Sil-nylon floor wearing out, sew in new (cuben) floor??

cuben supposedly gets holes

I've never had silnylon floor wear out, how long did you use yours?

Try coating it with mineral spirits:silicone 5:1. The whole floor or just the area that looks worn. GE II silicone caulk. Or Permatex flowable sealant.

Or you could use that to glue on a patch. Maybe 3:1? You want a small piece of silnylon? There was an article about gluing on tieouts which would be much more demanding.

I've used it a lot this summer. Definitely at least 20-30 nights. I never (thought I) abused it, but I also never used a ground sheet.

There are a lot of these holes forming, that's what makes patching seem pretty much impossible. Probably a good 1/8th to 1/4th of the area of the floor would need to be patched.

What kind of silnylon does your floor use? I know Big Sky sometimes uses variants lighter than the normal 30D silnylon for their floors. Maybe that is the issue?

I would not expect a 30D silnylon floor to be showing much wear after just 20-30 uses. You could try using tyvek or some higher-grade silnylon (I think Lightheart Gear and Thru-Hiker sell the highest-grade silnylons)

I have silnylon bivy bottom. 200 nights without any holes.

Maybe a tent is different?

Seems like 20-30 nights should show zero wear.

Maybe something wrong with that silnylon?

Maybe cut out the floor just leaving a strip all the way around, and then glue in a new piece. Experiment with test pieces first to make sure you have the mixture right.

I'de use Shield silnylon from thru-hiker.com – it's waterproof for floor. Most silnylons aren't. It's 57" wide so maybe you can cut a hole that size, or seaming two pieces together isn't that difficult if you have sewing machine.

If you bought it recently, return it.

Billy

It's the Big Sky SuprSil. They don't give out any specs on it. I'm going to try to talk to them to see if they have any suggestions, otherwise I'll try the suggestions here to recoat first, then see about gluing + stitching some of the Shield Sil-nylon (or maybe just Tyvek) to it.

Unfortunately I doubt a return will fly. Their stated return policy is "Big Sky warranty products against manufacturing defects, but does not warranty products against materials failure due to durability issues."

Ask them anyway

20-30 nights isn't very reasonable

"Ask them anyway
20-30 nights isn't very reasonable"

Indeed. AS the ole saying goes:
"It never hurts to ask."
All they can do is say, yes, no, or maybe.

Billy

Agree that better quality silnylon would not wear out like this.
None of the silicone adhesives used by backpackers are viscous enough to add an underfloor without adding a lot of weight. If you must try to dilute one of them, canned stove fuel like Coleman's is more effective at thinning than mineral spirits, but that won't last either.
There are spray silicone adhesives used for medical purposes, like Hollister Medical Adhesive Spray, but haven't tried it, and it is expensive, around $30/can, and it might well not work at all.

So please consider just replacing the floor, if the mfgr. won't, with T-H silnylon.
Light Heart has a slightly lighter highly waterproof silnylon if you contact them.
But it is not a job for someone new to sewing. You might contact Rainy Pass and see if they would do it.

Sorry you got stuck.

Unless you need to keep out crawling insects, or running water, I'd just cut out most of the floor, leaving 6" or so around the edges, and lay a piece of tyvek or silnylon inside (maybe semi-attach it with elastic cord loops/cord locks at the corners). That way you get the advantages of both a floored and floorless tent (i.e., easy to clean the gunk out of inside after use!).