Bushwalk Australia

I bought a MLD Cricket (http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/sh ... cts_id=175) from a fellow forum member. Now I need a floor. I've bought some tyvek for it and am considering trying to make a bathtub floor. What do you think? Worth the effort? As long as you don't pitch in a ditch then maybe there's no real advantage over a flat groundsheet. Any other pros/cons of a bathtub floor?

I understand that you can't really stitch tyvek, so I'd have to get some sort of tape for it I think.

The downside to bathtub floors is if any water gets it, your wet. A flat ground sheet is normally sufficient. Under tarp camping i made a bivy with a tyvek floor (noseeum sides) which is designed so you can hang it higher to 'create' a bathtub floor if needed (by having the sides pulled up).
If you wanted to make a.bathtub floor standalone with tyvek personally id just use duct tape

Yes Gaffa/Duct tape works but you can also use PVA (white wood glue) .
If you have PVA around, just smear a thin layer on both surfaces , let it stand for 15 minutes or so then press together.

perfectlydark wrote:The downside to bathtub floors is if any water gets it, your wet. A flat ground sheet is normally sufficient.

When it rains hard enough water flows where you least expect it to. You get little miniature rivers that seemed unthinkable before the rain started falling. And you don't always have the option of pitching your camp in a perfect spot where the water must flow away.

The other aspect of a bathtub is protection for modern ultralight pads. A little bit of forest duff all too easily shuffles onto a flat groundsheet. And it only takes one tiny sharp object to create a leak.

Otherwise, I fully agree with you.

Well I went ahead and made it with gaffa. Pretty quick and easy. As long as you don't have heaps of water in your bathtub floor then I guess you can just use a chux to mop it up pretty easily.

As silly as it is, I think I'll just feel a little bit more sheltered with a bathtub! If I decide I don't like it then I can easily pull off the gaffa.

Good work its nice to not be committed to something

In Canada we have something called Tuck Tape (red, transparent) used to tape building sheathing like tyvek. I used some on my ground sheets, and when I tried to pull it off again the tyvek came apart before the tape separated. Seems to hold much better than Duct Tape, and is thinner. I used it to reinforce sections before I put mini grommets in, seems to work decently well, have used my ground sheet as a sun shade on a windy beach without anything giving.