You use tarps to cover your things to protect them from the wind, precipitation, and other hazards that can be a nuisance or do damage. When the requirement calls for a higher level of strength, durability, flexibility, and or material weight a heavier duty tarp is probably necessary. Now the question is, What is a Heavy Duty Tarp?
The answer is that it depends on what type of tarp you need, it depends on the task at hand. A number of characteristics help determine what is best. An important feature of most tarps is its dernier or thickness. These thicknesses are often stated in Mils, which are 1/1000 of an inch measurements. Other important features for Heavy Duty Tarps include material weight, usually specified in a weight per square yard. Another is mesh count that measures the material weave concentration.
What is a Heavy Duty Thickness?
Tarps come in a number of sturdy materials including vinyl, clear vinyl, canvas, poly, and mesh. With different types of materials, there are variations in what is considered Heavy Duty. As a starting point for most of these fabrics, a material thickness of 12 Mils (0.012”) is considered a Heavy Duty Tarp and can go into Super Heavy Duty and Extreme Duty designations. Poly tarps run as heavy as 24 Mils, canvas tarps to 30 mils, and vinyl tarps as thick as 50 Mils.
What are Heavy Duty Material Weights?
The material weight of tarps is also important, and in some cases the most significant feature for Heavy Duty and the level of protection. The material weight is usually stated in ounces per square yard. Although mesh tarps are relatively thin compared to other materials, their strong fabric creation has their Heavy Duty Tarp classification starting at 10 ounces (oz) per square yard. For poly tarps the weight is around 6 oz, where canvas
and vinyl tarps are considered Heavy Duty at about 15 oz per square yard.
