Here's a Quick Way to Fix a Leaking Tent

Unfortunately, tents can leak.

There’s nothing quite like a lot of soggy clothes to dampen your spirits. 😉

before you get cross or throw the tent out, it might be a really easy problem to fix

If you’ve bought a budget tent where perhaps quality wasn’t top-notch, you might not be surprised to get the odd damp patch. But what if you bought a really expensive tent from a brand with a reputation for high quality? You’d be pretty upset.

But before you get cross or throw the tent out, it might be a really easy problem to fix.

Are you sure your tent leaks?

If you’ve woken up with a puddle in your tent, as we did recently, it’s not very nice.

We spent an entire morning taking everything out of the tent and drying things, and I was very concerned when a bag containing camera equipment was sitting in a puddle an inch deep.

just because your tent is full of water, it might not be because of a leak

Yes, it can even happen to experienced campers. ;-)

But just because your tent is full of water, you may be surprised to learn that your tent might not be leaking.

Here are some common reasons for water getting into your tent.

1. Condensation

It’s not uncommon to wake up in the morning with condensation inside your tent.

When we sleep, we exhale moisture. When that warm moisture hits the cold walls of the tent, the moisture turns to water.

This is particularly noticeable in polyester tents and can be made worse if you use something like a kettle inside your tent.

If you have wet shoes, leave them outside under the awning or porch. Wet coats and clothes can also cause condensation.

Condensation can sometimes be seen hanging from the ceiling of your tent. This isn’t the roof leaking.

Condensation may also run down the sides of your tent and create pools of water on the floor. This isn’t your tent leaking.

2. Bad Weather

Of course, you want your tent to protect you from the weather, but has your tent been designed for the weather you’re experiencing?

One factor is the Hydrostatic Head rating of your tent’s fabric.

We’ve experienced really heavy rain in a tent with a low Hydrostatic Head where it appeared the water was forced through the microscopic holes in the weave of the polyester fabric, creating a fine mist in the tent that made everything damp. Whether that was it, or whether it was just condensation on the tent being shaken off the walls by the wind, I can't say for sure. But even in a tent that doesn't leak, things can still get wet.

And talking of wind, another thing you typically get with bad weather is stronger winds.

These can lift flaps that keep rainwater away from zips and other openings, such as mesh windows.

In extreme cases, we've put a spare tarp over openings that get a lashing from wind and rain in a storm.

3. Don’t touch the sides (Polycotton Tents)

The sides of the tent can become damp in bad weather. Anything touching the sides of the tent can cause water to seep through. This is most likely to be the case with polycotton tents.

It is easier said than done sometimes. It happened to us recently, too: the wind was really strong, and we didn’t realise the sides of the tent were pushed against some of our bags. By morning our tent had an indoor pool!

An easy mistake that can happen to any of us.

4. Insufficient Weathering (Especially Polycotton Tents)

This may surprise you, but did you know you should wet your new tent before camping? Let me explain….

There will likely be a few areas on the tent where stitching goes through your tent's fabric. You’ll typically see this where the door zips are attached to the tent.

These small stitching holes could let in water, so manufacturers use a thread that expands when wet. The thread will then dry a little thicker than when it was stitched in the factory, sealing the tiny hole.

Your tent may need a few repeat attempts at getting wet before all the thread swells and fills the holes.

This process is known as weathering.

Remember when you tested pitching your tent in the back garden (you did, didn’t you)?

Ideally, you sprayed it with water to test for leaks.

On polyester tents, any stitching threads should have sealed immediately.

If you have a polycotton tent, depending on how narrow the weave is, you may have noticed some water inside the fabric. Your tent must undergo several wetting and drying cycles to expand and fill the weave.

But it’s none of those! My tent still leaks!!!

Unfortunately, in that case, you might have a real leak in the tent.

Just a small amount of water can build over time in bad weather. So let’s get it fixed…

It’s probably the seams!

The most common cause for leaks in tents is where water comes in through the seams.

The seam is where one piece of tent material is stitched against another.

the fix could cost you less than a fiver

Sometimes you can see a sewing defect. Sometimes it’s on a joint, and the wind has weakened the seam’s stitching. Sometimes the problem’s so small you can’t see what it is.

However, there is usually a cheap solution that could cost you less than a fiver...

How to seal your tent’s seams

When testing a tent for Camping World, we found that the thread in the stitching holes wasn’t sealing up, despite a lot of weathering (and believe me….we had a lot of weathering!).

The tent was a summer tent, but we had taken it out in bad weather in March…..after all, we wanted to give it a really good test!

It wasn’t a lot of water coming in, but it was an issue that needed to be sorted.

Camping World sent us some Outwell Seam Guard, which can be a quick and simple way to fix a leaking tent.

Here’s a video on applying the seam sealant and how we got on with the Outwell Seam Guard.

So as you can see, applying the seam sealant was fairly straightforward, even if I didn’t do a great job the first time.

Eventually, though, I sealed all the little holes, and the leak stopped.

I’m not sure how well my repair will last in heavy rain, but the seams remained dry after a good old soak with the garden hose, whereas before, it let in water immediately.

If it does leak again in future, the fix is really simple to reapply.

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