tent cleaning and treatment

[billconner]

Copper Spur - tent and fly are ok but ground cloth is getting very sticky. Worth washing with detergent and retreating?

Will bring stored hanging unstuffed (in dry basement) prevent this?

My Eureka Timberline - quite a bit older - has not had this problem.

And I'm good at airing before storage so never damp when stuffed and stored.

 

[Tryin']

Sticky from forest detritus or sticky because the waterproofing is breaking down? I've had to toss two tents due to the latter. One was warrantied by Nemo, great company, one was a write off.

 

[MichaelMerry]

I suggest soaking your ground cloth in a bucket of water with a mild soap, like Nikwax tent wash or simple green. Then scrub with soft brush is necessary. This has been worked for me with persistent pine sap in the past.

I currently use three copper spur tents: solo, 3 person and 4 person.

 

[Alan Gage]

Sticky from forest detritus or sticky because the waterproofing is breaking down? I've had to toss two tents due to the latter. One was warrantied by Nemo, great company, one was a write off.

I've had the same thing happen. North Face warrantied it no problem. This was probably 15 years after I had bought it. It hadn't been used in about 5 years and was a sticky mess when I pulled it out of the bag.

Alan

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

ground cloth is getting very sticky. Worth washing with detergent and retreating?

Sticky from forest detritus or sticky because the waterproofing is breaking down? I've had to toss two tents due to the latter. One was warrantied by Nemo, great company, one was a write off.

On 15 and 20 year old rain flies from two different tents, a Nemo and a North Face, I've had the stickiness problem, which then progresses to flakiness. In both cases it was the waterproof polyurethane (PU) coating delaminating and breaking down. Nothing to do with sap or forest detritus.

PU delamination can be accelerated by storage while damp or storage in hot places. But even when stored ideally, the PU coating may have a useful life of only 8-10 years. Maybe you can wash and scrub off such chemical stickiness, but that seems unlikely to restore the waterproofness. Restoring waterproofness would require stripping off the old, cruddy PU coating and recoating the fly or ground cloth with some sort of PU or silicone sealant.

In one case the tent was Nemo Losi 3P, and as they did for @Tryin', they honored their lifetime warranty by offering me a brand new $600 tent or a $400 purchase credit on their site.

Some people like to do different projects to revive different things. Not me, usually. I had no interest in trying to chemically revive my North Face Slickrock rain fly, so I use the old sticky fly as a snow cover for my tractor cockpit in winter. (I no longer had a proof of purchase for my North Face, so I never tried a warranty claim.)

I have three much older tents that I haven't looked at in 25 to 40 years. I have no idea of their condition. Maybe I'll peek someday out of curiosity. Meanwhile, I'm happy with my brand new REI Halfdome 3P, using my uncoated Nemo "Pawprint" as an inside-the-tent floor cover.

If it were me, which no one else is, and I had a good tent but a stickily delaminating outside ground cloth, I'd just make or buy a new one. Cutting a plastic ground cloth is cheap and easy. And no coatings to worry about.

 

[Alan Gage]

I no longer had a proof of purchase for my North Face, so I never tried a warranty claim.

Nor did I. They never asked me for one.

Alan

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I no longer had a proof of purchase for my North Face, so I never tried a warranty claim.

Nor did I. They never asked me for one.

Hmm . . . so I just looked at the North Face Warranty page. The warranty "does not cover damage caused by accident, improper care, negligence, normal wear and tear, or the natural breakdown of colors and materials over extended time and use. Proof of purchase may be required."

If I were North Face, I wouldn't warrant PU coating for 22 years. But . . . hey . . . maybe it's worth a try. I only recall using that tent once. I bought it to fit into my outrigger hatches, but always considered it too small for comfort.

Maybe the Big Agnes Warranty Policy would cover their Copper Spur ground cloth, @billconner. Tell them that Nemo and North Face do.

 

[billconner]

It's not sap. It's the PU coating. Hasn't become "flaky" yet. I might just replace.

AI based on Big Agnes site suggests:

• Wash it: Hand wash the footprint in a bucket with a mild, non-detergent soap (like Nikwax Tech Wash) to remove the degrading, sticky residue.
• Re-waterproof: Once the old coating is scrubbed off, restore the water resistance by spraying a new coating, such as Gear Aid Tent Fabric Sealer.

 

[WoodsNWaters]

It's not sap. It's the PU coating. Hasn't become "flaky" yet. I might just replace.

AI based on Big Agnes site suggests:

• Wash it: Hand wash the footprint in a bucket with a mild, non-detergent soap (like Nikwax Tech Wash) to remove the degrading, sticky residue.
• Re-waterproof: Once the old coating is scrubbed off, restore the water resistance by spraying a new coating, such as Gear Aid Tent Fabric Sealer.

Before I spent a lot of time trying to restore a PU-coated nylon footprint, I'd just cut one from plastic.

If a plastic groundcloth looks ratty after a few years, cut another. I don't mean to promote disposable culture, but restoring your footprint may take nearly as much resource as a cheap piece of polyethylene.

Yes, the factory footprint is a little nicer than a piece of plastic.

I always cut them slightly large then after I set up, go around and fold excess over to keep from catching water. Not needed with a footprint that has pole tabs.

There are also plenty of people who don't use them, relying on careful site selection to keep from damaging their tent floor.

This solution is probably not acceptable to everyone. Just thought I'd toss it in as an option.

Hope you get it worked out whichever way you go.

 

[recped]

Tyvek or Typar (my preference) makes a great footprint, add some Gorilla Tape (or similar) and a grommet kit from the Dollar Store. A small roll from Home Depot, Lowes or any building supply store costs about $70 but you can make quite a few footprints from that depending on the size of your tents.

I use it under my tent and also for use as a "table" to spread my stuff out on to keep the "stuff" from picking up sand and soil when I'm hanging out and cooking outside.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Typar-3-ft-x-100-ft-Housewrap-3234A-004/302640184

Tyvek is more expensive and supper slippery compared to Tyvec, it's also somewhat noisy. There are also cheaper versions that don't upcharge simply because of branding.

I also put a sheet under my sleeping pad as that is what does damage to the PU coating on the tent floor.