six if it isn’t properly stabilised: as in, tied to a weighty anchor of some sort, like sandbags or a buckle strap. Even the biggest shelters in our range, like the Hexagonal Canopro Elite, require assistance to avoid being blown over. The weights should have a specialised fastener, made for the interior corners or feet of your shelter model. We stock pretty much everything you need in this respect – sandbags, double/single weight stacks, and heavy-duty kits that strengthen the connective elements of your purchase. In fact, we cross the whole landscape of events maintenance: our accessories are perfect for keeping your shelter instantly brilliant, no matter the conditions or schedule you’re facing. It requires a bit of work on your part, though, so don’t forget to treat an events shelter like any other big, wow-inducing facet of your business i.e. with all the love in the world!