InTents October/November 2019 - 28

ANCHORING THE TENT

This installation by Starr Tent at a public
school playground in New York City required
working around playground equipment and
acquiring curb lane permits for load in and
load out. An architect obtained and certiﬁed
a Temporary Place of Assembly Permit
for the layout of the tent, and professional
permit expeditors were used for the ﬁling,
which is required by NYC Department of
Buildings. Photo courtesy of Starr Tent.

28 intents

oct-nov 2019

or more. When the size and scale of an
event exceeds ballast shipping capacity,
a tent rental company may subcontract
some of the transportation. "I think to
myself that we're a freight company that
happens to rent tents," Knight says. "We
ballast according to the manufacturer
requirements, so there is a lot of trucking
and heavy machinery involved."
Installation site safety is essential,
especially where high levels of
pedestrian traf ic is present. Setting up
a perimeter fence to keep pedestrians
and others out of the work zone is a
typical step. But in some cities, citizens
seem to be determined to not comply
with the restrictions. "You need to keep
the perimeter of the jobsite closed,"
says Christopher B. Starr, vice president
of sales for Starr Tent, a tent rental
provider that works in New York, New
Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester County
and Long Island. "Some people will
move barricades and walk through
a jobsite just because it's easier for
them and literally risk bodily harm."

Tent installers usually prefer to stake
tents for anchorage because this method
follows manufacturer instructions, it's
easier and less expensive than other
methods, and it's a strong and reliable
means of properly securing tents.
However, the property owner must grant
permission to penetrate the ground,
which, in the case of pavement, can be
plugged or patched after the event.
When a property owner won't allow
staking, the tent provider is left with
the option of concrete ballast, which
is dif icult to transport and handle.
While water barrels are typically less
expensive to transport and set up
for a tent installation than concrete
ballast, many companies no longer
use them because they have a high
center of gravity, can easily slide on
pavement, and don't provide enough
weight to safely ballast a tent.
"A lot of times we're not allowed to
stake, and that's what the manufacturer
recommends," says Brady Castro,
principal at PRO EM National Event
Services, which has locations in
Phoenix, Tuscan, Chicago and Los
Angeles. "There are instances when
you ballast [tents], and we use concrete
blocks. The other challenge is actually
getting to the site because it's close
quarters. We have to maintain ire
lanes around the tents. That becomes
a challenge with clients who want a
certain size of tent (in certain spaces),
but we can't maintain ire lanes."
Many factors in luence the amount
of ballast weight needed. Tent size,
ballast con iguration, wind load as well
as texture and moisture level of the
pavement all in luence the ballasting
weight requirement. The Ballasting
Tool, available to IFAI Tent Rental
Division (TRD) members at tent.ifai.
com/resources/ballasting-tool, is an
online algorithm developed by TRD and
the Clemson University Department of
InTents October/November 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of InTents October/November 2019
