Kathmandu Lansan UL tent - super thin floor?

compare it to the fly, it should be thicker than the fly... again assuming its not an old model that was on sale and might have had a different spec

footprint is an american term american tents often have thin floors and need a footprint for rough ground. although, its hard to know with denier, sometimes what happens to save weight is the thread going one direction is one denier and the thread going another direction can be a thinner denier, if youre not sure about it, test it on a short trip first not all nylons are created equal. some are stronger than others.

A 70 denier tafetta floor rated to 10,000mm is about as robust as you can get in a 'tramping' tent. Most high end companies stop at 3000-5000mm and many stay down around 1500mm and use 20-30 denier fabrics. Footprints are designed to protect your floor, because damaged floors leak, once you have enough rain the water will get between the footprints and the floor anyhow, so they are not very effective for adding water resistance. Picking a well draining campsite goes a long way to staying dry, although this isn't always possible on popular tracks. But regardless, I've never had water come through any floor in 5000kms of tramping in 3 countries and I've never used anything over a hydrostatic head of 3000mm. I've heard decent things about Kathmandu tents as well, but if I were a betting man I would pick their weakness as seam-taping. I would recommend inspecting the seam tape quality in particular around areas that have velcro tabs or reinforcements as these are the usual weak spots. You can fix this easily by seam sealing on the other side of the seam, just make sure you have the correct sealer.

A mate had a Lansan (older version) and it's held up well in some heavy NZ weather. The fly sat a bit high off the ground so, for tops travel, he stitched storm-flaps along the bottom. For a groundsheet, make your own - tyvek house wrap (get an offcut from a builder) works well - tough, lightweight and cheap. edit : fixed typo

Waynowski it’s being tested briefly this weekend so we shall see how we go! I’ll check the fly : floor comparison when it’s next up for sure. Thanks for your help Jmeyer that’s good to hear, thank you. And thanks for the tips re the seams, I’ll be inspecting them next time they’re up! BernieQ that’s a much more appealing option then laying $100+ for one! I’ll see how we go without it this first time round and if I’m still feeling unsure I’ll take your advice and make one myself!

This might be a little off topic but can you use that spray on stuff (Grangers, or Nikwax I think are the brands) on the floor of a tent to increase its waterproof-ness? My ~10 year old Macpack Macrolight has just started letting moisture through the floor... set up on damp grass and after 30 minutes-1 hour lying on the floor you'll be wet, very frustrating!

I wouldnt hold out much hope for the effectiveness of spray proofing a rent floor - given the high contact with the ground and the degree of wear and tear it would face. If you try anything along these line tho - Gecko Guard would be the most effective - it grunty stuff sold by Earth Sea Sky (no affiliation). The imported stuff legally cant be as strong as Gecko Guard which is made in NZ. https://www.bivouac.co.nz/earth-sea-sky-gecko-guard.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlOH7mNGq3wIV0BwrCh2jEgoGEAYYASABEgLmGPD_BwE

Similar to bernieq, take a look at cutting a piece of frost cloth at the Red Shed or hardware stores ?.

Kathmandu's tents are pretty good, despite what waynowski claims they are high quality tents. What they don't have is super light weight tramper tents. In general they don't have many products for knowledgeable trampers.

Is frost cloth waterproof, proactive? As a groundsheet, it's a bit thin (my local stuff is 35gsm), I think. Tyvek is 61gsm (so a 'average' groundsheet will weight around 160g) and it's a water barrier.