DCF tent floors – fragile?

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I have a Notch Li with a DCF floor. To me DCF seems more prone to puncture than silnylon “floor weight”  material but stronger against abrasion and water penetration.

What’s the experience of those with DCF tent floors?

[Robert Spencer]

Eric, I agree with you, but would add that floor punctures are more of an issue as the DCF ages. This has been discussed elsewhere, but my Duplex seems susceptible to more punctures in the floor in recent years whereas the first 5 years I don’t think I had one. Same for the canopy that held up fine for many years and now small holes are emerging in all the high stress areas (corners and apex) where I tend to crank on the guy lines.  For my next DCF shelter I’ll try to lessen the super tight pitch as Ron Bell and others have suggested and I will adjust my expectations as the years add up.

[Sam Farrington]

Eric,
I’ve replaced maybe a half dozen tent floors with silnylon, and found them all more resistant to puncture; but also to abrasion as well; because the slick quality of the silnylon has less friction with the ground surfaces.

But am considering silpoly for the next floor in order to keep the fabric flat and stable. Part of this is done already by keeping tension on the corners of the floor, but think the poly would also help to prevent slipping and bunching up.

If the poly turns out to be less abrasion resistant for whatever reason; then it’s back to silnylon. Haven’t found that DCF is particularly puncture or abrasion resistant, so that’s out.

[AK Granola]

I have never punctured or torn a tent floor until my Notch Li. Last summer I ended up on a slanted site on rock, and the thrashing about I do as I sleep caused a tear in the floor. It was easily repaired with the provided repair DCF tape and has held strong. Most of the time I find a better campsite and haven’t had issues. All tent floors are ridiculously and – to me – equally slippery. Nothing worse than two people in a tent with an incline. Except three people in a tent with an incline!

[Murali C]

I have started using polycryo – which is light, inexpensive, durable and protects the DCF floor and keeps the DCF floor clean. I wish Zpacks and TT used 0.8 DCF floor as pretty much most folks use Tyvek or Polycryo to prolong the life of the DCF floor.

[jscott]

Yes, like Murali I use polycryo. Cut to shape it’s super light and helps protect any floor. It also may help against possible punctures to your pad. and it really helps keep the floor free of dirt and mud.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I use woven floors on my DCF tents because I don’t see a good case for DCF as a floor material. I’m not strongly opposed to DCF floors, but the strengths of DCF are mostly it’s high tear strength and non-stretch. That makes it great for a tarp or tent fly, but in a floor application other considerations tend to be similar or more important (e.g. abrasion, punctures). For the weight, DCF doesn’t stand out in those things as it is either similar or worse than an equal weight woven material.

To have sufficient abrasion and puncture performance for a floor, the really need one of the versions of Dyneema with the extra thick mylar (e.g. 1.0 – 1.2 oz DCF). That works reasonably well but it has the downside of being quite a bit more bulky since it is 2-3x as thick. The other downside is repair. DCF gets touted as being easy to repair via patches and that is true, but when a DCF is worn out/abraded you can get leaks/pinholes all over it. That can happen with wovens too, but at least with a woven you can essentially paint on a new coating and it’ll last for many more years, whereas if a DCF floor is leaking all over you can’t reasonably patch the entire thing. I supposed you could cut it out and tape in an entire new floor but that’s a pretty radical repair job.

Anyways, I think DCF floors work fine but I don’t see the appeal in spending money on that because the 1.0oz DCF that is commonly used is similar in weight to a 15-20D woven, overall I think less durable/shorter lived, and has the downsides of added bulk and lack of ability to recoat. Tarptent said something similar on Reddit a few months ago where they agreed the rationale wasn’t great for DCF floors and said they were looking at moving back to woven floors in their DCF tents.

All of the above assumes you want your floor to be reasonably durable so you don’t have to use a groundsheet. I like that approach because adding a groundsheet is more total weight and fiddling, but if you aren’t counting on your floor to stand up and plan on using a groundsheet regardless, then yeah a 0.5 – 0.7oz DCF floor would be fine – or a 7-10D woven.

[YoPrawn]

The ability to do field repairs weighs a lot more heavily for me than lifespan. It’s why I would probably keep using DCF floors myself. Silicone fabrics are not easily taped up and forgotten like DCF can be. I also like how DCF floors hold their shape a bit and don’t melt down into a puddle of fabric like silnylon.

The only thing I personally hate about DCF floors if that they take up so much pack volume. My DCF bathtub floor packs darn near the same size as my entire DCF Altaplex tarp.

[Murali C]

I feel very safe in a DCF floor’s waterproofness. Somehow I have this phobia that silnylon floors or silpoly floors will wet through….when pressure is applied etc. It is irrational….but feel very safe in a DCF floor. Wiht my Altaplex tarp, the 3.5 oz DCF floor is pretty compact….sure…it can be compacter. But, the nice thing is you can separate the tarp and floor and squeeze each one wherever in your pack.

[YoPrawn]

Wow, another Altaplex tarp user?!?! There’s like 5 of us! :)

You are very correct about the floor being nice to stow on its own, and it does fold up nicely if one takes time to work it like a fabric robot. Compared to silnylon though, it’s pretty bulky when bunched up in a rush.

I also feel super safe in the DCF bathtub floor. And since it is detached from the tarp, I can replace it with anything I want very easily.

“DCF floors do not concern me, Admiral.”

[Murali C]

I actually had a camo Altaplex tarp from before they stopped making Altaplex tarp/tents completely. I then sold it – which I regretted a lot. I bought a Altaplex tent when they released it again and while on the CT – after 180 miles at Twin Lakes – didn’t like the confines of the tent – so, cut off the floor and net from the canopy and have been using the tarp since then:-) So, I have the actual Altaplex floor as well which I have used with Pocket tarp or the Altalplex tarp. I also have the Soloplex + bathtub floor which actually works great with Altaplex tarp.

Too bad they stopped making the tarp. I think for 1.5 oz difference between Pocket tarp and Altaplex tarp, Altaplex tarp is so much more liveable!

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

“Silicone fabrics are not easily taped up and forgotten like DCF can be.”

You can tape silicone coated floors just as easily. Tenacious Tape Sil works great.

[YoPrawn]

Dan, how am I supposed to keep complaining about stuff if you keep offering logical solutions to my complaints? ;)

I will have to give that stuff a try. I have a bunch of silnylon and silpoly in storage, so might whip up a quick experiment with the stuff.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Good answers and experiences here. Before Tarptent increased coating on its flys I would re-coat them myself sith a 5:1 mix of 5 parts odorless mineral spirits to 1 part GE clear silicone calk. Then on a tautly pitched tent I’d roll the mix on with a short napped small roller and immediately wipe it down with blue paper “shop towels” giving the fly an added light coating. I did the same to the exterior of the floors. It worked very well though I likely really didn’t need to do it.

I wish I could find a similar coating for my DCF tent floor. As it is I’ll just use a 3/4 length polypro ground sheet. And a 2′ x 2′ polycro “porch floor” in the entrance vestibule.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

It is true that an advantage to woven floors is the ability to recoat. With a woven floor you can apply more of the same coating (sil or PU) fairly easily, whereas DCF is not so much coated as it is a sheet of plastic so  if it is heavily worn down to the point where it has abraded areas that aren’t reasonably to patch, then you’d basically need to cut the entire thing out and replace it with a giant new piece of DCF.

[DWR D]

Small point… while woven fabrics can be recoated… that does increase their weight…

[Tjaard Breeuwer]

About 10 years ago, I gad a solid inner tent made for my Golite Hex. It has a fairly lightweight DCF floor.
we used this as a family backpacking tent. Not many nights a years, but due to the size of the tent, often can’t choose the site very carefully either. Never had any issues.

As Dan says, I m not saying it’s the best option, but I can tell you that it has lasted just fine for me.

[M B]

Cuben has always been reportedly a bit fragile for floors able to be perforated by pine needles even.

If you’re using the heavy 1.x stuff like z-packs used I’ve never had a problem with it. Do I have any holes? I don’t know I try not to pitch where there’s going to be accumulated water.  The only times I’ve ever gotten wet from the floor is because I spilled a water bottle inside.  Or worse, a pee container.

30d silnylon is tougher I believe, I don’t know about the lighter possibilities.

I have upwards of 75 nights on shelters with each cuben and sil floors, I have more confidence in the sil.   I don’t use a ground sheet but I do put all my spare items under my sleeping pad that I have, clothing, maps, rain gear etc and I’ve never had a sleeping pad pop

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