Experience with waterproofing fabric?

jennytoo · Post by **jennytoo** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 1:56 pm

Does anyone have experience with waterproofing cotton fabric (ie: using nikwax or starbrite?)

Does it work to keep rain out?

I've been pondering the idea of covering a dome, and may just use plain old fabric and waterproof it. Heavyweight fabric should be breathable (not get too hot, not catch as much wind) block the sun well, be strong, and also do decent job of blocking the worst of the dust, and waterproofing looks to be fairly easy to do.

At least, that's my current working theory... nicer than (plastic/vinyl) tarps, too.

Token · Post by **Token** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:42 pm

Why?

If it rains long and hard enough to soak your fabric and drip through, then soak whatever you have under your dome ... you got much bigger things to worry about.

StevenGoodman · Post by **StevenGoodman** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:12 pm

Thompsons Water Seal. Make sure you do it well ahead of time, it will smell of funny chemicals for a while.

Martini Steve

jennytoo · Post by **jennytoo** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 6:23 pm

Token wrote:Why?

If it rains long and hard enough to soak your fabric and drip through, then soak whatever you have under your dome ... you got much bigger things to worry about.

Because, if it ends up being another Year of the Mud ... I'd rather have at least /one/ place I could retreat to that wasn't totally wet. ;-)

jennytoo · Post by **jennytoo** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:17 pm

I'm going to answer my own question, incase anyone searches in the future:

Kiwi Camp Dry is fairly cheap in 12oz spray cans ($6 or so); don't know the coverage but anecdotal reports are 200-250 square feet/can (that seems high). Testing it on regular fabric has very good results. (watching a ball of water skitter across denim and not getting the fabric wet is really fascinating)

StarBrite Waterproofing comes in 1 gallon jugs, and should work well for volume. StarBrite should also last longer without needing retreatment. Again, I don't know how much a gallon will cover.

Frankenstipe · Post by **Frankenstipe** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:21 pm

Dude if it rains I'm gonna get soo muddy on purpose and run around trying to hug all the clean people.

bm_cricket · Post by **bm_cricket** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:31 pm

I can't speak for everyone but anything you water seal will get thrashed by the dust. I took an older but "nice" sleeping bag my first year. The bag is still okay but the waxy water sealing on it just dissolved from the playa dust. I don't advise anything water sealed.

Really, just don't bring anything nice.

If it really rains you'll be screwed anyway. It sprinkles and any solid covering should be plenty to keep it dry inside.

But like Token pointed out, if it rains you'll be screwed anyway.