You have probably used Silnett and similar products to DIY seal the seams in your tents, tarps etc. You can mix up this mixture which is also good for increasing the waterproofness of your floors too but both these methods are fairly messy. Or you can buy some PU seam sealing tape which just irons on.
Use a piece of baking paper between the tape and the iron so it doesn’t stick to your iron, and be careful not to have the temperature too high (‘Woolens’ is a good setting), be careful and patient and you will get a professional result.
Weight: I cut off 11′ of the (3/4″ – 2 cm wide) tape for my tarp ridgeline. It weighed approx 8.5 grams so the tape weighs .77grams/foot or 2.5 grams per metre. I doubt whether you cold seam seal any lighter than that anyway and this will give a much neater wider job on a new tarp. The only decision is: inside, or outside? The tape has two sides, shiny and dull – it is the shiny side which has the PU ie which sticks. (A tip for a healthy marriage). Don’t get it on the iron. Use the baking paper!
Here I had an old Sea to Summit dry bag I use to carry my sat phone etc . The tape had begun to peel off and it also has a small rip in it. I am fixing both problems. I will try to weigh a length of tape to see if it is more suitable than the mixture for waterproofing the ridgeline of my new tarps.
If you do a search on Aliexpress for ‘pu seam sealing tape’ you will find 20 metre rolls from US$3-4 delivered. It does a really good job and will stay on for years even if the object is washed many times! This tape I posted about before does not work.
I will get better at this, but you can see below what a good job it is going to do
It had a small hole which I taped both sides of – seems to have worked.
I just put the tape down and started ironing.
It goes much easier if you have a couple of these things (which Della has) called ‘dressmaker’s hands’ to press against (on the curve). Anything stuffed which will stand a bit of heat would also work, eg wheat bags or draft excluders.
PS: This is a first job and is not great, but I already bought the tape for another purpose and it sure saved buying another dry bag. I am not too concerned about appearances anyway.
See Also:
Waterproofing Tent Floors and Ground Sheets
