Seam Sealing

[kombat]

I have a question on seam sealing.

I bought a Coleman tent and supposedly it's sealed already. Should I just redo it? Do I have to remove what's there? How do I remove what's there? How often do you seam seal? And where? Just the floor? The rain fly? Everywhere there's stitching?

Karl

[renodesertfox]

I have a question on seam sealing.

I bought a Coleman tent and supposedly it's sealed already. Should I just redo it? Do I have to remove what's there? How do I remove what's there? How often do you seam seal? And where? Just the floor? The rain fly? Everywhere there's stitching?

Karl

Howdy Kombat,

This should help. The rainfly and center floor seam (if applicable) of your tent have been taped at the factory. While seam tape significantly increases the weatherproofness of your tent, additional seam sealing will improve the performance of your tent in rainy conditions. For additional weatherproofness, seal all places where attachments are sewn to the fly, including webbing, Velcro, snaps, guy-outs, and zipper tracks. The best way to seal your tent is to use a urethane-based seam sealer (I(vdf) recommend Seam Grip by McNett. For more information visit www.mcnett.com) and run a thin bead around the base of the attachment, where it is sewn to the fly. Do this to attachments both on the inside and outside of the fly. Additionally, the perimeter seam of your tent floor cannot be mechanically (factory) sealed. To complete the barrier against water seepage through the floor of your tent, seal this seam by running a bead of seam-sealer around the inside perimeter of your tent floor. Make sure the seam-sealer is completely dry before re-packing your tent.

This should be done once a year for the life of your tent and the happiness of staying dry when the weather changes to rain.