Don Anderson's lifelong love of boats and boating fuels the success behind his business, The Boat House of Madison. Located in Madison, Wisconsin, Anderson's boat business serves a wide variety of boating enthusiasts, from sail boaters to power boaters. A few years after the business was up and running, Anderson was looking to make space and appearance improvements to his operations. With an existing fabric building on his property used by the previous owner for storage, Anderson decided that he could grow his business by installing another fabric building for boat storage.

"We needed more showroom space and wanted to improve the look, so we bought a new fabric building for the boat storage. The deciding factors were the clear span interior, the interior lighting and we also really liked the existing fabric very much," says Anderson, who was also pleased with the installation. "The crews came in, put it up real quick."

"Even with the white vinyl, the buildings stay clean."

- Don Anderson

Anderson wanted to use one of the fabric buildings as a showroom for his boats. "We put down recycled black top and covered it with carpeting to allow us to use the fabric building as a showroom and also for storage for the boats." The height of the fabric covered building was another benefit for Anderson. "The height of the building is nice. When we put up sailboats, we can put up the masts and move the boats around without worrying about hitting the trusses. Installing large doors also added to the maneuverability of bringing the boats in and out of the buildings."

Although Anderson replaced the vinyl on the older fabric building, he says it wasn't because it was worn out. "We wanted to match the colors and to put our advertising on it, but the vinyl was still in good shape after all those years. Even with the white vinyl, the fabric buildings stay clean. At night, the fabric covered buildings do put off a nice glow."

Reduced temperature fluctuations, ease of building installation, and the clearspan interior were the main reasons why Anderson chose the fabric covered building. In addition, Anderson says, "The biggest thing the customers like is the natural light in the boat storage building. When you walk in, you don't need to turn the lights on. Another advantage with having a fabric covered building with a truss system is that we have fewer birds.  With the round piping, there are fewer places for the birds to build nests, so that means less mess on the boats." These benefits, Anderson feels, made the fabric covered buildings a good choice for his boats.