What is a tarp?
To explain it clearly to you, I checked Wikipedia. He made it clear that. That is what I want to say. I put it here for your reference.
A tarpaulin or tarp is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant, or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with polyurethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. Tarpaulins often have reinforced grommets at the corners and along the sides to form attachment points for rope, allowing them to be tied down or suspended.
You must daze what the hell I put this thing here. You must say ” Emma，I don’t care about what is it. Just tell me why I need it? why, why.” Don’t be hurry, I will give you the answer step by step.
We tried many other materials, Plastic is a little hard to fold and store. Cotton is too difficult to clean. The net is not strong enough.
In a word, due to these qualities, the tarp is the most suitable product for bounce house protection.
Why do you need a tarp?
In the beginning, I don’t think a tarp is necessary. Many customers asked me if they need a cover to protect the underneath of the bounce house. I asked my friend, some of them said yes, others said no. That puzzled me. So I decided to try it myself. I put two same bounce houses on the same concrete floor. One set up on a tarp, the other one no. I watch them carefully. After one month. The bottom with the tarp one is almost brand new. The other one is soiled and a little torn. I told this result to my customers. They think it is great to know the tarp is useful to protect their bounce house.
I went on to do some more testing for a while. After long-term research. I found we need a tarp for our bounce house.
A tarp is a protector of a bounce house. Usually, it protects not only your bounce house but also the lawn.
Not only will it benefit you, but it will also make your customers happy.
How dose a tarp protect your bounce house
The life of a bounce house will be prolonged if you take care well of it.
There are many influencing factors from use, cleaning, folding to storage. It is also an important factor whether or not you use a tarp.
A tarp does a good job on this side. It protects the inflatable to keep it in a good situation and prolongs its life.
- Reducing damage from dirt, water, mold, and debris. It separates your moonwalk from grass, mud, sand when you operate on lawn, earth, beach, etc soft ground. Keep the bottom of the inflatable clean and dry. Reducing damage from dirt, water, mold, and debris.
- Avoiding damage from tears, scratch damages from rocks, twigs, and other debris. It isolates your spacewalking from debris, if you set up on cement, rock, playground, and other hard surfaces. Retain a buffer zone.
- Protecting abrasions caused by a small movement of the inflatable slide during use.
- Defending sliding and facilitates sandbag retention on a smooth and hard stadium.
- Protecting the surface, won’t turn it into a messy mud floor. When you are using a water slide.
How a tarp protect the lawn?
Usually, people will set up inflatables on the lawn in their yard. It is easy and convenient for them. aced with an inflatable slide. Here comes up the questions. Does it kill my lawn? Will it ruin my grass?
To answer these questions I talked with some of my customers. And I tested it with my friends for a month in hot summer. The heavyweight overwhelms the grass and bends it. But no grass die.
We got the conclusion it won’t destroy grass if use a bounce house properly. The heavyweight overwhelms the grass and bends it.
Indeed bounce house is not a grass killer. High temperature, low humidity, and not enough oxygen can lead to grass death.
Here are some little tips for you to avoid damages happened.
- Don’t put your heavy-duty commercial-grade bounce house down on grass directly. Place a tarp on the ground first before each use. The bounce house does not weigh directly on the lawn. This tarp acts as a cushion. Reducing the burden of single grasses.
At the same time, the tarp shades the lawn from direct sunlight. Avoid direct sunlight on the grass. Protects grass
from strong sunlight.
- Change of location every day if you need to operate for more than 2 days. Do not allow the bounce house to remain pressed into the same patch of grass for more than 8 hours.
- Use a light color tarp always. Absolutely no black tarp.
- Carefully look after the lawn after the event. On sunny days water the parking area for 5-10 minutes a day and shade it . Do not do anything on rainy days. The grass will recover within a week with good care.
How to choose a tarp?
This step is very important. Choosing a suitable and correct tarp can help you to protect your bounce house.
If you don’t choose the right one, it’s useless. Especially when you need to use it on a lawn. A tarp affects the temperature. The light color will reflect heat, while the dark color absorbs it.
Here are tips about somewhat to do, and not to do.
Color
Do pick white, blue, grey, and other bright tarps.
Be sure not to use black tarps.
Size
Measure the inflated size of your bounce house after inflated.
Each side of the tarp should be 4-5 feet bigger than your inflated bounce house.
For example, your bounce house size is 15 feet wide and 25 feet long, choose a tarp 20 wide by 30 feet long.
I found this video on Youtube. Guide you on how to choose a tarp from Amazon. Watch it if you need to buy a tarp.
Until now there are still some people who think it is not worth spending money to protect their bounce houses.
What about you? How do you think?
Please write to me and let me know what you think.
