Awning maintenance: how to make your awning last for years

Your awning or canopy provides extra living space, shelter from wind and rain, or a cooling shade on warm days. But unfortunately, it doesn't last forever. With these maintenance tips, you can extend the lifespan of your tent, awning, or canopy.

A tent, canopy, or awning doesn't require a lot of maintenance. The most important tip you can probably figure out yourself: make sure you store them dry. Even with the slightest doubt, hang them out for a few more days. This can be quite a job with a large awning, but fortunately, you can zip out the side walls and the front – that helps. Also, make sure you store the tent poles dry, preferably in a separate place, so they don't stain the tent fabric.

Carpet beater

Over time, a tent, awning, or canopy can start to leak, and intensive use can also cause a few stains here and there. Loose seams are also a point of attention, as are zippers that are about to give up. At the end of your holiday, it's smart to make a list of such things so you can have a professional look at them. But there are also things you can do yourself. Beating it out, for example. For this, you set up the tent on a rain-free day and beat the dust off from the inside with a carpet beater. Make sure to avoid the windows, as they can't withstand that. Afterwards, thoroughly clean the outside of the tent with a brush.

Windows and flaps

Clean windows and the plastic flaps at the bottom – mud flaps – with lukewarm soapy water and a damp cloth. You can also use that soapy water later to clean the tent poles and pegs. Steel tent poles can become a bit rusty where they slide into each other. You remove that rust with waterproof sandpaper and then spray some clear varnish over it. Make sure everything is bone dry again when you store it.

Stains and tears

Over the years, stains can appear on the tent fabric. From bird droppings, for example, or resin if you've camped under conifers. Remove dried bird droppings with a brush. Resin is a different story: if you try to remove it with a knife, you'll damage the tent fabric. Over time, it will dry out further and then crumble. It's not really possible to remove it. Never use soap – it affects the waterproofing of the fabric.

During your inspection round, you may have come across small tears in the tent fabric – special repair kits with adhesive strips are available at the camping store. Have larger tears repaired by a professional – a good tent is worth the investment. For the groundsheet, self-adhesive repair kits are available at the camping store – immediately take a spare kit for your next holiday.

Mold and leaking seams

A major annoyance is mold in the tent fabric. We then say that 'the weather' is in the tent. This occurs if the tent is still damp when you stored it. Mold in a cotton tent is almost impossible to remove; in a synthetic tent, you can try with a small splash of bleach in a full bucket of lukewarm water, gently brushing, and then rinsing thoroughly with clean water.

Leaks can occur due to age, but also due to bubble-blowing children at the campsite: soap affects the waterproof coating. Special products are available in camping stores to re-impregnate your tent, but you must first know what type of fabric your tent is made of – you need a different product for cotton tents than for synthetic tent fabric.

Waterproofing

Incidentally, even new tents can leak, but that is almost always at the seams. These are stitched with 'swelling threads' that must first expand to fill the stitch holes – which is why a new tent first needs a rain shower before it is waterproof at the seams. Seams of synthetic tents are taped to prevent leakage. Over the years, this tape can age. There are products in tubes to make them waterproof again. You apply it (neatly) and then such a tent can last for years again.

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