Outdoor igloos for restaurants and venues,
specified as a set

An outdoor igloo is a small geodesic dome: steel struts in a pattern of triangles under a clear cover, with room for one table. Sellers also call them garden igloos, igloo domes, dining domes and patio igloos, and some say igloo tent or garden dome for the same thing. The steel frame holds it up, so there is no fan or air pump to run.

Clear, flexible PVC, pulled over the frame in one piece, with the door and the vents set into it. How thick the PVC is, and whether some panels are opaque for shade or privacy, are choices on the spec sheet. A clear igloo cover like this folds down for storage between seasons.

Start with what goes inside: the table, the chairs, and room to walk round them to the door. Tell us that, and the factory proposes the size and confirms it on its drawing before you commit. If you want one large dome for a whole group or an event, that is a different product, and it has its own page.

Ask your local fire marshal early, before you order. A fire code official may ask for a lab test report on the cover material to NFPA 701, the fire test for fabrics and films, before a permit is granted. The test paperwork for the exact cover in your order is discussed and agreed with you before you commit. If the factory cannot produce a flame test report on it, we do not go ahead, and we tell you why.

We quote igloos without heaters. Whether and how to heat a closed dome is a question for your fire marshal and for whoever makes the heater.

Breath, warm food and wet coats put moisture into the air of a closed dome, and it settles on the cold cover as fog. Vents, and opening the door between seatings, let it out. A dome on a wet lawn fogs more than one on a deck or paving, so the number of vents and what each dome stands on are worth settling in the spec.

It depends on the surface, so it is a line on the spec sheet: bolts into a concrete slab, screws into a deck, or weights where nothing may be drilled. On a rooftop, the building's owner decides what may be fixed to the roof, so ask them before you choose.

The table and chairs each dome must hold, how many domes, the door, the cover and any opaque panels, how many vents, the frame colour, what the domes stand on, any spare covers or struts, where they ship and the date you need them. The quote form asks for the same things.

The dome is specified once and built the same every time, so parts swap between domes. Each one is packed as its own numbered set. How many sets fit depends on your exact dome, so the factory works out a packing plan and you get the count in writing before you commit. Spare covers and struts travel in the same container.

The factory price, which turns mostly on the size of the dome, the frame and the cover; freight to the port in China; ocean freight; the customs entry and the broker; and delivery from the port to your venue. The quote puts each on its own line, and the landed cost calculator on this site adds them up.

One dome of the set goes up at the factory with its cover on. We look at the zinc on the hubs and strut ends, run the door's zip and every vent, match the flame test report to the cover material, and count the struts, hubs and covers in each set against the packing list. You can ask for photographs before the container is sealed.

Clean and dry each cover before it is folded, because a cover packed damp marks and mildews. Bundle the struts by dome with their hubs, and give every dome its own numbered crate or bag, so next winter the set goes up without sorting. Keep a spare cover on the shelf for a tear mid-season.