Hi we recently bought and tidied up a pennine pullman, the canvas had mildew on it that we treated with a very weak solution of milton, then rinsed thoroughly, then when it had dried out we sealed it with fabsil.
Whilst in Derbyshire in the rain recently it rained and the canvas felt damp to the touch on the inside but no water actually dripped through at all. OH is planning to add another coat of fabsil, should one more coat sort it do you think?
I think all canvas feels damp on the inside when its wet doesn't it? Its best not to touch it as you'll encourage the water to collect at that point and start to drip in.
Last year we bought a Pathfinder that had mouse damage on the canvas (chewed and peed on). The original plan was to pay for a new canvas but the waiting times were so long we decided to try patching, cleaning and waterproofing it. We had nothing to lose. We patched the hole with Tear Aid but I didn't apply it properly so we've since replaced that with Tenacious Tape.
We scrubbed the urine stains with warm soapy water (Lux flakes) - inside and out. Rinsed it thoroughly 5 times letting it dry in between. I applied two coats of Fabsil to the whole thing to start with but the patches where we'd used the soap still leaked. I was knackered and had bruises from days of leaning on ladder steps by then so from then on I just treated the patches from inside. In total, it took 5 coats of Fabsil to make those patches waterproof but then they withstood several days of torrential rain last summer and there are still no leaks this year. There are visible tidemarks but only if you're looking from above and I cared more about being dry than pretty! We saved ourselves about a thousand quid I think.
Hi I use Thompson's water proofer or shops own silicone water proofer on mine as I have mentioned elsewhere on the message boards it's only around £10.00 for a 5 litre tin , also worth remembering, is that it can be applied from inside or out but make sure your well ventilated for fumes which ever product you chose to use, till it has thoroughly dried out....just a thought!
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Topic: waterproofing a pennine
