Massive burn holes in floor of tent! (see pic) Can it be repaired?

That's an impressive set of holes! Since the floor is a fairly standard material, I'd stitch a new floor in rather than add to the weight and potential leakage in the floor with a bunch of patches.
Jim

I think it can be repaired. But the best way to go about it I'm not sure. This could be an opportunity to make it even lighter. Maybe use a sylnylon for a floor.

More importantly how exactly does this happen? When I saw the thread title I thought maybe he was smoking in the tent but that looks like he set it up on top of a campfire.

Get a new one—-Too much work to repair.

Cut out a new floor from silnylon 2nds. It's a cheap, yet light weight, fix if you have the time and skills to do it.

diygearsupply.com sells 2nds for $5.50/yard

Did he try to use it as a large cook pot?
It looks like you can cut out all but the outer inch or two of the floor and sew a new floor to overlap that inch or two of old floor. Seam seal well. That's easier than unstitching the old floor. If you're lazy, cut out the old floor and tape some polycryo into a bathtub ground sheet without sewing it to the main tent at all.

Silnylon should work well and be lighter.

This has to be a good story.

+1 for just replacing the material. Cutting the nylon out and sewing silnylon to the little bit of nylon you leave will be quicker and easier than taking it all out. Patching definitely isn't worth it with that many large holes.

Dont buy sil nylon seconds from diy gear supply or maybe Evan not from anyone I have order over 20yrds from diy gear suppy in 3 separate orders spaced buy over a month and all of them had sections of the material that has no strands of fiber about every 3 feet along the long sides. These go in about 2 feet. And are about 5 millimeters wide. They will leak like like crazy. I know this because water flows through it and I can Evan easily breathe through it!!

Awesome. Thanks for the advice folks…I think I might do as suggested and cut out the floor and sew some silnylon in.

Can anyone suggest where to order some silnylon from – that might be willing to ship to Australia?

+1 for leaving a border, sewing a new piece of fabric in and seam sealing to suit.

The way I was raised, if you borrow something, you bring it back in good condition or replace it. There's no such thing as handing something back in condition like that and just saying "sorry." I would buy you a new tent and the old one would be my problem to repair and live with.

Like the comedian says, "you can't fix 'stupid'". So what *is* the story?

Haha..well. Apparently my mate and a few others were camping and they had a fire going during the day. They went swimming in stream not far from camp when they noticed smoke. In a mad dash they bolted back to camp to find the grass had slowly burnt out in a vast circle right through under the tent, melting his mattress and my tent.

He offered to pay for it but I declined..so now I'm attempting to fix it up. This guy owes me!

Dear lord, the only scenario I can come up with is pitching the tent on a lava flow.

Flaming cocktails served in stemware?

If you were in the States I'd recommend sending it to somewhere like Rainy Pass Repair, but international shipping would be prohibitive. Said friend needs to step up.

Good luck!

Rick

Well if the 2nds are no good, then buy 1sts. It's something like $8.00 a yard from diygearsupply.com. Thru hiker sells "shield" silnylon….or something like that. It's more expensive. Sewing a new floor in may be harder than just sewing a large piece to the current floor, but I think it is worth it. A patch requires a little extra seam sealing.

William, did you contact DIY Gear Supply about the 2ds? I ordered 10 yards from them a while back and it was just about perfect–one thin line of thicker sil coating, nothing but a cosmetic flaw, like the description on the website says. I intend to order more, but would think twice if the flaws affected function. The DIY Gear Supply owner seems like a real nice guy, who comments on here from time to time.

Sorry about the thread 'jack.

I have not emailed him as it didn't really affect me for what I was using it for I just cut out the bad strips and was golden I may shoot him a email asking if this is the norm I new they were seconds so the flaw wasn't something un thought of and I'm in no way downing diygear I order from them all the time and there great

No. There are too many gaping holes for a decent patch job.

But as others point out, you could look at it as an opportunity to try a lighter silnylon floor, and replace the whole floor.

Could not tell from the photo if there is a seam at the base of the floor, like in Sierra Designs tents, or if it is a bathtub floor with no seams at ground level.

If there are seams at ground level, you are in luck.
If not, replacing the whole bathtub might be too complicated, depending on how much other stuff is sewn to the bathtub walls.

If there is a seam at ground level, open it up, duplicate the rectangular floor piece with silnylon, and sew the sil in. If you don't know how to do this well, you'll need a seamster.

If there are no seams at ground level, you can make one by cutting out the rectangular floor bottom, and doing the same as above. IMO, its probably not worth fooling around with all the seams necessary to replace the bathtub walls.

To seal the seam, try the Sea to Summit silnylon sealer, as it will adhere well to the silnylon, and see if it will adhere also to the original floor material.

Looked at Roger Caffin's website, and looks like you may have to go outside Oz for the silnylon. extremtextil.de has received good comments on this site for its silnylon. In the US, there is the high quality stuff from thru-hiker, and you can obtain heavier, but ruggeder silnylon from Seattle Fabrics that weighs around 2.5 ounces per sq. yd, about the same as PU coated nylon often used in older tents.

I would also contact Sea to Summit there. They might have some good suggestions or sources in AU. They certainly use good lightweight tent fabrics of several types for the Wilderness Equipment tents.

Good Luck. Sorry about your tent.

I'd go with the thru hiker shield.

It's decent quality, and would cost US$55 Inc shipping for 3 yards (2.7m) at 1.6m wide. This is if they'll ship in a small prepaid priority box. If not it will be another $15.

The sewing job should be pretty easy.

My father had general rule he would tell me "do not loan out sporting gear to people it never come back the same."
I did not listen to him learned a hard lesson. When I was 9 years old loaned my favorite fishing rod to best friend it came back broken and tangled reel.
I don't loan my good gear anymore,If I do I loan crap gear I don't care about anymore will come back damaged some way.

My suggestions on how to fix the floor.I would use 1.9 oz urethane coated nylon more durable only a few ounce heavier.You might be able to get it easier.

#1 Now On the tent replace the floor like other said .
#2[Best way} cut the floor out and have really cool enclosed tarp and use a ground cloth
#3 make bath tub ground cloth and attach the tarp to the tent with mitten hooks and 1/4 inch cross grain ribbon. So you have a removable bath tub floor.

Terry

A "friend" would have brought you back a NEW tent.

I think you could patch it by gluing patches over the holes OK. It would look like crap, but it could be functional. The fabric may have shrunk from heat near edges of holes, so might need to be trimmed back even farther to have tight,smooth floor to work with.

Replacing the whole floor to the netting , or even cutting it leaving a fabric border and then sewing to that, is probably more difficult than seems at first unless you have experience with that sort of thing. If you will spend a lot of time on the repair, you want it to look professional, or else why bother.

Honestly, I would likely scrap it if it were me, and get another. Yes there is a challenge and satisfaction in repairing something. But your time is worth something too .
Maybe someone proficient in custom work (bearpaw) would sew you a cuben or sil floor in for a reasonable price? Worth asking.

Not to be cynical but.. I would make him at least chip in. If you try and repair this hell of a mess… Its going to take some big ass patches and lots of adhesive.

I personally would ditch it, replace it, sell it to your buddy for $80…

She looks to be a goner unless you want to get some fabric and hope the eff you can cut and adhere it in a good enough fashion that it works.

Remote Equipment Repairs Melbourne but expensive..it might be better done locally.

I'd try the manufacturer, what sort of tent? Evan/ Terra Rosa Gear might be able to sew you one similar and does good work at a good price.

I wouldn't have answered so quickly if he asked to pay. Seems pretty foolish to leave a fire to do that.

Sure a new floor can be sewn in. But FWIW I could never see myself returning something that damaged. I would replace it afford it or not. Just wrong. Curious, what tent is/was it?

I've had good luck with 2nds silnylon from owfinc.com, but for the floor, it leaks a little

The shield from thru-hiker.com has a higher hydrostatic head according to Richard tests so should be better. I bought some but I haven't used it yet.

If you had a silnylon floor that leaks, use mineral spirits and GE silicone caulk 10:1 and coat the surface. I've done this for floor and it was then waterproof.

Maybe just cut out the floor and put in a new floor loose if you dont want to sew it and the tent can be pitched without floor.

If the tent can be pitched without floor, maybe just use ground sheet from Polycro or whatever.

Sorry to revive this thread but my new floor sheet finally arrived from the US. Just quickly – what sort of seam / stitch would you use if you were sewing in the new floor as suggested? I was thinking of using a Felled Seam but that seems tricky in this situation. Is there a better one (i'm using a sewing machine)?

I would cut the new fabric 1 inch bigger than the floor in both directions. Hem all edges (fold over 1/4 inch, fold over again, one row of stitches. Now it's exactly the same size as floor.

Cut out the old floor to within 1 inch on all sides.

Sew the new piece on. I'de use a few hand stitches just to get it aligned, then do 2 rows of stitches all the way around..