Pipe & Drape Rental for Trade Shows and Conventions

What pipe and drape actually is

Pipe and drape is a modular system of upright poles, adjustable horizontal crossbars, and fabric panels. It divides an open hall into individual booths, hides walls and loading doors, and creates a clean backdrop for a stage or registration desk — without a single thing being attached to the venue's structure. That last part is why venues like it and why it goes up and comes down in hours rather than days.

For a trade show it is the thing that turns an empty concrete floor into a sellable floor plan. Every booth an organizer sells needs a backwall and siderails, and the drape is what makes one exhibitor's space visibly distinct from the next.

Colors and heights we stock

We carry pipe and drape in Black, Blue, Burgundy, Carolina Blue, Gold, Green, Purple, Red, Silver, and White, in a range of heights — enough inventory on hand to drape a full exhibit hall rather than a handful of booths.

The industry-standard exhibit booth uses an 8 ft backwall with 3 ft siderails between neighboring booths, which keeps sightlines open across the floor while still giving each exhibitor a defined space. Taller runs are used for masking walls, dividing a hall into separate rooms, or building a backdrop behind a stage. Tell us what the room looks like and we will tell you what height suits it.

For weddings and more elegant events, we also carry a tall white drape with a soft shimmer. And when a space needs to be sealed off, our heavy black Velour drape is far more opaque — it helps dampen sound and stops light leaking between rooms.

How pipe and drape is priced

Pipe and drape is quoted by the linear foot — the straight-line distance you need covered. A 50 ft wall is 50 linear feet regardless of how the room is shaped. The two things that move the number are how many feet you need and how tall the drape is: a 3 ft siderail costs considerably less per foot than a 12 ft or 16 ft backdrop.

Booth count matters too, because a floor of 10x10 booths needs far more siderail than a room with a single perimeter run. We quote per event rather than publish a rate card, since no two floor plans price the same. Send us the floor plan, or just the booth count and the venue, and we will come back with a real number.

Installation is included, not extra

We deliver and install to the floor plan ahead of the show, then return after it closes to dismantle and clear out. Nobody from your team is levelling uprights at seven in the morning. We work to the venue's dock schedule and around union rules where a venue has them.

Because drape usually goes down with carpet and gets finished with signage, most clients order all three together — one contractor, one crew, one invoice, and no vendors blaming each other on load-in day.