I recently exprienced something that I had miraculously never had to deal with: a night of heavy rain followed by packing up in the rain.

Unfortunately, water did leak in during the night .

Partly, I think there was splash-back from the ground, up past the flysheet, onto the poruous material of the tent. However, I recently tested the groundsheet of my tent and it also appears to be letting in some moisture.

So two questions:

Should the footprint extend past the edge of the ground sheet to keep the tent away from the wet ground, or should it stay just within the boundary to avoid splash back and pooling or water over the course of the night?

What might I treat a groundshhet with to re-proof it totally?
Unfortunately, the manufacturer is not gracing with me with a response to this same question...

Thanks for the pointers!

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

I usually make a footprint out of plastic sheet beacause I am too tight to buy a proper manufactured one.Usually I cut it just undersize so hopefully rain will run away and soak away into the ground rather than collect on the footprint.

: I use opened rubble bags, ironed together, then cut to size.

Sounds like mine could probably do with being cut so it is that bit smaller and not poking out from under the tent.

__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

the footprint should be as small as possible, just bigger than the groundsheet but not bigger than the fly. if it is rain will run down the fly onto the footprint, and the tent will be sat in a puddle. it will soon soak through.

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dave

Never used a footprint but put closed cell foam carrymat under groundsheet, it's always smaller. Seen some foul weather and managed to stay dry (in the tent)

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Anything can happen in the next half hour

Packing up in the rain is one of camping's little pleasures isn't it. I've had to do it many many times but fortunately my mind's blanked out most of the memories. Wait till you get to the next stage where you head off all day in the rain and have to use everything - still soaking wet- for another night of heavy rain. Especially when you find your sleeping bag has somehow got soaked during the day.

Fixing a leaking groundsheet depends on what material it's made of and why it's leaking. Some leaks come from punctures - sharp stones etc can do it easily and you can usually find some material to patch it with. I have an old Vango Force 10 tent (about 40 yrs old now) that I still use regularly with a groundsheet made out of something like pvc. That's been punctured loads of times and has just been patched with some bits of material I got from Vango. It's still watertight.

I had another tent where the groundsheet was made of proofed nylon - a sort of heavier weight version of the flysheet. That was fine until you used it in really heavy rain where the ground was saturated and then the whole of the groundsheet seemed porous - no single leak point, water just seemed to soak through it. I never found anything that worked to fix it and just used a cut down pvc tarp (a few quid from boot fairs or Machine Mart) as an under layer.

The "footprint" approach is a good idea anyway if you're putting the tent up on anything other than a putting green as it's sacrificial protection for an expensive tent. I've usually cut mine to be about an inch or so smaller all round than the tent groundsheet - lay it on the ground, put the tent up on top and go round with a stanley knife. Ideally it would be a bit bigger so you could lift up the edges to form a kind of tub but in practice I've found that some bit usually drops down and forms a kind of funnel to channel water in.

That pretty much exactly describes my predicament both in terms of the material, symptom of water entering and the likely mistake I made with footprint dimensions, whose existance, it took this one night to highlight!

So, a new footprint is in order (mine is looking pretty tatty and has been üpnctured here and there by twigs, stones and what-not). Shame to hear there is no cure for the porous ground sheet condition, but good to know this could be mitigated with a decent footprint shape.

__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

One of the many reasons I use a folding camp bed is, should the tent leak, the sleeping bag is off the floor.

My super thick air mattress is wide enough and tall enough to keep my bag off the tent floor.
Self-inflating camping mats features and specs - Alpkit

Surrounding me with stuff, the wife etc keeps the mat away from any damp bits. I would think a new tent could get some condensation under the sleeping mat, are you sure the base is leaking?

Nikwax do tent reproofing stuff, I don't see why you couldn't cover the base in that. Having done that you could search for puncture holes as you would with an inner tube , even using puncture repairs to seal them?! Some tent manufacturers would replace the groundsheet if it was knackered for a fee?
The orange survival bags are quite good once cut and opened out for a reasonably durable, cheap and light sacrificial footprint.

Get a SHAM-WOW.
YouTube - ‪ShamWow (Full Length)‬‎

Great piece of kit for tent camping. I use mine to wipe down my tent and fly if their wet.

You will be saying WOW every time you use it.

daryl

It was not condensation: there was a flim of water under my Thermarest and my sleeping bag was wet at one end...

To test it I later pitched the tent and tipped some water into it!! Left for 5 mins then tipped it out. I then checked underneath: droplets were coming through. Now OK that was a fair amount of water (2 gallons?) but still it is clear that the base is not impermiable. It was general moisture especially at a taped seam so not punctures.

The nikwax and a re-trimmed footprint would be a good combo.

As for the manufacturer: zero customer support, it would seem. Wrote an email asking for advise: ten days on, zip... So no idea what they recommend

__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)