The irony is that the silicone is clear but the odorless mineral spirits is white!! So I started out with a thick coat in the middle of the tarp - kind of makes sense that it should be "more" waterproof in the middle. $12 for the tube of clear low odor silicone caulk - (two of those) and then
$19 for the Green Odorless Mineral Spirits (two of those) So it's not cheap to waterproof a tarp!! Too bad I didn't mix it quite properly but it was definitely better mixing than the last time I tried the project.
So probably $125 total for a waterproof canvas 12 x 18 tarp versus $180 for a same 10 oz canvas tarp that is NOT waterproof!
$170 for a 12 x 16 canvas 10 ounce tarp? Wow Also it's out of stock and smaller than my tarp. So how much did I pay for this canvas? $28. That's a huge savings.
I'm taking photos from every angle to see an overall coverage percentage. I first used a backpack sprayer but the silicone was too thick. I just mixed it in an open 3 gallon bucket - so I couldn't really mix it super fast. I did have a 5 gallon bucket with a lid and a hole - to put in the mixer. So I should do another batch.
Still I used the Odor free mineral spirits and the Low Odor Silicone - NO smell at all - unlike last time I tried this and the mineral spirits smelled terrible. Also I used CLEAR silicone. Last time I used black. haha. At least before I could tell what kind of coverage I got - not as good as this time. I mixed it better this time as I used an actual drill mixer paddle thing.
The waterproof was more than the tarp - since I had to buy the mixing paddle and the top rated silicone and mineral spirits. Besides I saved 55$ on the Tarp since my neighbor sewed together two Harbor Freight drop cloths, 10 ounce. I did some winter shoveling so she offered - she wanted to compensate me - so this was a better deal for me by far. She has a sewing machine and she fixed my backpack sprayer last summer.
So the 5 gallon bucket - actually that's probably a 10 gallon bucket? Anyway it had some soap left over that I got as a natural biocide insecticide last year. This year we haven't had many bugs yet - and so no one has complained. haha. This stuff has Thymol as the active "kill" ingredient - the same antioxident antiseptic in mouthwash.
So that's what my tarp smells like now - kind of not bad.
So the mix of silicone and mineral spirits was too thick for the backpack sprayer even without the nozzle spray attachment. So instead I just splashed the rest on there - and then I folded up the tarp to mix around the silicone. Then I stuffed the whole thing in that big bucket to try spread it around some more. I had rinsed out the remaining silicone with the remaining soapy water from the big bucket and sprayed that onto the tarp - that was the last of the silicone!
So the dose is one silicone caulk clear low odor tube to one gallon of odorless mineral spirits - plus I mixed in water to dilute the thickness.
So if I do this again then I just need to get the silicone and mineral spirits - and I can mix it better in that big bucket but I think the density will still be too heavy for the backpack sprayer. So I need to add water to dilute it again.
Now I'm drying this batch off. So I think if I get one more gallon of mineral spirits and one more caulk tube - that would be enough to finish the water proofing. Or else I could get that Kwik-dry Camp Silicone spray but it's very expensive. Also it has some petroleum spray part to it that is nasty.
https://whatsinproducts.com/files/brands_pdf/1470495287.pdf
Not sure why it's green? I guess it's just recycled Naptha mineral spirits...
Contains 65% renewable content and lower fumes
I should just use this stuff to clean out the car engine!!
Hwpb Organic silicone canvas tarpaulin, waterproof cloth, waterproof sunscreen, thickness 0.8MM, 500 G/m2, 8 size options (Color : 4m5m)
So that's 12 feet x 20 feet and it's the Poly-Canvas with Silicone.
I just did another Treatment of the above canvas tarp - it will BREATHE better than the Polyester-Canvas tarp.
So I found a better deal on silicone and odorless mineral spirits - so I got two more caulk tubes and two more gallons for $50.
So that brings the total to $175 for the tarp.
The Poly-Canvas tarp is $236 and it doesn't breath as well - of course a rain fly doesn't really need to "breathe" - I don't think.
Well I suppose if you have it right over the tent as a double roof - then you want it to breathe for sure.
I don't know - I guess I only saved $50 plus I don't have any "tie offs" yet - I can get marbles and nylon string to make the tie-offs.
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