Compacting: Tyvek tarp vs Silnylon

[digrat]

So I made myself a handy dandy, nice and cheap hexagonal tyvek tarp. It's great. Then I decided to make some mesh snakeskins. They're great too. The problem comes when I try to put my snakeskinned tarp into my pack: it takes up a HUGE amount of space! I used to fold and roll the tarp and it didn't take up as much room, but it was far less convenient to deploy. So I have a choice to make:

1. Stay with the snakeskins and tyvek and deal with the space issue.
2. Go back to folding the tyvek and deal with a longer deploy time.
3. Switch to a silnylon tarp and keep the snakeskins for an unknown amount of saved space.

My question for y'all is whether the silnylon is going to save me that much room. I know it'll save a good deal of weight, but I don't know that I want to go to the expense of making a new tarp when the old one's not broke if the new one won't be any better.

[Bannerstone]

Have you washed your Tyvek yet? It will soften significantly and be easier to manage.

Warm water wash with mild detergent and most importantly air dry, do not use a heated dryer it will completely ruin your Tyvek and make it unusable as a tarp.

David