You wouldn’t believe it at first, but a tarp, especially heavy-duty tarps, are an extremely versatile piece of equipment that everyone should have.
You’ve probably seen a tarp being used at least once or twice in your life, and you should know that those tarps have an unlimited array of uses you probably didn’t know about! From yard work to equipment hauling, a tarp is always there to help you out.
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Top 10 Uses of Heavy-Duty Tarps
There is a lot you can utilize a tarp for whether it’s home improvement, recreational, or transport. In fact, there’s a lot more than what’s listed here that you can do with tarps. Here are the top 10 different and innovative ways you can use a tarp.
1. Drag Heavy Items
Heavy-duty tarps can carry so much weight. So much so that you can use them to drag heavy items across the yard. All you have to do is place the tarp flat on the ground and start piling items into the center of the tarp. You can put anything on there from leaves to firewood. Then all you have to do is grab a friend and ask them to drag the tarp to its destination.
2. Cover Damaged Areas
If you’ve ever broken a window, damaged a door, or even in instances had to deal with a whole wall being missing, tarps are a solid and ideal temporary solution to make sure nothing gets in or out. Considering most tarps have grommets on the edges and corners, all you’d have to do is hang and hammer or screw the tarp into place over the damaged area.
3. Creating Privacy
You don’t always have to cover damaged areas; you can also use the tarp to make areas more private. For example, if you’re planning a surprise party or an event that you don’t want others to see, a tarp is perfect for blocking anyone from seeing it. Especially if it’s outside, a tarp is heavy enough that it won’t fly or flap with the slightest breeze.
4. Waterslide
We’ve all wanted to indulge in our inner child. Sure they sell these specifically on the market, but what if you wanted to go even bigger and try it on that hill near the park down the street? Well with a tarp you can! Tarps are waterproof meaning water will not get through or in this case, escape from the surface of the tarp making it perfect for water sliding. Be careful, however! You don’t want to get hurt or break something!
5. Water catcher
In line with the previous use, since these tarps are waterproof and water just slides right off, you can use a tarp to catch and or store water! If you’re out camping or you’re just trying to save on water, all you have to do is dig out a shallow hole or grab a barrel if you have one, line it with the tarp and wait for the rain to come!
6. Shelters
Sometimes you may be out in the elements and weather can unexpectedly strike at a moment’s notice. A tent could take forever to set up or you may not even have a tent. So what else can you do? Well, if you can drape the tarp over a branch or something low hanging, you can create a makeshift tent to keep you sheltered for the time being.
7. Ground Cover
Tarps are good for blocking water. So good in fact that you can block water from the sky and the ground. One way to use tarps is for ground cover. If you’ve ever seen a baseball game, when it starts to rain, you can see the groundskeepers working fast to keep the field dry so it doesn’t become too soggy come the next game.
Or, even so, if you’re working in an environment where it just rained, a tarp can keep the moisture from the ground away from what is being worked on above it.
8. Block Wind
One great use of tarps is to block the wind. Since the material is dense enough to block water, it also makes it dense enough to block the wind. This is perfect for those who work outside with spray paint where a tarp can easily block incoming wind from blowing aerosolized paint onto any unsuspecting surface.
9.Protect Floors and Furniture
And finally, another great use for tarps is to protect floors and furniture while moving or doing heavy cleaning. A tarp can be laid over furniture outside to protect it from dust, leaves, or even rain and it can be laid on the ground to protect the floor from dirt or mud ruining it.
10. Keeping Cargo Safe
This one may seem fairly obvious, but tarps are the ideal and go-to pieces of equipment when it comes to protecting cargo. In fact, there are specific types of tarps for very specific forms of cargo that you can use for cargo protection.
- Lumber Tarps
Like the name suggests, this type of tarp is helpful in protecting lumber cargo like refined lumber from weather like rain so it doesn’t warp, and other debris that could cause damage.
- Steel Tarps
Steel tarps, like lumber tarps, are specially designed to handle steel bars and beams from weather related elements and debris.
- Coil Tarps
These kinds of tarps are designed entirely for coils and drape over each coil for maximum protection. The way it’s designed creates little to no excess material left over.
- Smoke Tarps
A smoke tarp is specially designed for protecting the front of a load on a flatbed from smoke and exhaust that comes from the smokestack of the cab hauling it.
- Roll Tarps
Roll tarps differ from the rest of the tarps where instead of just protecting from the outside, it’s protecting from the inside by keeping loose materials in and preventing any aggregate from escaping and causing damage.
- Machinery Tarps
These tarps are specially designed to cover any odd shaped loads that you need to transport such as farm equipment or heavy machinery.
Heavy-duty tarps are incredibly versatile and maybe you can find a use for them here that we didn’t list. No matter what it’s being used for, however, whether it’s recreation or home improvement. You can’t go wrong with a tarp.
