astroturf! (my testimony about why carpet is bad)
astroturf! (my testimony about why carpet is bad)
well, not all carpet is bad. one year i bought a 10x12 rug from home depot, short carpet. no moop. this was designed to be moved all over.
this last year we brought used carpet from a buddy's house.
basically, i will feel forever guilty about all the moop that it made.
it shed.
and so now i'd like to say that my camp will never use carpet again. it sheds. plus, it's heavy. and it gets dirty real fast. and it's hot.
forever more we will use astroturf!
this is my testimony.
have you a connection to cheap stuff? please let me know. thanks!
jaredpaul1981@yahoo.com /// aliensoverkathanika@yahoo.com
this last year we brought used carpet from a buddy's house.
basically, i will feel forever guilty about all the moop that it made.
it shed.
and so now i'd like to say that my camp will never use carpet again. it sheds. plus, it's heavy. and it gets dirty real fast. and it's hot.
forever more we will use astroturf!
this is my testimony.
have you a connection to cheap stuff? please let me know. thanks!
jaredpaul1981@yahoo.com /// aliensoverkathanika@yahoo.com
Last edited by alienfry on Fri Nov 07, 2003 10:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
awesome oppossum
playa is flat
I used 16 ounce denim.
Found 60'x5' for about 60$ with shipping on Ebay
The stuff rolls up small, is pretty durn tough and fits in a commercial laundry machine if chopped into 10 foot lengths (did hose it down on the driveway first).
I just overlapped the ten foot sections to get three 10'x10' floors for my dodecadomes.
Should last a few more seasons.
ScottV
Found 60'x5' for about 60$ with shipping on Ebay
The stuff rolls up small, is pretty durn tough and fits in a commercial laundry machine if chopped into 10 foot lengths (did hose it down on the driveway first).
I just overlapped the ten foot sections to get three 10'x10' floors for my dodecadomes.
Should last a few more seasons.
ScottV
- Bob
- Posts: 6748
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- Burning Since: 1986
- Camp Name: Royaneh
- Location: San Francisco
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Cheap astroturf knockoffs are worse. The "grass" "blades" are made of very thin plastic, turn brittle in the sun & heat, and tend to break off en masse.
I use woven polypropylene geotextile, but there's nothing wrong with short-nap synthetic carpet aside from the extra weight and bulk. Vinyl-backed carpet won't ravel as much.
I use woven polypropylene geotextile, but there's nothing wrong with short-nap synthetic carpet aside from the extra weight and bulk. Vinyl-backed carpet won't ravel as much.
Amazing desert structures & stuff: http://sites.google.com/site/potatotrap/
"Let us say I suggest you may be human." -- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
"Let us say I suggest you may be human." -- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
One word about carpet. We had a large (30 ft. in diameter) dome one year and we were able to pick up some free carpet to cover the entire floor. This was in 2000 and it rained, not a lot, but a little. Well, water got under the carpet and mixed with playa forming that wonderful and sticky playa mud. Then the mud hardened, adding a serious amount of weight to the all ready heavy carpeting. We had to spend hours knocking off chunks of playa from the carpeting just to roll it up. What a huge pain!
I'm not sure it would have worked for our dome, but since then I've used woven grass mats, they don't hold dirt/mud, are easy to clean, fairly inexpensive and very reusable.
I'm not sure it would have worked for our dome, but since then I've used woven grass mats, they don't hold dirt/mud, are easy to clean, fairly inexpensive and very reusable.
- unjonharley
- Posts: 10243
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- Burning Since: 2001
- Camp Name: Elliot's naked bycycel repair
- Location: Salem Or.
- Contact:
- Bob
- Posts: 6748
- Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2003 10:00 am
- Burning Since: 1986
- Camp Name: Royaneh
- Location: San Francisco
- Contact:
Typical cheap painter's dropcloths aren't treated, so will mold & mildew if you store them damp, and shrink & wrinkle weirdly after washing. I use them for tent walls, adding grommets every 12" or so.
Grass mats? Reminds me of pulling tons of straw out of the playa after the 1998 rain-soaked event.
Grass mats? Reminds me of pulling tons of straw out of the playa after the 1998 rain-soaked event.
Amazing desert structures & stuff: http://sites.google.com/site/potatotrap/
"Let us say I suggest you may be human." -- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
"Let us say I suggest you may be human." -- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
- unjonharley
- Posts: 10243
- Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 11:05 am
- Burning Since: 2001
- Camp Name: Elliot's naked bycycel repair
- Location: Salem Or.
- Contact:
in praise of carpet
We have had good experiences with carpet in fairly small sizes (about 10 x 10). We put out the word that our camp was looking for carpet and intercepted some on the way to the land fill. Keeps the dust down, feels good on bare feet, and we drop it off at a land fill on the way home. I agree that it's comparatively heavy and bulky, but if you have a way to get it to the playa and back, it's worth the extra effort. We have not had trouble with sheding.
- Bob
- Posts: 6748
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Suggestion:
- find candidate materials, pref. no more than a square yard or so.
- hose down or leave out in the weather for a week or so
- tromp in some mud (pref. clayey soil rather than potting mix) to simulate playa conditions after an intense rainfall event
- simulate dealing w/ trial mat'ls wrt removing clay buildup, hanging & drying the test materials, & packing in your vehicle
- multiply, along w/ a suitable factor of uncertainty, to anticipate playa-scale conditions
Another popular topic is how to secure such flooring mat'l to the ground, esp. in the case of a dance surface. Home improvement stores and such stock U-shaped "staples" of spring-steel wire in the landscaping dept., as well as gutter spikes in the raingutter dept., and 12" lengths of 3/8" rebar may work with a sharp 90-deg+ bend in the top -- all should probably be pounded below the playa & carpet surface, and rechecked periodically.
- find candidate materials, pref. no more than a square yard or so.
- hose down or leave out in the weather for a week or so
- tromp in some mud (pref. clayey soil rather than potting mix) to simulate playa conditions after an intense rainfall event
- simulate dealing w/ trial mat'ls wrt removing clay buildup, hanging & drying the test materials, & packing in your vehicle
- multiply, along w/ a suitable factor of uncertainty, to anticipate playa-scale conditions
Another popular topic is how to secure such flooring mat'l to the ground, esp. in the case of a dance surface. Home improvement stores and such stock U-shaped "staples" of spring-steel wire in the landscaping dept., as well as gutter spikes in the raingutter dept., and 12" lengths of 3/8" rebar may work with a sharp 90-deg+ bend in the top -- all should probably be pounded below the playa & carpet surface, and rechecked periodically.
Amazing desert structures & stuff: http://sites.google.com/site/potatotrap/
"Let us say I suggest you may be human." -- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
"Let us say I suggest you may be human." -- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
cool
"U-shaped "staples" of spring-steel wire in the landscaping dept., as well as gutter spikes in the raingutter dept"
oooh.
what we used for a small patch of astro turf last year (we had croquet; did i mention this already? oh well if i did)
anyhoo we used leftover metal tent stakes but those U shape things you speak of seem a lot safer.
oooh.
what we used for a small patch of astro turf last year (we had croquet; did i mention this already? oh well if i did)
anyhoo we used leftover metal tent stakes but those U shape things you speak of seem a lot safer.
awesome oppossum
- MistaBiggs
- Posts: 14
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- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
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that feltlike "indoor/outdoor" carpet is very hardy stuff, and stays together nicely...It also dries quickly. We used it in our old basement and as a covering for our concrete steps out front, where it endured sun and flood and traffic. Astro seems to get brittle over time, and actually breaks down in sunlight over time.
Howdy From Kalamazoo
- MistaBiggs
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if I understand the nature of boat carpeting correctly, than YES. Indoor carpet is stiff, heavy and unravelly, as is astro....Astro dries quickly, but frays and sheds badly. Indoor weighs a ton when soaked and caked with playamud. (It didn't really rain last year, but it has in years past- whether it's rehydrated by a passing dust control tanker, rain or your camp shower, playamud is wickedly tenacious stuff!) The only allweather carpet that I can endorse is the non-nappy, feltlike stuff that about a quarter-inch thick. Available at most of yer big box stores, in black, blue or green.You probably don't want the black......
Howdy From Kalamazoo
So what's the cheapest option? I bought a big assed remnant of carpet one year, not even all that cheap, like 150-200$, and that was good,but big, heavy, got gross, and where the hell did it go?? nowhere to store it, it was gross, i think it went to a landfill. Damn.
so carpet's only so-so.
This denim idea... I am intrigued. How cheap?
astroturf doesn't sound very good.
Howzabout heavy plastic? 100'x10' roll of 4 mil is only about 80$. this is for inside shade sructures. Not that nice to rest any bare skin against, would get hot and shitty where the sun hits it, but easy, big, and cheap. And involves plastic which is horrible stuff.
looking for solutions.
so carpet's only so-so.
This denim idea... I am intrigued. How cheap?
astroturf doesn't sound very good.
Howzabout heavy plastic? 100'x10' roll of 4 mil is only about 80$. this is for inside shade sructures. Not that nice to rest any bare skin against, would get hot and shitty where the sun hits it, but easy, big, and cheap. And involves plastic which is horrible stuff.
looking for solutions.
My God, it's full of Stars!
-
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Louise and I use muslin painters tarps after years of looting carpet from dumpsters outside carpet sellers.
We use one on the playa, with a back up. They are washable, and we wash it in one of those big commercial washers at the local laundromat. The tarps shrink, but not so much they become too small to use. They're thin and tear, but they're easy for Louise to fix (she says).
Eventually, the muslin becomes frail and won't hold together on the playa, so we give it to the landfill in Reno.
There are several places in our area that install carpet, and we were able to be picky on what we took from dumpsters. I can't imagine using a carpet for more than one Burn. After a week on the playa, they're soaked in playa powder. I can't imagine it ever coming clean.
We use one on the playa, with a back up. They are washable, and we wash it in one of those big commercial washers at the local laundromat. The tarps shrink, but not so much they become too small to use. They're thin and tear, but they're easy for Louise to fix (she says).
Eventually, the muslin becomes frail and won't hold together on the playa, so we give it to the landfill in Reno.
There are several places in our area that install carpet, and we were able to be picky on what we took from dumpsters. I can't imagine using a carpet for more than one Burn. After a week on the playa, they're soaked in playa powder. I can't imagine it ever coming clean.
- EmilyD
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- Camp Name: Art Car Camp
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Securing Tarps & Rugs
Thanks for the idea to use painting tarps. I was going to buy some indoor/outdoor carpet but the tarps will be much lighter (and weight is an issue for us.) But...I learned a great way to keep such things stuck in the ground from some folks at Slab City. If you've been to the wonderful library there you may have noticed scraps of carpet that were held down by really long nails punched through the center of tin can lids. The can lid is key to keeping the nail down in the ground. They don't get the kind of winds there that happen on the playa so I'm going to pound metal stakes into can lids to keep our heavy duty painting tarp in the ground. Does that sound like it will work? Experienced folks, please give input, thanks.
You don't have to be skinny, naked and under 30 to be a Hottie!
- theCryptofishist
- Posts: 40313
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Okay. Last year the playa surface was so crappy that the only way that I could get around inside my tent, and even to get in and out, was to lay down carpet and nail it to the playa. I don't know that I can use something else. Any thoughts?
The Lady with a Lamprey
"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.
Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri
"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.
Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri
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