My Guide Gear Tarp Now Sucks! How do I reseal the entire thing?

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Originally Posted by Beast 71

Sportsmansguide know that the tarps that they sold last year were junk so you may be able to return them still.

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I got one thin layer on, and think I'll do another coat, but it's calling for rain again, so the second layer will have to wait. These tarps work so great with my son and I hanging under one, that I'd like to get it to work. With two layers of the sil mixture on, it'll only cost me about $4 and a little bit of time. I honestly think the very light layer of PU just wore off from under it. It was very thin, and it's like you can't feel that layer anymore.

A side note to anyone else that may be reading about these Guide Gear tarps, I washed this one on a heavy cycle with baking soda, detergent, and a load of dark clothes (the more rubbing of things, I thought the better)....then ran it through the washer again with nothing, no other clothes, and no detergent of any kind. This was all in hopes of rinsing off whatever PU coating may still be around. I don't know if it made a difference with the sil mixture soaking in, but those are the steps that I took, and it appears the sil mixture soaked in quite well by using a 3" foam brush and sort of rubbing it in. I did a thin 4:1 mixture (by weight), mixing by putting in a water bottle with some pennies and shaking the heck out of it. :D

I did not get a second layer done because the rain hasn't stopped here in 3 days........but good news is that I have no water issues at all :thumbup: I'm very satisfied :D

They're probably so much lighter weight than regular PU tarps because there is such a thin layer of PU coating on them that it doesn't last long.

Now I just need to do the other large Guide Gear Tarp and the 2 smaller ones. For what little time it took me, and very little in cost, I am thrilled to have a solution and be back to the coverage of these tarps that I so love.

Fantastic...be sure to give us a report in the future about how they hold up.

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Originally Posted by gmcttr

Fantastic...be sure to give us a report in the future about they hold up.

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Thank you for all of your help too!!!

having read a bit around this issue- it appears that you want to try and get it done in 1 coat, as the sil doesn't stick to (dried) itself very well.

Glad it's working for you!

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Originally Posted by titanium_hiker

having read a bit around this issue- it appears that you want to try and get it done in 1 coat, as the sil doesn't stick to (dried) itself very well.

Glad it's working for you!

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Great, then one coat it is :D It's still in the rain, and doing well. This is a true test as it's going to be raining for the next 4 days, that's a total of 7 days of rain, with very little breaks in it. I randomly run and and rub my hand all over the inside to see if any is coming through and it's all good. Knock on wood. I won't be bringing it onto the deck unless the wind gets too bad.

Now should I reseal them every year? Anyone know about that?

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Originally Posted by DivaB

...Now should I reseal them every year? Anyone know about that?

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I would wait until there was a problem.

Just to follow up on these darn things. The two large tarps have done great doing the sil treatment on one side (the outside). It took 1 full tube of silicone to do both 12x12 tarps, mixed 4:1 ratio with the 4 being the mineral spirits.

The last few days here have been great outside, so I took the opportunity to take care of our two smaller Guide Gear Tarps. Again only doing the outside. For both of those it took half a tube of silicone total. With our small ones, I did not go through my washing phase that I did with our large Guide Gear tarps and wasn't as worried since we don't use them as often. I just went with mixing my sil solution and putting it on. Regardless, it did soak in, so that's a very good sign. For those of you having to deal with this fiasco, I don't think you need to wash them first.