Build My Own FeedCustomer Question: Tent seam sealing?
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To: tents@bdel.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 4:58 PM
Subject: Seam Seal
Why don't you seam seal the tents? I would rather pay $100 or more not
to deal with it! Please think about this and seam seal the tents before they are shipped.
From: BD Mail Order
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 5:07 PM
Subject: RE: Seam Seal
Thanks for your email. We do seam tape our tents that can be sealed (Biblers and Doublelights). However, silicone impregnated tents (e.g., Epic fabric series like Firstlights, Lighthouse, etc.) won't accept seam tape. It simply does not stick to them... otherwise we'd do those as well. So this necessitates a do-it-yourself approach using a specially formulated sealer and an hour or so of labor. Our apologies for this inconvenience.
United States / English 
21 May 2010, 9:09AM
Seam sealing can be a big deal for some people. I have seen tents that have been sealed without thinning the sealer with mineral spirits that look like a caulked boat. Certainly overkill.
Seam sealing is easy and if you aren't coordinated use tape to limit the sealer width. In the race for the ultra light tent, I can see it makes good business sense to leave off the sealer. Having several hundred tents sitting around curing is probably a big cost and logistics problem also. Kudos to BD on going to the new NanoShield fabric. The new Wasabi color is nice also.
8 Sep 2009, 12:03PM
Hi Mike,
The Mesa is from our Doublelight series of shelters and uses a fly that is PU-coated on the inside and comes factory seam taped. So no exterior seam-sealing would be required.
7 Sep 2009, 5:04AM
I seam sealed my new Firstlight tent and it was no problem. It took two full tubes of seam sealer and about two hours to do it correctly.
A couple of hints:
1) cut the applicator tip so the hole is slightly bigger so it is easier to dispense the sealer
2) after laying a bead of sealer on the seam run your finger over it to flatten it out making
sure it has covered the seam and and a little bit on each side of the seam
3) on the "double" seams, such as at the door, and the bottom corners of the tent,
I found that dispensing the sealer directly from the tube was easiest and allowed me to
lay it on a little thicker, especially around the snap
The only other thing I would say is don't worry as much about how it looks as compared to how well it keeps the water out.
1 Sep 2009, 9:03PM
Does this mean my Black Diamond Mesa needs seam sealing? I was told at the store that it would not.
17 Aug 2009, 12:40PM
This may seem dumb or crazy...
but when considering typical tents (ie) Coleman and other household names of lower caliber than (Bibler, Eureka, Black Diamond etc..)
What about just purchasing a gallon or so of 100% pure silicone and soaking the WHOLE tent in it.. then allow to drip dry in some fashion??
9 Aug 2009, 6:42PM
"It simply does not stick to them... "
Neither does seam sealer that you apply yourself, in parts. It's one thing to not seam seal the tent, it's another to not even think about what it would be like to seam seal it yourself and build a tent that is easily sealed.
If you seam seal the outside of the floor, you will have a permanent strip of sandpaper running along the bottom, as I do on my Guiding Light. The inside seam, though, is so thick you have to lay sealer on really thick and make it about an inch wide.
Then, on the corners where the tent poles go you use a fabric that is really, really slick on the inside. My seam sealer lasted all of three trips before it flaked off the material. The outside of those pockets will take seam sealer better but, again, it collects sand there and you've left the seams with a half inch of material hanging around so you have to seam seal both sides of the same seam.
"An hour or so of labor...." for a guiding light? You've got to be kidding. Then, the seam sealer needs to be reapplied every 5 or 6 trips or so.
I understand that no company is sealing Epic fabric. Golite, though, builds their seams on their Epic tents so that they don't need sealer. Also, that's no reason why you can't seal the non-epic floor. Plenty of companies seal silicone impregnated nylon.
Seriously, why not seal the floor and the pole pockets? And, if you can't do that, even though every other tent company can, why don't you build the seams so that they can easily be sealed at home with fabrics that the silicone seam sealer that you provide will actually stick to?
7 Aug 2009, 3:53PM
Hey Clyde,
You only need to seal the exterior seams.
Thanks,
JP
7 Aug 2009, 3:53AM
I recently got a Guiding Light, I've used the sealer on the outside seams, should I also use it on the interior?
Thanks
6 Aug 2009, 7:25AM
I think its perfectly okay to seal the tents myself.
You get to know your tent better and it doesn`t take that long.
Perhaps black diamond could offer a special sealing service for those who really want to throw their money at it. But please keep the unsealed silicone tents for those who dont got the money.