Looking for Tarps?

What is a tarp and what can you do with one?

A "tarp" (short for tarpaulin) means "waterproofed canvas" - it's as simple as that These days you can find tarpaulins made from all kinds of materials including canvas, polyvinyl, and mesh. You'll also find them made from space-age materials such as Silnylon (nylon resembling silk) and even insulated tarps. So how come such a basic concept has such a versatile application? Who knows? But the fact is we find all kinds of ways to use this humble cover.

We naturally use tarps for protection - most of the time by covering something we want to keep out of the weather. While we often think of using tarps to protect things from rain, they also keep off snow, sleet and hail, provide relief from wind and dust as well as the sun.

One common use of tarpaulins these days is as a covering for outdoor play sets. These play-set tarps allow our children to enjoy playing while keeping them safe from direct sunlight was well as rain. As a bonus, these tarps permit these playsets to be used more often.

Other uses include utilizing very large tarps to cover athletic fields such as baseball diamonds. T.A. Rice specializes in such tarpaulins. Since tarps of these size can be hard to find  T.A. Rice carries them in stock so they are ready to ship immediately.

Most tarps come with several grommets (a metal ring used to secure the tarp in place with a rope or bungie cords.) sewn in. You can usually tell a better quality tarp by the way the grommets are sewn in. Other signs include the quality of the stitching around the edges and the quality of the material itself.

Another telltale sign of the quality of a tarp is it's thickness - measured in mils. A mil is is one thousanth of an inch (0.001) thick. In comparison, many common kithen garbage bags are less than a mil thick. The thicker or more mils a tarp has the heavier the material - meaning it should be better quality. 

Keep in mind though, that stronger, lighter materials are being developed every day so the thickness of a tarp may not be the only consideration. 

If you want to protect something from the sunlight - look for a tarpaulin with a UV coating.

So is a canopy the same thing as a tarp?

Not exactly. A canopy is a tarp fitted to a frame (generally made out of poles). Using the two together (a frame and a tarp) is often a great way to protect something, such as a boat or a car, economically without the need to come up with some clever way to keep the tarp in place.

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