How to Use Canvas Tarps

If you live in a single-family home, one of the most useful things you can use around the house is a canvas tarp. Tarps are useful when you paint or remodel, and they make good protective covers to keep something from water damage. The advantages to using canvas tarps instead of plastic ones are that they last longer and are not slippery to walk on. Sometimes when you drop paint on a plastic tarp, it gets on your shoes, and you can unwittingly track paint all over the house.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Canvas tarp with grommets Heavy-duty scissors (optional) Tent pegs or old screwdrivers (optional)

For Painting or Remodeling

1. Cut your tarp into 4-foot-wide lengths. You do not need to worry about frayed edges. Canvas is fairly tightly woven and chances are you will not be washing it, which would cause some unraveling.

2. Lay your tarp on the floor; if it doesn't lay flat and snug at the edges of the floor, secure it to the baseboards or wall with painter's tape.

3. Make sure that it lays flat on the floor, even away from the wall. If it has ripples or wrinkles in it, you could trip over it or spill your paint.

For Covering Things Outdoors

4. Get out the tent pegs or old screwdrivers. If your ground is very hard, it might be useful to use a hammer to drive the pegs or screwdrivers into the soil to anchor the tarp.

5. Spread the full-size tarp over the objects or items that you want to cover.

6. Make sure that each corner of the tarp hits the ground so that you can secure it with the pegs or screwdrivers.

7. Put the pegs into the ground through the grommet holes, either using a hammer or, if your soil is soft enough, with your hand.

8. Make sure that the tarp is secure enough to resist strong winds.

Tips & Warnings

• A canvas tarp costs more than a plastic one, but it is completely reusable. Over the long haul, a canvas tarp may be more cost effective than a plastic one.
• Make sure you let the paint spills dry on the tarp before you fold it up for storage. Otherwise, the paint could act like glue, and you might have a hard time using it again.

Resources

• More Canvas Tarp Applications

[sozamaria]

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[sozamaria]

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