3 minute read
The White Duck Outdoors Guide to Selecting Glamping Tents
White Duck Outdoors manufactures and sells premium, luxury glamping tents for glamping businesses of all sizes. They offer a complete range of canvas tents and every tent comes with a limited lifetime warranty and after-sales support. White Duck uses BCI cotton for their tents and all tent canvas is biodegradable.
When it comes to glamping accommodation, canvas tents are a top choice for a number of reasons. When compared with other kinds of accommodation like cabins, domes or treehouses, there’s usually a lower upfront cost associated with them, as well as being easier to transport, making them suitable for pop-up glamping companies.
Within the tent world, although canvas tents are generally at a higher price point than synthetic or nylon tents, they offer an extensive range of benefits that make them a better fit for glamping.
These perks include:
Insulation & Breathability: Canvas tents are made from cotton, which boasts natural breathable qualities. This means when it’s warm outside, the tent keeps cool and when it’s cold, the canvas tent maintains a warmer temperature inside.
Durability: Canvas tents are generally heavy duty tents, so they’re suitable for use for extended periods of time - sometimes up to five or more years with proper care. Weather protection: The best canvas tents are treated to be water repellent, mould and UV resistant. This, combined with the durable build of cotton canvas tents, means they perform particularly well in most weather conditions.
Sustainability: Canvas tents are made from natural, cotton fibre, which not only means that manufacturing canvas tents is better for the environment when compared with plastic tents, but that they can also be disposed of responsibly. They’re also easily repairable, so they last for years.
When investing in a canvas tent, there’s a few different factors you should keep an eye out for and truly understand.
The shape and size of your canvas tent
Canvas tents come in a host of shapes and sizes, so it’s important to understand how much space you have to pitch the tent, the number of people you’re expecting will stay in it and, of course, your budget. Wall tents are identifiable by their four vertical walls and can be as large as 16’x24’, with tons of usable space. Bell tents have a circular floor, a centre pole and conical shape, meaning less usable space. Bell tents can start as small as 8’ in diameter and go up to 23’.
The weight and treatment of the canvas
Generally, the weight of the canvas of your tent is an indicator of the durability of the tent and how well you can expect it to perform in different kinds of weather. That said, there isn’t a ‘wrong’ option as such - the weight you choose should be contingent on your frequency of use. Canvas weight is often measured in ounces per square yard and the two common weights are 10.10 oz and 8.5 oz. The canvas tent you invest in should come with an environmentally friendly treatment that protects the tent without impacting the natural benefits of the cotton it’s made from. At the very least, the canvas tent should have a PFCfree (perfluorinated chemical) finish to enhance the tent’s water repellence and resistance to mould and UV damage. If you plan to use a stove inside the tent, you might want to explore flame retardant fabric options, if available.
Beyond just the canvas fabric, it’s worth understanding the build and material of all the other aspects of the tent, like the frame, pegs, guy lines, zippers and floor. The frame should be made from galvanised steel or aluminium, while the pegs should be made from metal as well. Guy lines should possess shock absorbing qualities, so the tent stays grounded at all times, especially in high winds. The floor should be made from a durable, highperformance PE or PVC material and the zippers should also be high-quality metal.
Measurements around the canvas tent:
Although you may find similar floor size offerings across a number of canvas tent companies, it’s important to consider other measurements around the tent that differentiate the tents and can enhance your experience with the canvas tent. These include the wall height, centre height (or ceiling height in the case of wall tents), door height, size of windows and also the number of roof vents.
