How to repair a tear in a tent floor or fly
So you have spent $500+ on a brand new tent, headed out on a trip, arrived home and discovered a tear in the floor or fly.
Devastation.
Is it ruined for ever?
Can a tear be repaired?
Will the result be any good?
Luckily a simple tear or rip to a tent floor or fly can be repaired quite easily, and the result is great!
Our future son in law, Jay Reilly, recently stayed for a few days. He is an experienced outdoor educator and mountain guide with many years experience in repairing tents. He “volunteered” to repair a torn tent one day and we captured the process on video.
Top tips from Jay:
- Use good quality sealant designed for outdoor gear repair – Silnet or Seam Grip.
- Take your time with the repair and allow at least 10-12 hours for drying, but the more the merrier!
- Talcum powder can take care of the initial “tackyness” when the repair is new.
Jay has spent a lot of time in the Himalaya’s guiding climbing trips. There are a few video’s around of him, this one of him crossing a crevase at 6500m on Mt Pumori is worth a look.
Have you ever damaged a tent floor of fly?
Did you repair it?
Did it work out ok?
Share your experiences below, we all love to learn from other people’s experiences.
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Hi Frank and Jay,
Great video. Being a retiree the price of hiking equipment can be a real worry. I know if I damaged my tent I would be stressed. After all its not so easy to replace these days. But after that video I won’t be.
Thanks
happy to help our John – gear is expensive, we do need to know how to repair it and keep it in good nik!
On a hike recently I had a friend try to repair a ripped air mattress in a similar way. It didn’t work to well on his air-mattress. Probably too much pressure once he laid down on it. I’m sure this method works much better on tents.
Yep, don’t think the technique would work for an air bed BUT was worth a try. Think anything under pressure will fail….
This is a bit of a worry since I rely on a NeoAir mattress when hiking. I the Bogong Store in Melbourne I was told that Seam Grip should do the job since they didn’t have the dedicated repair kit. :-/
It’s a good idea to carry a small amount of grey ‘duct tape’,it’s strong and has many repair uses. Get a length and roll it flat onto it’s self, it weighs nothing to carry and takes up no room. Excellent for emergency repairs in the field on the tent or other items.
We used a piece recently at South Cape Rivulet when a native rat ate a large hole in our tent inner. It stabilised the inner and stopped it from getting damaged any further. We could not fix it by this method so we got it properly repaired by Remote Equipment Repairs in Melbourne some time after we returned. The tent was relatively new which was quite disappointing.
Thanks for sharing. I will ask my husband to watch your video to fix my kids’ tent. I really have no idea how to do any repair so I will leave it all to my husband. lol
Awesome! Thanks so much Jay. Was devastated to find a tear in our tent floor this weekend… Can’t wait to fix it and save our money. Cheers.
McNet Silnet is best used on siliconised fabric such as silnylon. I’ve found it doesn’t grip too well on polyurethane coated fabrics. McNet Seamgrip is excellent on non-siliconised fabrics. It is extremely tough and tenacious. For more permanent repairs you can sew a patch of proofed nylon over the tear using a domestic sewing machine,a sharp number 12 or 14 needle and a quality polyester thread eg Gutermann. Seam seal the stitch lines.
Great advice and additional information thanks Allan.
Hope to never get another tear but will keep this technique ion mind.
Thanks for sharing, valuable!
Frank
Great mend method, can’t wait to try it.
I see no reason why Selleys normal silicone would it work.
A tip from a glazier is to lick your finger when spreading silicone. Doesn’t stick to your fingers.
My method to date has been to use the sticky material that sailmakers cut to make nunbers for saiils. It is cheap, comes in colours and is very sticky. More so than duct tape. Light to carry. Just cut it to any shape. Recently I fixed a one meter tear along a front zip. Put a strip on both sides and stiched and sealed it. Problem is the repair is now stronger than the tent.
Great to hear from you Jack and helpful ideas.
Love the story about the repair being stronger than the zip!