Tent Magic

A very happy New Year 2016 to all! We spent a peaceful and warm New Year among family and friends at home, generally lazing about, like all good Romans, with food and drink.

Because of the strict enforcement of rigid drink-drive laws, and the ethic of strict compliance in our country New Zealand (I'm unsure of whether we may call New Zealand "ours" as yet) by virtually everyone I know, a sleepover was arranged for all the revellers. (I believe the dictionary defines a reveller as someone who enjoys himself in a lively and noisy way: so, I guess we had quiet revellers!)

One of the tents for the sleepover was borrowed from a kind and generous neighbour, together with a can of waterproofing solution.  

After the holiday was over, I , the wanna-be Michaelangelo, tackled the job of applying the Tent Magic waterproofing solution.  Never having been a Boy Scout and not having undergone military training, my skills relating to outdoor living is rather minimal. Dis-assembly of a tent, therefore, is not on my list of qualifications.  But, hey, I am always willing to try anything.

So I go out early to the lower paddock where the tent is waiting for its treatment. Wow! Mother nature has assisted in the task -- the high wind on the night after the sleep-out blew the structure over onto its side, flat on the ground and easy to handle.

Ten minutes later, all the poles are de-constructed and out. Place them carefully all in their bag. Whew! These galvanised pipes are heavy all in one place. Now, simply fold the tent up and carry it to the front lawn in the sunshine and paint!

Not so quick. Folding a two-room canvas tent with roof and verandah alone without a second pair of hands, is not as quick and easy as it sounds. A short while later, folded tent atop the wheelbarrow, I'm off to the painting location. The wind is still gusting.

First,let's measure the tent to get an idea of the square area to be waterproofed -- that's the old painting days experience coming to the fore.  The two-room tent is very spacious, measuring 4 metres long by 3.5 metres wide and stands 1.7 metres at the sides.

Therefore 4 times 1.7 divided by the square on the hypoteneuse, multiplied by pi-squared is... hmm judging by the size of the canvas on the floor in front of me... I have... roughly 14 square metres for the roof and 25.5 square metres for the four walls including the window and door flaps. That's the outside surface. And we double that to get the inside measurement as well. I have not made provision for the verandah roof section at all. According to my higher mathematical calculations, two coats on the roof and one coat on the walls is equivalent to 28 + 25.5 = 53.5 square metres.... five litres of waterproofing compound will cover that... just.

The moist emulsion on the grey roof glistens in the sunshine. 

 I tackle the roof and spread the silky aromatic while emulsion as evenly as I can. It soaks readily into the porous canvas, just as the rainwater had the day before. It will be difficult to gauge whether this is going to be sufficient chemical to block the entry of rainwater into the canvas mesh, without doing an actual practical test.

Halfway through the first coat on the roof, with the gusty wind making me wish I'd first packed bricks on the corners, I am offered a further impediment: Benny has decided that a canvas tent on the grass surface makes a super dog mat on which to stretch out and laze in the sun. Shoo, Benny. A while later, he's back at the other end !

Starting the coating on the first side.

 Two coats on the roof with reasonable drying intervals in the warm and windy weather conditions, its the turn of the four outer walls, carefully coated, panel by panel. Take extra care at all the joins, seams and stitch-work, as these are generally vulnerable to premature leakage.

During this monotonous task, I have temporary flashbacks to yesteryear, the life of making paint. The smells of the various polymers used in acrylic paint manufacture come wafting back up my nostrils, and I can clearly remember the impeller speeds of the grinding machines, and the slow trickle of bright paint from a small water-cooled sand-mill. Strange how the memory works. Yet, sometimes I have trouble with the here and now -- I cannot remember if today is the 12th or 13th?

Finally, all the walls finished, coating dried. Ready for packing up.

Some hours later, I check the completed job: All seems in order and no damp patches. There's less than 500ml of compound left. My ability to estimate wasn't so shoddy after all!

Let's hope that treated canvas provides better protection from the rain in future. I would recommend the same treatment again. Or possibly coating from the inside as well. Time will tell.

I guess I can now add to my CV:  "Experienced Tent Waterproofer"  -- there can't be that many of them around, so my services should be well sought after...