Originally Posted by Blackberry
Any recs on a groundsheet? I just hunted all over Lowe's and all I could find was a plastic painters drop cloth that I could cut to size. It was cheap, but it seemed pretty flimsly.
I use a sheet of 2 mil polyethylene. Its available at home improvement/hardware stores. Usually you can find plastic sheeting near the window screens or paint sections. Painter's plastic is too thin to use as a ground cloth. I cut mine about 2 inches shorter than the tent to keep water from running underneath. One sheet usually lasts a season, but I'll throw the sheet out if it rained all weekend and I don't want to deal with a wet ground cloth when I break camp.
Only downside of using plastic sheeting is that the floor of the tent tends to slip under it. I don't know if this will be an issue with small tents, but with my 6 person dome tent it can be a problem.
I bought a new backpacking tent this winter and purchased the ground cloth designed to fit it. I'll see if I like using it better than plastic sheeting.
Michael