Attaching netting to silnylon/silpoly/cuben tarps

[David Wiese]

I’m thinking of undertaking a few MYOG projects next year. The one I’m most ambitious about is attaching some sort of perimeter netting to a flat or shaped tarp. I’m tall so even something like the Zpacks Hexamid Solo-Plus is a bit snug, but I need bug protection where I hike regularly.

I’m still wrapping my head around the smartest way to design the cuts and attach the netting, especially for modular options with a flat tarp, but I’m stumped on the best way to attach it (which also depends on the tarp fabric I’m guessing).

Is stitching the way to go? Would this need to be seam-taped after? If it’s a cuben tarp, would you just attach it with cuben tape? Or is that prohibitively expensive/heavy?

 

[Jerry Adams]

I’d sew it.  Fold the netting 1/4 inch and sew through two layers of netting for strength.  Don’t worry about sealing the seam because it’s at the edge – if water leaked through it would just run down to the ground

[R]

Yup.  What Jerry said.

Netting is full of holes, so it has less area for bonding.  A thicker layer of glue could grab it well, but that’s heavier, messier and more expensive than thread.  The only gotcha I can think of for sewing is if it’s a cuben/DCF tarp and the edges are hemmed w/ adhesive tape, it has the potential to gum up your needle.  Lubricating w/ alcohol is the remedy for that.

RSBTR has a 0.5osy mesh, but I wouldn’t recommend it for this use.  It’s sort of like a sheer stocking – doesn’t like snags, which your use will subject it to on the ground.  Anything heavier should be fine.  If your primary concern is mosquitoes, or similar sized insects, but you’re not worried about the tiny, tiny no-see-ums, you could use a tulle fabric, which has larger holes but weighs in around 0.3osy.

[Matthew / BPL]

I think Hoosier made a tarp with netting where he sewed the netting to a strip of DCF with tape on it. Then he pitched the tarp and applied the netting.

I don’t do the DIY thing (yet) and I’m vague on the details but I’m pretty sure it was Hoosier.

[Hoosier T]

Yes sir, that was me. I just cut 1″ strips of DCF to the length I needed, Sewed the netting to the strips then applied 1″ transfer tape to the back of the DCF. The one thing I made sure to do is sew the netting to the DCF strip down the very center of the strip. If you were to sew the netting closer to one of the edges of the strip then my fear would be more peel force being applied and therefore less longevity on the connection since tape does not like peel.

Of course this all only applies to DCF or possibly a PU coated Silpoly like PU4000, not an option with standard Silicone (both sides) Silpoly.

[David Wiese]

Very cool idea. Do you have any pics you would share of the tarp set up? And maybe some close-ups of the actual netting/strips of DCF?

[Hoosier T]

I don’t have any closeups and I’ve since sold it when I went to a hammock so I can’t take a photo. Pictures of the original build are in this thread.

[David Wiese]

Thanks very much. That is definitely the way I’ll go if I end up with a cuben tarp.

Would you be willing to give the dimensions of your 6 tarp panels? I understand if not, but it really does look amazing.

[Author]

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