At 4C, our team is specialists in cleaning and maintenance of Tensile Canopy structures. We offer a variety of services to improve the life and appearance of your internal and external tensile fabric architecture. These include inspection, cleaning and maintenance, all tailored to the precise requirements of your canopy fabric.
We also offer a canopy replacement service, where we inspect your tensile structure and renew required parts including pillars, joints, cables etc. We also test the load strength of all cables and replace failed units.
All tensile fabric structures by their nature require some form of after care and they are very often ignored after installation. To keep your tensile fabric canopy structure a fresh look, whilst insuring its operational safety, to remain in the same quality as at installation, regular inspection and maintenance in accordance with the operations and maintenance manual is vital. It is also the best way to shield your investment and maximize the lifespan of your tensile membrane structures. This requires care, insight, skill and persistence. This is what we strive for as a business.
Although it might be wrongly promised as a maintenance free option, it must be made clear that any tensile structure, regardless of design, type of fabric or operational usage, will need a maintenance and cleaning plan. Without having a tensile maintenance and cleaning system in place, you are significantly reducing the structures' lifespan, whilst at the same time refraining from any warranty offered.
Tensile structures rely on the pre-tension in the fabric to resist the live loads imparted on them, such as wind and snow. All fabric held under tension will 'creep' over time. Some fabric types are more susceptible to this than others.
It is extremely important that tensile canopy structures are checked in accordance with the OMM and re-tensioned if necessary. Once the pre-tension starts to reduce, the fabric drops its ability to resist live loads. For example, you may notice a canopy 'panting' in the wind or 'ponding' in the rain/snow. These are warning signs that action needs to be taken and if left unchecked, the structure will fail.
Maintenance and cleaning frequency depends on a number of different factors, such as the tensile canopy form, its location relative to dirt/debris sources (like trees for exterior tensile canopies and air conditioning ducts for interior tensile canopies) and the amount of other airborne dirt. This frequency will be suggested in the Operations and Maintenance Manual. This manual includes an outline of common and detailed maintenance checks and fabric cleaning guidelines.
Exterior tensile canopies are best cleaned in-situ to reduce wear on tensioning elements and other mechanical fixings. This may mean suitable equipment is required to gain access to the top side of the structure, but on many occasions the fabric itself can be walked upon to allow cleaning.
Our skilled technical team has the experience and knowledge to inspect your structure including the fabric, the frame and fixings, through which they can diagnose potential problems. We offer personalized solutions and can, if necessary, repair damaged structures on site.
Whether you have small sections of tensile fabric surrounding your shop, school, business park for example or a large tensile fabric roof such as a pavilion, stadium, you can call us to find out more about how we can help protect your tensile canopy through our professional tensile cleaning and maintenance services.