Strengthen Your Marquee or Gazebo with Essential Ground Bars

Ground bars play a crucial role in enhancing the stability and strength of your marquee or pop up gazebo. Whether you're hosting a family get-together or a professional event, ground bars ensure your structure stands tall and firm, no matter the weather conditions. 

This article explores the importance of ground bars for your marquee or pop up gazebo, and how they provide added strength and stability, as well as how to fix them into your structure. 

What are Ground Bars? 

Ground Bars are an additional piece of framework that connects each leg of a marquee, party tent or gazebo to the next, using clamps or purpose-built feet. 

With Gala Tent’s products, they are an integral part of all marquees and Gala Shade pop-up gazebos. They provide additional support to the structure, guaranteeing extra stability even in harsh weather conditions. 

While the frames of marquees and gazebos are robust by themselves, ground bars offer an extra layer of strength, ensuring enhanced performance. Ground bars are easy to assemble and add to your existing structure, making them a practical and beneficial addition.

Why do I need Ground Bars? 

Ground bars provide an array of benefits, transforming your marquee or pop up gazebo from a basic structure to a sturdy, cubic framework. Here are some of the most notable advantages: 

Enhanced Stability 

By connecting each leg of your marquee or gazebo, ground bars maintain a perfect 90-degree angle between the legs and the roof section. This ensures that the structure remains stable, even during strong winds or heavy rainfall. Strong gusts of wind can shift even the most effectively anchored tents, which can force the legs to move in different directions, causing the frame to become unstable. Gala Tent structures are amongst the strongest on the market, but they are not impervious to damage if the weather conditions are particularly bad. It’s highly recommended that you do everything you can to protect your investment, and the people within it. Ground Bars offer peace of mind that you’re doing just that. 

Increased Strength 

Ground bars add strength to the overall structure of your marquee or pop up gazebo. They distribute the weight evenly across the frame, preventing any single point from bearing too much pressure. This helps to prevent any bending or warping of the frame and ensures its longevity. 

Extra Benefits 

In marquees, ground bars provide additional anchor points, particularly on soft ground. Gala Tent’s heavy duty tent pegs are made specifically with a curve at the top which fits perfect around the diameter of the ground bar. With these pegs, you can effectively staple the marquee to the ground beneath it.  

In gazebos, the ground bars fix to each leg and can be slotted into a wide pocket that’s fixed to each of the gazebo sidewalls – this helps to keep the sidewalls taut, which is especially beneficial in windy conditions, as it reduces any billowing of the material.

With ground bars in place, your marquee or gazebo can withstand the test of time. The added stability and strength provided by the ground bars make the structure more durable, allowing it to resist wear and tear caused by regular use or harsh weather conditions. This means that your marquee or gazebo will last longer and provide you with many years of enjoyment. 

How to install Ground Bars  

Adding ground bars to your existing marquee or pop up gazebo is a simple and straightforward process.  

In marquee ground bar sets, you will receive straight or cornered joint sections that will be fixed to the foot pads of each leg using bolts. Each ground bar pole will slot in exactly in the same way as the rest of the framework. Quite often, users will choose to not lay ground bars across the entry sections, although Gala Tent does supply brightly-coloured entry ramps that will assist with health and safety.  

Gazebo ground bars are slightly different in their construction. They are steel box sections, with each 3m, 4m or 4.5m section made up of 3 beams which fix to one another with sprung pins. At each leg, wrap two of the correct sized clamp pieces around the framework, placing them at either side of the ground bar box section. Slide two bolts through the hole and tighten the wing nut. Do not tighten it tightly, until all of the ground bar sections are in place. If you have sidewalls, then it is highly recommended that you slide the length of the ground bar through the purpose-made sleeve at the lower part of the wall.   

It’s worth noting that for 6m or 8m wide gazebos, which have 6 legs, you will receive the components to connect one leg to the next, which means you would receive 6 ground bar sections, as opposed to the 4 that you’d receive in a 4-leg gazebo.  

Ground bars can be installed or removed as needed, making them a versatile option for any event. 

Ultimately, ground bars are an essential for your marquee or pop-up gazebo as they provide enhanced stability, increased strength, improved durability, and easy installation. Think of them like the footings and foundations of a building. By incorporating ground bars into your structure, you can ensure that it remains secure and sturdy, even in challenging weather conditions. So, before your next event, make sure to invest in ground bars and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with a stable and reliable structure. 

So, it makes perfect sense to add them to your purchase, or if you already have a marquee and would like to protect that investment a little more, then you could do a lot worse than adding ground bars. If you’re still not sure about ground bars and how they benefit your tent, then why not give our team a call on 01709 242454 and they’ll be delighted to help.