We love hearing how our products solve real problems—especially the ones that come up after installation. Below is an excerpt from a customer interview about the messy maintenance reality some homeowners face, and how a breathable Take Cover shelter cover changed things for their family.
You hear a lot about when people have shelters installed. “Oh, yeah. Everything’s great.” You never really hear about the next step. You never hear about the maintenance phase. You hear about how great it was initially and then it kind of goes radio silent.
The first time I went out in there, I was not alone—and I was somewhat concerned about that. There were—you name it—spiders, earwigs, worms, snakes, those little potato bugs. And it’s not a very big shelter so you can kind of understand my concern. And, of course, I related that to my wife, and she wasn’t a fan of the in-ground shelters to begin with. She’s very claustrophobic.
When we had it installed and I went down there and found a lot of insects, first I thought about sticking like a little fortress around the edge with sticky traps. I was trying to think of anything I could do to make it work. And when the humidity would get to it, the moisture would get to it, the heat would get to it, they’d curl. You would also have things that would fall off of the car and into the traps area of the shelter lid, and then they would get stuck in it.
Once I used masonry tape, and that did nothing. I tried using just painter’s tape—the blue thick painter’s tape with the plastic cover on it—and it seemed to work for a little bit. But one, it wasn’t as accessible. I couldn’t just open the lid and go in. We used a mover’s blanket for a little bit.
It was about mid-summer this year, I finally googled it again. I’m thinking, “All right, what’s the next thing to do? What’s the next DIY?” And I came across the Take Cover shelter cover. There was a website. I’d never seen it before. I never even realized there was a company making this.
All the time, all the effort, all the DIY experimentation, the frustration, etc. that I put into trying to do it myself—seeing that somebody else already solved the problem, was awesome. It just really is.
I was able to get my kids and my wife and say, “Hey, this is no longer an issue. You guys can go in there as you please.” The initial tentative curiosity the kids had almost disappeared immediately, and they kind of adopted the place as a fort for a long period of time. There was a few weeks where if you couldn’t find the kids in the house, we would go out in the garage and they’d be in the shelter with their lights, with their monopoly game, or the ring toss game, or whatever—just to get in there and get comfortable with it.
We’re grateful for feedback like this—it’s why we focus on practical solutions that make shelters usable, not a hassle. If recurring pests, moisture, or cleanliness concerns are keeping your family from using your shelter, try our breathable shelter cover!
