I've salvaged a piece of Tyvek from a construction site, and I'm thinking about making it into a 5' x 9' tarp. I figure it will weigh about 10 oz. once I'm done. It occurred to me, however, that Tyvek might be susceptible to puncture from falling twigs or other bombs. Does anybody have experience with this?

Tyvek is incredibly durable. I highly doubt that falling twigs would puncture it. You will find it to be a very noisy tarp however.

It will make a great ground cloth. I would be more worried about the tie-down areas ripping in windy conditions than twigs falling on it. As Sam said, it is noisy stuff.

Edited by dwambaugh on 02/28/2007 09:43:05 MST.

I can't comment from experience, but Tyvek is regularly used for ground sheets. If it can handle that kind of long-term abuse, I wouldn't worry about punctures from falling twigs or anything else that isn't big enough to smash the tarp flat.

[Sorry, I didn't see the first two responses.]

Dale makes a good point about tearing. You might consider tying sheet bends in the corners rather than sewing it. This article has a lot more good info.

Edited by Otter on 02/28/2007 10:03:28 MST.

Matthew, the construction Tyvek is relatively heavy and bulky compared to the Tyvek used in disposable clothing. You might try to obtain enough fabric from dupont to fashion your tarp. I use disposable Tyvek pants for rain gear with great results. I don’t think a mere falling twig or pine cone will puncture this fabric.

You can buy the lighter, more flexible, and quieter version of Tyvek from kite parts suppliers. You can save a lot of freight if you tell them they can fold it. Kite makers want it wrinkle-free and it is shipped rolled in a tube-- and UPS oversize. You can find the lighter version on Ebay once in a while.

This would be another good item for BMW to add to their inventory. Sell it by the lineal foot.

You guys who work with Tyvek might want to check out this .PDF on sewing Tyvek: http://www.materialconcepts.com/pages/tyvek-sewing-instructions.pdf

I wrote a long article on the different types of Tyvek including weights and technical info. It's posted on hammockforums.net (down at the moment. moving to a new server)in the Articles section if you wanna check it out. Very informative.

Edited by headchange4u on 03/06/2007 09:51:43 MST.