Tarps

Something outside needs covering, usually before the next storm gets there. This collection holds three types of tarp: polyethylene tarps from all-purpose light duty up to 20 mil extra heavy duty, clear PEVA tarps for enclosures and frost protection, and PVC vinyl tarps for covers that stay out all year. Sizes cover a wide range, from 5x7 ft up to 20x40 ft and larger, in blue, green, brown, tan, silver, black, white and clear, plus reversible silver/brown and silver/black. Every tarp we sell has reinforced hems and metal grommets. If your last tarp shredded at the corners after one windy season, the guide below explains how to buy one that protects what it covers for longer.

Choose your tarp by what you are covering

Yard, garden and equipment covers

Mowers, patio furniture, trailers, generators and grills sit still for most of the year and get rained on the whole time. A 10 to 12 mil polyethylene tarp handles this, in the two most popular sizes we sell: 10x12 ft for a furniture set or a mower, 12x20 ft for a trailer or a stack of equipment. Silver reflects direct sunlight and keeps the space beneath cooler, which matters for anything with a fuel tank or vinyl cushions. Brown and tan look less like a construction site when the cover sits in view of the house.

Firewood and woodpile covers

A firewood cover should shed rain off the top and leave the sides open so the wood keeps drying. Cover the top and the upper third of the sides, no further. Wrapping a stack completely traps moisture in the wood and you end up burning green logs all winter. A 10 to 12 mil poly tarp in brown or tan does the job and blends into the yard: 8x10 ft for a single face cord, 12x16 ft for a full cord stacked long. For a log rack cover that stays out through winter snow, step up to 14 to 16 mil.

Emergency roof cover

After hail, wind or a fallen limb, you need a watertight roof tarp that protects the interior until a roofer can get to you. Use a heavy duty waterproof tarp at 12 to 16 mil and size it to run from the ridge past the damage with at least 4 ft of overlap on every side: 12x20 ft covers most single-slope damage, 20x30 ft handles larger openings. Blue and silver are the standard choices here. Anchor it by wrapping the top edge around a 2x4 and screwing a second board over the first, then lay that assembly across the ridge so the weight holds it down.

Camping, hammock rain flies and ground sheets

Tarps for camping and similar outdoor activities have to be light before they are anything else, because you carry them. A 5 to 8 mil PE tarp in green or brown works as a hammock rain fly or a bushcraft shelter, usually 10x10 ft or 12x12 ft. Pitch it off a ridge line or an aluminum pole so rain runs off instead of collecting in the middle. Under a tent the problem is ground abrasion rather than rain, so use 10 to 12 mil for a ground sheet, folded slightly smaller than your tent footprint. One that sticks out past the walls collects runoff and channels it underneath you.

Boat, RV, motorcycle and vehicle covers

Vehicle covers face constant UV and constant flapping, which is exactly what kills cheap tarps. Use 14 to 20 mil PE for a seasonal boat tarp or RV cover, or a PVC vinyl tarp if the cover stays on all winter. Silver is the practical color because it reflects sunlight and slows UV damage to gelcoat and paint. In strong winds, a loose cover beats itself against the hull and does more harm than no cover at all, so tension matters as much as thickness here. Build a ridge along the centerline with a pole or a tensioned rope so water runs off both sides, and leave the ends open for airflow. A sealed cover traps condensation, and trapped moisture does more damage than rain ever will.

Pool covers and evaporation control

A pool cover cuts evaporation, keeps leaves and grit out and slows overnight heat loss. For a winter cover, use a 12 to 16 mil PE tarp cut at least 3 ft larger than the pool on every side, held down with sandbags or water tubes around the full perimeter. Silver and blue are the usual choices. Black absorbs heat and holds water temperature longer. One thing to be clear about: a tarp is not a pool safety cover. It will not hold the weight of a child or a pet, and it hides the surface, so it is not a substitute for a rated safety cover where anyone has unsupervised access.

Construction, painting and jobsite protection

On construction sites a tarp does three separate jobs: covering material stacks, closing an opening against weather, and protecting a finished floor. For stacks and weather closures, a 10 to 12 mil jobsite cover in silver or white is the default. Clear PEVA is the better call across a window or door opening, since the crew keeps working in daylight behind it. As a drop cloth alternative, poly beats canvas on spills, because water based and oil based paint both sit on the surface instead of soaking through to the floor underneath.

Garden and soil work

This is where color does the actual work. A black occultation tarp blocks all light: lay one over a bed for three to six weeks and the weed seeds germinate, exhaust themselves and die, which gives you weed suppression without tilling. Clear tarps do the opposite and let sunlight through, which makes them ideal for frost protection, cold frame glazing and temporary greenhouse cover. White reflects and keeps a raised bed cooler through a heat spell. A 10 to 12 mil tarp lasts a season, and 14 to 16 mil is worth it if you plan to reuse the same sheet for several years running.

Pergola, patio, porch and gazebo covers

Over a pergola or a patio, a tarp works as shade and rain cover at the same time. White and tan pass diffuse light and keep the space beneath bright, while silver blocks the most heat and creates the darkest space underneath. A pergola cover takes sustained sun and wind, so 14 to 16 mil PE is the minimum and PVC vinyl is the choice for a permanent installation. Clear PEVA hung on the open sides gives you pergola side panels and porch curtains that block wind without blocking the view, which usually makes the space usable a month earlier in spring. A solid panel on the side facing a neighbor works as a privacy barrier at the same time. The same setup, stretched over a simple frame, covers market stalls and outdoor events, or acts as a temporary awning over a doorway.

Chicken coops, kennels and livestock shelters

Animal housing needs weather protection without turning into a sealed box. A 12 to 16 mil tarp in green or brown works as a chicken coop cover or dog kennel roof, and it should extend past the frame so runoff lands clear of the bedding. Leave at least one side open or partly open for ventilation. A clear tarp on the south face lets winter light in while blocking wind, which keeps a coop noticeably warmer without any heat source.

Hay and agricultural stack covers

Hay tarps and silage tarps are the largest and most durable covers we sell, and in agriculture they are the ones that get the least forgiving treatment. Water has to shed off a curved stack without pooling anywhere along the seams, and the cover has to survive a full season of direct sun. Use 16 to 20 mil PE in silver or white, sized to overhang the stack by at least 4 ft on every side, which usually means 20x40 ft or larger. Silver reflects heat and reduces the condensation that forms between the cover and the top bales.

Leaf hauling, moving and ground protection

For dragging leaves, mulch or brush across a yard, or protecting a lawn during a delivery, an 8 to 10 mil blue tarp is the sensible economy buy. 10x12 ft suits most leaf hauling and 12x16 ft covers a load in a pickup bed. Treat these as consumables. Landscaping crews get through them fast, because they take drag abrasion across gravel and concrete and will wear through eventually, so there is no reason to spend heavy duty money on them.

Hunting blinds and camo concealment

For a ground blind or a stored equipment cover that needs to disappear into its surroundings, a camo tarp breaks up the outline in a way a solid green tarp cannot. Green and brown tarps at 10 to 12 mil are fine for blind roofs and gear covers where full concealment is not the point. If concealment matters more than rain, look at our camo netting instead: it passes air, so it does not flap, shine or move the way a solid sheet does.

Choose your tarp by material

Tarp and tarpaulin mean the same thing, but the three materials behind them behave very differently once they are outside. Material sets the ceiling on how long a cover lasts, and it explains most of the price range in this collection. Thickness only decides where a tarp sits under that ceiling.

Polyethylene (PE)

This is the plastic sheeting most people picture when they hear the word tarp. It is manufactured in two parts: a woven mesh of HDPE tape yarns carries the load, and a laminated LDPE film on both faces keeps the water out. That construction is why a poly tarp is fully waterproof rather than water resistant.

What it is best at: waterproofing, low weight, low cost and a very wide size range. The weave is strong for its weight, it folds down small, and a heavy duty poly tarp costs a fraction of the vinyl equivalent. This is why polyethylene accounts for most of what we sell.

What it is not good at: sustained UV and sustained flapping. UV attacks the outer film first, then the weave underneath goes brittle and the tarp splits along a fold line. Cold makes it stiff. A UV resistant tarp buys you years rather than months, but no poly tarp is permanent.

Typical outdoor life: 3 to 12 months at 5 to 8 mil, 1 to 3 years at 10 to 12 mil, 3 to 5 years at 14 to 20 mil.

Clear PEVA

PEVA is polyethylene blended with vinyl acetate. It is PVC-free and phthalate-free, and it stays transparent, which is the entire reason to choose it.

What it is best at: passing light. A clear tarp is what you use when you need weather protection and daylight in the same place: patio enclosure curtains, porch and weather curtains, greenhouse and cold frame glazing, jobsite openings, frost protection over beds. It is more flexible than PVC and much easier to handle in cold weather.

What it is not good at: abrasion and tear resistance. It is a lighter build than a coated vinyl tarp, so a small puncture spreads if the panel is left loose to flap. Long UV exposure clouds and yellows a transparent tarp, and once it clouds you lose the light transmission you bought it for.

Typical outdoor life: 1 to 3 years, at the shorter end in full southern sun.

PVC and vinyl

A PVC tarpaulin is a woven polyester scrim coated on both sides with PVC. The coating bonds into the weave instead of sitting on top of it, and that is the reason vinyl outlasts poly by years rather than months.

What it is best at: abrasion, tear strength, wind flap, oil and chemical contact, and cold weather handling. It is the most durable option we carry, designed for covers that stay deployed year round, so truck tarps, boat covers, permanent pergola canopies and machinery covers all sit here.

What it is not good at: weight and price. A large vinyl tarp is a two-person lift, it costs several times the poly equivalent, and it takes up real storage space folded.

Typical outdoor life: 5 to 10 years.

Understanding mil and duty ratings

Mil is one thousandth of an inch. A 10 mil tarp measures 0.010 in thick and a 20 mil tarp measures 0.020 in. Thicker generally means stronger, heavier and longer lived, and it is the number most listings lead with. Duty class is the shorthand for the same thing: it tells you the level of exposure a tarp is built to survive.

Mil is not comparable across materials. A 10 mil poly tarp and a 10 mil vinyl tarp are not the same product, because the poly figure includes soft laminate film that adds thickness without adding much strength, while the vinyl figure describes a coated woven fabric. Some suppliers also quote thickness before coating, and rounding up is common.

Weight per unit area is the harder number to fudge. Oz per square yard and gsm both measure how much material is actually in the tarp, and no cover can be light and heavy duty at once. If two listings claim the same mil and one is 20 percent heavier, the heavier one has more polymer in it.

Choose your color

Color is a performance choice before it is an aesthetic one. It changes how much heat the cover absorbs, how much sunlight reaches the space underneath, and in the garden it changes what grows there. Two options at the same mil and the same size can behave very differently once the sun is on them.

Sizing, grommets and finished size

Cut size is the dimension of the material before it is hemmed. Finished size is what you get once the edges have been folded over and sewn. The industry norm is to advertise cut size, and hemming takes 4 to 6 percent off each dimension, so a tarp sold as 10x12 ft usually measures around 9 ft 6 in by 11 ft 6 in when you spread it out.

Whatever size is listed, order larger than the thing you are covering. Add at least 2 ft in each direction for a cover that simply lies over an object, and more than that for anything you need to pitch, tension or tie down, since every fold and every angle eats into the flat dimension.

Grommets are where most tarps fail, so grommet count and spacing matter more than people expect. Every 12 to 24 in is what you want. At 36 in the unsupported edge between fixings lifts and snaps in wind, and the metal eventually tears out of the fabric. Every tarp with grommets that we sell has them set into a reinforced hem, with extra reinforcement at the corners where load concentrates. Reinforced edges and a rope hem, where a cord is sewn into the folded edge, spread tension along the whole edge instead of dumping it into four corner rings.

What you also need

Tarps ship without fasteners. The grommets are on the tarp, but the bungees, rope and stakes that hold it down are separate items, so add them to the same order if you want the cover up this week.

How to make your tarp last

Follow four habits and a mid-tier tarp will outlast a heavy duty one that was thrown on flat and forgotten.

Pitch it so water sheds and never pools. This is the single biggest factor in how long a cover survives in real weather conditions, because standing water is far heavier than it looks: a puddle 3 ft square and 4 in deep weighs close to 190 lb, and that load hangs on whichever grommets happen to be nearest. Build in a ridge, a slope or a raised center so runoff has somewhere to go. Even a pole under the middle improves things enormously.

Use ball bungees rather than rope tied tight to every grommet. A tarp under rigid tension has nowhere to go in a gust, so the fabric tears at the ring. Bungees let it flex and settle back.

Never nail or screw through a roof surface to hold a tarp down, and check tension after the first heavy rain, because covers stretch and go slack in the first week.

Dry the tarp fully and fold it before storing. Folding a damp cover into a bin is how a tarp that should have lasted three years comes out mildewed and brittle after one winter. Stored properly, expect a season from a 5 to 8 mil tarp, 1 to 3 years from 10 to 12 mil, 3 to 5 years from 14 to 16 mil, 5 years and up from 20 mil, and 5 to 10 years from PVC vinyl.

FAQ

How thick a tarp do I need?

For general yard and equipment covering, 10 to 12 mil. For anything staying out through a full season of sun and wind, 14 to 16 mil. For hay, long spans and permanent installations, 20 mil or vinyl. Below 10 mil is for short term and low exposure jobs only.

Is a tarp waterproof or water resistant?

Our poly, PEVA and vinyl tarps are waterproof: the material itself passes no water. Leaks come from the seams, the grommet holes and from water pooling until it finds a way through, which is why pitch matters more than the waterproof rating. A canvas tarp, by contrast, is water resistant rather than waterproof: 100 percent cotton duck at 12 to 18 oz sheds a shower and breathes well, but it wets through in sustained rain.

How long will a tarp last in the sun?

UV is what ends most tarps. A light duty poly tarp in full sun may only give you a few months, 10 to 12 mil typically runs 1 to 3 years, and 14 to 20 mil runs 3 to 5. Vinyl reaches 5 to 10 years. Southern states and high altitude shorten all of these figures.

What size tarp do I need?

Measure the object, then add at least 2 ft in each direction for a flat cover. If you are pitching the tarp over a ridge or wrapping it down the sides, measure over the top and down both faces rather than measuring the footprint. Remember that finished size is usually 4 to 6 percent smaller than the advertised cut size. If the shape is awkward, send us the measurements and our customer service team will talk it through with you.

Can I use a tarp on my roof?

Yes, as a temporary emergency cover while you wait for a repair. Use 12 to 16 mil, overlap the damage by at least 4 ft on every side, and run the tarp over the ridge. Anchor with boards and weights instead of driving fasteners through intact shingles. A roof tarp is a stopgap for weeks, not a substitute for a repair.

What is the difference between PE, PEVA and PVC?

PE is woven and laminated polyethylene: cheap, light, waterproof, and it degrades under UV. PEVA is a PVC-free clear film used where you need light through the cover. PVC is a coated polyester fabric: heavy, expensive and by far the longest lived. Price and lifespan rise in that order.

What is the difference between a mesh tarp and a solid tarp?

A mesh tarp is breathable: it passes air and some light, so it will not flap or balloon in wind, but it is not waterproof. Mesh suits shade, debris containment and truck loads. A solid tarp blocks water completely and needs proper tensioning to survive wind. If you are shopping for shade rather than rain cover, look at our shade cloth and camo netting selection instead.

Can I repair a torn tarp?

Usually, if you catch it early. Tarp repair tape applied to a clean, dry surface on both sides stops a split from spreading, though it will not restore original strength at that point. A grommet kit replaces a ring that has torn out of the hem, and it also lets you cut a large tarp down to a custom size and set your own edge. A tear that already runs more than a foot along a fold line is a sign the material has gone brittle, and at that point the rest of the tarp is close behind.