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Easiest method for water proofing seams on roof

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audreylen27

New member
My husband and I are making our own vinyl roof for our 30 ft. yurt. Need to know if we could use a simple method to waterproof seams. Thought of Gorilla Tape. Hoping not to use a heavy duty sewing machine. We live in Mountains of Sylva, NC. HELP
 
My first thought would be roof caulk? Something in this direction: Loctite PL S30 10 fl. oz. Black Polyurethane Roof and Flashing Sealant-1675273 - The Home Depot

I work in exterior construction, and we use it to seal any holes or exposed nails in roofs, so i've only ever used it for sealing small spots, but it might be worth a try. Otherwise, for longer seams and protrusions through vinyl siding, we use outdoor rated silicone caulk but that is usually on side walls, not roofs.
 
if you did use a sewing machine, be sure to use a composite thread of both plastic/cotton thread.

just plastic thread will cut through the cover creating tiny holes along seams, just cotton thread not strong enough.

plastic thread wrapped with cotton thread gives combo of strength and not cutting through cover under tension.


if you want to just glue, using Vinyl is handy, as there are some industrial strength super glues that literally melt the plastic together via chemical reaction (you can sometimes see smoke / fumes as its glued).

when assembling pieces of vinyl for gluing, it important to figure layout so that when finished cover on yurt, there are no upward facing seams for water to run into, in the event glued seam separates a bit (think roof tiles and how rain-water runs over tops).

hope that helps. perhaps somone can suggest a super-duper strength glue for melting vinyl together :)
 
We are sewing our roof seams with something called venture tape, a double sided tape that is sold by sailmakers. As recommended by a friend who does sew a lot of yurt canvases, this should help with the seam sealing. I have seen it in widths of 6mm-500mm. As it wouldn't add much thickness to the seam I guess a non-industrial sewing machine could handle it.

A product description says:
'Venture Tape is the premier double-sided tape for the sailmaking and cover making industries. polyester film is coated on both sides with an ultra high peel acrylic adhesive which is designed to adhere immediately to most types of sail cloth and canvas. It is virtually non yellowing and resists most strains of mildew.'

The glue melting plastic sounds pretty solid though! No holes...
 
just thinking, one aspect that might effect the water tightness (if glued) might be the process of packing and unpacking, rolling and unrolling.

glued joints (of any kind) are not really designed to be flexible.
but im sure it would be fine for quite a few moves before this becomes a potential issue. not had much experience with this one so just guessing
 
If it is vinyl then I'd look to using a chemical weld like H-66 or the like. You should be able to go to the 3M website and type in the exact material needing bonded and it will usually come up with a good recommendation. Or the manufacturer of the material is another great primary source. I wouldn't risk getting the wrong info - there's nothing quite as sour as a leaky yurt ;)

Aloha,
Melissa
 
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