Smoking Shelters

Attractive robust smoking shelters

The hospitality industry has been trying different options to provide smoking shelters since the smoking ban. It’s a difficult balancing act to provide the smoking shelter that your customers need, while making the most of your outside space and achieving it all on a budget.

At Aura we help hospitality customers to create attractive and durable smoking shelters that appeal to smokers and non-smokers alike. You can expect a design life of 20 + years from our tensile fabric canopies for a budget much more affordable than you might expect.

With over 20 years experience of designing and building tensile fabric structures for the hospitality industry we have created a range of modular designs which are manufactured in the UK. Please see the links to the right of this page to explore the designs; all of which can be linked together to provide the size of smoking shelter that you are looking for.

The most popular designs for smoking shelters are the umbrella structures – the Architectural Umbrella (which is permanent and demountable) and the Lightweight Umbrella (which is portable for difficult planning issues).

We would recommend the architectural umbrella for a more permanent smoking shelter as it is wind rated and snow loaded to 120kmh wind and 10cm of snow – so it will not collapse or get damaged unless weather conditions are extremely harsh, and your customers can enjoy the smoking shelter all year round.

Smoking shelters designed for minimal maintenance

We often hear that our hospitality customers find themselves on a never ending maintenance treadmill of cleaning and repairing their traditional umbrella smoking shelter canopies. Not anymore. Tensile fabric structures from Aura require only minimal annual maintenance. The fabric is tensioned to form an integral part of the structure which means it doesn’t move, flap, wear or tear so no more ripped canopies. The structure is steel (architectural umbrella) which is stronger than aluminium and won’t bend or buckle. Lastly, the highly coated fabric prevents dirt ingress into the weave so you won’t be trying to clean mould and stains off the canopy; a simple wash down is all it needs (the coating is actually a type of Teflon). So, with just a wash when required, and an annual visual check over, your smoking shelter will be hassle free for 20 years or more. Over 100 windy coastal locations of Haven Holidays, Warner Leisure and Shepherd Neame are testament to that.

Finally a note on fire regulations. When you choose a tensile fabric canopy from Aura for your smoking shelter you can be assured that you are getting a canopy made from a coated architectural fabric which is certified fire retardant.

To discuss your requirements further please call Mike Mulchrone on 02392 001 322. We are also happy to provide heating and lighting solutions and to install the canopies at a time to suit your business.

In the meantime, for a useful list of considerations when installing a smoking shelter we found this helpful guide: https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2013/10/25/Pub-smoking-area-tips