Ice Shelter - Pop-Up - Flooring

[Zoob]

Background :

I have the Clam Expedition. Worked just fine for warming up, keeping the wind out of my skin, and cozy while fishing on the lake last year.

The Problem:

With my portable heater inside it - and no flooring - it'd warm it up, and create condensation all up in the tent. Even with the vents open, door cracked - it'd condensate on the poles, on the roof. Start raining on me. When I left, it'd freeze into frost all on the walls and roof and make for even more fun the next time I went in and that frost melted and rained and dripped on everything.

The Solution / Question:

I suspect that if I were to get a floor for the pop-up tent/shelter, it'd help reduce a lot of the thermal melt (the snow and ice i set it on, melting/evaporating). I went to Clam's HSOforum, and while their pop-ups say they sell floors as an accessory, I can't find them. Not even a little.

I got to thinking that maybe I could *make* a floor for this. Some PVC for runners, light plywood for a floor, or maybe just simply a tarp of some kind with holes cut for the ice holes. I'm not really sure.

So that's why I'm posting - for ideas. I'd really like to put a floor underneath my shelter (I don't move around much at all during the year, it stays put) - and I'd like to get some sort of flooring going to help trap the heat, keep the heat from melting the snow/ice underfoot and creating a wintry rain forest inside my popup. I've thought about tarp, plywood, etc - and I would want to take into consideration something that would be easy to remove, in case it froze in (put it on wood blocks/runners?)

Bulk/unweildness isn't that big of an issue. I live right on the lake I fish, right on the shoreline. It's literally dragging it out of my backyard to the ice and to the spot it'll stay most of the year.

Heck - I even thought about buying one of those plastic sheds at FleetFarm and dragging it out there. :-) So.....ideas? Help? Pointers to websites that actually DO sell floors?

[Ed Carlson]

Rubber matting, and a portable fan to circulate the air from top to bottom.

Thin rubber Mats are easy to stow, adaptable to your needs from outing to outing, will not absorb water and freeze, cost effective in bulk per foot.

Don't allow the heater to make a slough and generate undue humidity inside the hub.

Keep the heater on a rubber mat, or a milk crate.

[MJ1657]

I'm building a floor out of 1x2's and plywood that will fold in half. I am going to put that light weight indoor outdoor carpeting on it.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Correct me if I am wrong.. But one of the products of burning propane is condensation. by putting a floor in you may help, but you will not get rid of the problem. Just my .02$

[slipperybob]

Flooring helps. Does not reduce condensation but helps to retain heat in the shelter. In addition it makes for a nice spot for the chair and if you drop a jig on the flooring, it's really easy to find it.

[icekid10]

Correct me if I am wrong.. But one of the products of burning propane is condensation. by putting a floor in you may help, but you will not get rid of the problem. Just my .02$

If you burn anything you get co2 and water vapor

[McGurk]

Get a sheet of 3/8" or 1/2" plywood and 3) hinges (9 hinges if you do the last step) and whatever hardware you need to secure them. Draw a 4'x8' sketch on a piece of paper first, so you can see where I'm going with this. Cut off the top 2', so you are left with a 4'x6' pieces. Cut that in half the long way so you are left with 2) 2' x 6' piece. Plan to hinge it to fold onto itself to have a 4' by 6' panel. Lay it together and go to the next step.

Notch each corner 6" in along the 4' side (you should have 3' between your marks), and 12" along the 6' side (you should have 4' between your marks). Now you can still have a hole in each corner. You can stop here and hinge the two sides together, or go on to the next step.

Take your scrap from your first cut, and cut 2) 6" by 4' strips out of it. Then, hinge those on where the remaining side is 4' wide at the hole notch, too. You'll end up with a 5' by 6' panel, with 12" by 12" squares notched out at each corner. It will fold down to 2' by 6' for travel.

If you want it to fold up smaller only use 6) hinges, and cut 4) 2' by 3' pieces out of the original 4x8 sheet. Now pull out your board games from the closet and look for one that folds four pieces out to lay flat. Hinge it that way. You will still need to do the 6" by 12" notches for holes, and it will fold down to 2' by 3'.

[cold one sd]

I set my buddy heater on top of a milk crate to keep from turning the ice inside my popup into a bird bath. If I set it on the ice it gets too slippery for me. I do have a set of those mats that come in approximately 2'squares that lock together, but have never used them. It would be easy to cut a hole in them and drill your holes to match the holes in the mat.

[bogwalker]

No condensation with woodstove heat.

[Zoob]

The issue I get is the ice starts to melt a bit and condensate on the walls, the snow that I set the shelter on melts all away - from the heat of the heater (it is raised about 6 inches off the floor, on a wire frame stand thing I picked up for $1 at Target).

Besides the warm shelter turning the floor into a puddle and the condensate I'd like to cut down on -- the floor will be a boon, to help hold the heat, cut down on the melt/water vapor. I didn't even think that the heater itself might be a contributing factor to the problem - but I *do* know the small ice melt and snow melt is a huge problem. I think if I can get myself off the ice floor and on a normal built floor, the vents should be able to handle any H2O the heater pumps out from fuel burn.

I also had a problem last year of so much heat/melt, that the corners of the shelter and some of its skirt needed to be chiseled out of the ice when I was done with the fishing season.

McGurk - I really like your idea and I'll probably just use some scrap wood to notch up the corners to help prevent ice freeze. I've printed out your instructions, am gonna dig through the game cupboard for a 4-folder, and give that a whirl.

Thanks, everyone - for the advice and help. I believe I will just go with a folding plywood floor that I can drag out there, and figure something out to keep it a little elevated, or wax runners of some kind - to help prevent freezing to the ice.