Do you tent camp? If so, the following three questions will help you quickly determine if the HS Ground Cloth is something you would appreciate.
eiPie Innovations has a patent on the HS Ground Cloth for use under camping tents. What made the HS Ground Cloth patentable? It is unique. It has holes. Lots of tiny holes (~10,000 per square meter).
Conventional wisdom says a ground cloth should be waterproof. Many campers, however, have had the unfortunate experience of having water collect between the ground cloth and the tent bottom, and then discover that their tent bottom was something less than waterproof.
A ground cloth should certainly be made from a durable, lightweight, easy-to-clean material that will protect your tent from dirt and abrasion. The HS Ground Cloth is that, and does that. It is made from reinforced polyethylene (like most typical tarps), so it is durable, lightweight, and easy to wipe clean. It will protect your tent bottom from dirt and abrasion. Unlike a standard tarp, however, the HS Ground Cloth incorporates tiny holes that serve to drain away water that gets between the tent bottom and the ground cloth.
The holes are about 0.5mm in diameter and arranged in an overlapping hexagonal pattern with roughly 10mm between holes. The total hole area for a 5 ½ foot by 7 foot ground cloth adds up to approximately 7 square inches, significantly less than the area exposed when the ground cloth is under-cut even just one inch around the perimeter of that same tent footprint (300 square inches). However, there is one warning: The HS Ground Cloth is not advised for any campers that like to pitch their tent on top of standing water.
(assumes 6’ x 8’ tent bottom):
Unfortunately, the HS Ground Cloth is not presently in production. While sales were slow from a production test run (likely due to poor marketing on the part of eiPie Innovations), all available material has been sold. So what must be done to have a chance to put an HS Ground Cloth under your tent? Send us an email to let us know your interested.