Tarps and outdoor covers get folded away at the end of a season in whatever state they happen to be in, and that state is usually stiff, gritty and smelling of the shed. Put one away like that and it comes out worse, because everything left on the surface spends the winter working into the fabric.
What a season outdoors actually leaves on them
Grit is the first layer and the one that does the structural damage. Sand and dust blow onto a cover, work into the weave, and then grind against the fibres every time the wind moves it.
A cover that failed at a fold line usually failed because of grit sitting in that fold, not because the fabric was thin.
Tree debris is the second layer. Sap, resin, leaf tannin and bud casings all leave marks, and sap in particular sets hard and pulls fibres out when it is picked off dry.
Pollen sits on everything as a fine film through spring. On its own it brushes off, and combined with rain it turns into a yellow wash that stains pale fabric.
Bird marks are acidic and they bleach coated fabric if they are left, which is why they show as pale patches on a dark cover.
Then there is the smell. Anything folded away damp develops a stale shed smell that is the main reason people give up on a cover and buy another.
None of that is exotic. It is a predictable list, and dealing with it takes one afternoon a year.
The hose down comes before anything else
Tarps do not go in a machine until the loose material is off them, for the same reason you would not put a muddy boot in a drum.
Spread the cover flat on a driveway or over a fence, both sides accessible.
Brush it dry first with a stiff broom to take off everything sitting loose, working from the middle outwards.
Then hose it, starting at the top and working down, and go over both faces rather than only the one that looks dirty.
Scrub with a soft brush and a bucket of warm water with a little dish soap or a mild detergent. A long handled car brush is the right tool.
Work sap with a cloth and a little rubbing alcohol, pressing rather than scraping, and rinse the area afterwards so no residue stays behind.
Rinse until the water running off is clear, which takes longer than you expect on a large cover.
For a smell, a rinse with a cup of white vinegar in a bucket of water over the whole surface does more than detergent does, and vinegar is safe on almost every outdoor fabric.
Which tarps can go in a machine
This is the question people get wrong, and the answer depends entirely on what the fabric is.
Canvas and cotton duck covers wash fine. Cold or warm water, gentle cycle, mild detergent, and they come out well.
Uncoated nylon and polyester covers, including most light shade cloth and camping flies, also wash fine on cold and gentle.
Acrylic outdoor fabric, the kind used for furniture covers and awnings, generally washes cold and gentle with no bleach and no softener.
Heavy vinyl coated tarps do not go in a machine. They are stiff, they are heavy when wet, they do not flex, and the coating cracks where the drum folds them.
Poly weave tarps with a laminated finish, the blue and green ones from a hardware aisle, are in the same category. Scrub them, do not wash them.
Anything with grommets, buckles or a stiff hem needs care even when the fabric is washable. Put the item in a mesh bag or a pillowcase, or wrap the hardware in cloth, so metal does not batter the drum.
Weight is the limit nobody checks. A large cover soaks up a great deal of water and a wet canvas tarp can weigh several times what it does dry, so err towards a bigger drum and a smaller load.
Washing a canvas or nylon cover properly
Shake it out and fold it loosely into the drum rather than stuffing it in as a ball. A ball never gets wet in the middle.
Wash it on its own. Grit that survived the hosing comes off in the wash, and it ends up in whatever else is in the drum.
Cold or warm water and a gentle cycle. Hot water shrinks canvas and softens the coating on treated nylon.
Mild detergent in a small dose. Outdoor fabric is often treated with a water repellent finish, and heavy detergent strips it.
No bleach, and no fabric softener at all. Softener kills water repellency outright, which is the entire point of most of these fabrics.
Add a rinse. Heavy weave holds detergent and residue left in outdoor fabric attracts soil for the rest of its life.
Undo every buckle and fasten every strap to itself before it goes in, so straps do not wrap around everything else.
Check the cover over when it comes out, because a wash is when a weak seam shows itself, and a seam stitched now is far less work than a torn cover in spring.
Vinyl, coated fabric and the ones you scrub instead
For the ones that stay out of a machine, the method is a bucket and a brush and about twenty minutes.
Lay it flat and wet the whole surface, so nothing dries while you work on another section.
Warm water with dish soap or a mild detergent, a soft brush, and small sections at a time.
Avoid pressure washing. High pressure drives water through the weave, separates laminated layers, and cuts the coating along stitch lines.
Avoid solvents, strong cleaners and bleach on coated fabric. They soften vinyl and leave it tacky, and tacky fabric collects everything.
Rinse thoroughly and then do the other side, since the underside collects as much as the top does and gets ignored.
For stubborn marks on vinyl, a paste of baking soda and water left for ten minutes lifts most of them without attacking the surface.
A silicone or vinyl conditioner applied once it is dry keeps the material flexible, and flexible vinyl cracks a great deal less at the folds.
Drying and folding for storage
This is where most covers are actually ruined, and it is the easiest part to get right.
Air dry everything. Coated fabric, laminated tarps and anything with a water repellent finish stays out of a hot dryer, because heat delaminates and shrinks them.
Hang it over a rail, a fence or a line with both faces open to the air, and turn it once so the underside gets its turn.
Give it far longer than it looks like it needs. Hems, seams and grommet patches are the last places to dry and they are where trouble starts.
Fold it only when it is dry right through. A cover put away with damp seams will smell by the time it comes out again.
Fold it differently each year, or roll it instead of folding. Repeated creases in the same place crack coated fabric along those lines.
Store it off a concrete floor, which draws moisture up into whatever is sitting on it, and loosely rather than compressed under other gear.
A cloth bag beats a sealed plastic one. Plastic traps whatever moisture is left against the fabric for months.
Common questions about tarps
Can tarps go in a washing machine?
Canvas, cotton duck and uncoated nylon or polyester covers can, on cold or warm and gentle, with no softener. Heavy vinyl and laminated poly weave cannot, because they are too stiff to flex in a drum and the coating cracks where it folds.
How do you get a stale smell out of a cover?
Wash or scrub it, then rinse it with a cup of white vinegar in a bucket of water, then dry it completely in open air. The smell almost always comes from being folded away damp, so the drying is the part that actually solves it.
Will washing take off the water repellency?
A mild detergent in a small dose usually will not, but softener and strong detergent will. If water stops beading, a spray on repellent restores it, and it works far better on fabric that has just been cleaned.
What is the best way to store one for the winter?
Clean, bone dry, rolled rather than folded, in a cloth bag, off the floor, and not squashed under anything heavy. That covers almost every way a stored cover goes wrong.
The Marietta part
Humidity is the condition that decides everything here. Warm damp air means a cover folded away with any moisture in it goes stale quickly, and a shed or a garage through a Georgia summer is warm and still, which is the worst possible storage for damp fabric.
So the drying step matters more here than anywhere else on this list. Give a washed cover a full day in open air with both faces exposed, and check the hems and the grommet patches with your hand before folding, because those stay damp long after the flat panels feel dry.
Spring pollen is the second local factor and it is the reason so many covers here look yellow by late spring. A dry brush takes the film off while it is still loose, and rain turns it into a stain that needs washing. Brushing covers off through the pollen weeks is a two minute job that saves a real one later.
Frequent summer storms finish the picture. Heavy afternoon rain soaks a cover through, the sun comes back out, and the whole thing steams dry with grit trapped inside it, which is exactly the abrasive cycle that wears fabric out along the folds. Tarps that get washed and stored properly at the end of a season handle several more of them.
Where a big cover gets enough water to rinse
A soaked canvas cover is a heavy load, and heavy loads need a drum that can turn them over rather than hold them still.
The machines at our self-service laundry on Cobb Parkway move far more water through a cycle than a home unit and the drums are big enough for a large cover to tumble loose instead of sitting in a wet lump, which is what a rinse needs in order to carry grit out of the weave.
Our machines and the store are cleaned daily.
Our wash-dry-fold service covers the everyday laundry.
For general guidance, The American Cleaning Institute publishes a fabric care guide that is a useful cross-check.
The short version
Tarps and outdoor covers come in carrying grit, sap, pollen and a stale smell, and the grit is what actually wears them out. Brush them dry, hose both faces, scrub with warm water and a mild detergent, and rinse with vinegar for the smell. Canvas, cotton duck and uncoated nylon can then go in a machine on cold and gentle with no softener, in a mesh bag if there is hardware on them. Heavy vinyl and laminated poly weave stay out of a drum and get scrubbed by hand instead. Air dry everything completely, including the hems, then roll rather than fold and store it off the floor.
WaveMAX Marietta is at 270 Cobb Pkwy S, easy to reach from Marietta and the surrounding area. If you have a load that will not fit at home, call us at 770-871-1870.