Site Surveys: What to Check Before You Quote a Tent Job

A crew arrives to install a 20x40 on what was described as a flat backyard. The gate is too narrow for the cart, the yard slopes more than it looked in the photograph, there is a septic field where the stakes need to go, and the only route to the site is up thirty feet of steps.

The job was quoted at four hours. It takes eight, needs an extra person, and the margin is gone before the tent is up.

Nobody lied. The client genuinely thought their yard was flat, because to them it is. The failure happened at the quoting stage, when nobody asked.

Why site surveys pay for themselves

Every experienced operator has a list of jobs that lost money, and almost all of them share a cause: the site was different from what was assumed when the price was set.

A survey does not have to mean driving out to every job. For a straightforward residential install, a structured set of questions and a few photographs will catch most problems. For anything large, unfamiliar, commercial or high-value, go and look.

The cost of a site visit is an hour. The cost of discovering the problem on install day is the job.

The ground

Start with what you are anchoring into, because it determines your method, your equipment and your labour.

Identify the surface: grass, gravel, asphalt, concrete, decking, artificial turf. Grass means stakes; hard surfaces mean ballast, which means hauling significant weight and a different install entirely. Our guides to staking and ballast anchoring cover the difference in effort.

Check whether the ground is level. A slope that looks trivial standing on it becomes obvious once a frame goes up, and significant slope may rule out a location entirely.

Test how firm it is. Recently landscaped ground, filled areas and sites that were wet last week behave differently from established turf. And ask about drainage — a low spot that holds water after rain will be a mud pit by the end of an evening event.

What is underneath

This is the question most likely to cause real damage, and the one clients almost never volunteer.

Ask directly about irrigation and sprinkler lines, septic tanks and drain fields, buried electrical, gas, water and communications lines, and utility vaults. Driving a stake through an irrigation line is an expensive nuisance; driving one through buried electrical is a serious incident.

For commercial and municipal sites, ask whether utility locating is required before staking. Many jurisdictions have a mandatory locate service, and it needs lead time.

Access

How does the equipment physically get from the truck to the site?

Check where the truck can park and how far the carry is. A hundred feet of level lawn is nothing; a hundred feet up a slope, through a gate and around a pool is a different job. Measure gate widths and any pinch points — carts and dollies have a minimum clearance and a narrow side gate is a common surprise.

Note steps, retaining walls, soft lawn a vehicle would sink into, and low branches. Ask whether there are restrictions on delivery times, noise, or vehicle access to the property.

Overhead

Look up before you commit to a location.

Power lines are the serious hazard — both the clearance required and the risk while raising a frame. Tree limbs drop sap and debris onto a tent top and can damage vinyl in wind. Building eaves, gutters and security lighting all constrain where a tent can sit.

Confirm total height clearance for the tent you are proposing, not just the eave height.

The footprint

Measure the available area yourself rather than accepting the client's estimate, and remember the tent needs more room than its nominal size. Guy lines, stakes and ballast all sit outside the canopy footprint, and you need working room around the perimeter during install.

Check clearances to buildings, fences, property lines and anything the fire marshal will care about. If the event needs a permit, the site plan you submit has to reflect reality — see our guide to tent permit requirements.

Services and everything else

Ask where power is coming from and how far it is from the tent. If there is no adequate supply, a generator becomes part of the job — see our guide to event power planning.

Find out what else will be on site: catering, staging, restrooms, other vendors. Vendors competing for the same access route on the same morning is a scheduling problem worth knowing about in advance.

Confirm strike timing. An event that ends at midnight with a requirement to be clear by 7am is a different cost from one where you can return the next afternoon.

Questions worth asking every time

• What is the surface, and can we stake into it?
• Is there irrigation, septic, or buried utility anywhere near the footprint?
• Where can a truck park, and how far is the carry?
• Are there gates, steps or slopes between the truck and the site?
• Anything overhead — power lines, branches, eaves?
• Does the area hold water after rain?
• Is there power, and where?
• Who else is working the site and when?
• When can we install, and when must we strike?
• Does this event need a permit, and who is obtaining it?

Ask for photographs from several angles, including one showing the route from the parking area. A photograph frequently reveals something the client did not think to mention.

Put the findings in the quote

A survey only protects you if it changes the paperwork. Note the assumptions your price is based on — surface, access, anchoring method, install window — and state that changes to those conditions may affect the price.

That single paragraph turns an awkward conversation on install day into a reference to something already agreed.

Talk it through with us

If you are quoting a site you are unsure about, call us. We have seen most of the awkward ones and can help you work out what equipment the job actually needs.

866-296-3868  •  sales@beyondtent.com  •  Se habla español.