A Shelter With All the Trimmings: Turning Rectangular Tarp into a Square Tarp

There is nothing like the great outdoors. The fresh air, open sky, nature sounds, and sun rays. However, on the other side of the coin there is nothing as bad as the great outdoors. Rainstorms, high winds, blizzards, aggressive wildlife, even those sun rays can turn into a problem after a while. It is times like these when we “seek shelter”.

Now what is shelter? The Webster Dictionary defines it as “something that covers or affords protection.” About what common sense would tell you. Shelter is also considered the first priority with the Wilderness Survival Rules of 3, only after air. Shelter is so ingrained into to us that even as children we like to build forts inside the house. Even something as simple as a patio umbrella is a type of shelter, for those pesky sun rays.

Although, not all shelters are made the same, History shows us this. First we had the cavemen who lived in, well, caves. The good side is they don’t require any energy to set up. Most can keep you dry from rain and possibly wind-shielded. Although very basic, they aren’t too bad, the biggest downside is that no two are the same which means you can’t really have a standard. Also they are very bad to heat with a fire because of the size.

From there the most common would be thatch roof huts, these would mostly keep the sun off of you in the coastal areas and the rain from coming down. Plus the thatching would keep it from overheating and allow some airflow. The downside is that it would have to be replaced often. Plus it wouldn’t be very structurally strong.

A little more inland and closer toward the equator, you find clay made houses. The adobe or wattle & daub is a staple of the area. Building a house from ground can have advantages and disadvantages. To start with they can control ventilation and drafts better and can be assembled with only sticks and mud. Even a fire can be used inside. Disadvantages are that the roof can be a little poor in my opinion, plus it can take a lot of material, time, and energy to make this work. Primitive Technology: Wattle and Daub Hut has a great example of this.

In the American plains or steppes of Central Asia we find tepees and yurts, respectively. Constructed of animal skins and log poles, these shelters were great for the plains Indians and their nomadic ways. Following the buffalo as they did, they needed shelters that could move around without making new ones every time. They were able to put these up and down in an hour. Also they could have a cooking fire in them and be lived in year round. The biggest disadvantage that I’ve heard comes from Dave Canterbury on his journal of the yurt. He talked about how they needed conveyance to use them because they did have a lot of weight. You would need a horse or ATV to move the parts around, plus the long poles would prevent you from setting it up in a non plains area. Dave Canterbury has lived in both of these. You can find their playlist on "Wildernessoutfitters" as "Diary of the Tipi" and "Journal of the Yurt"

Lastly in the high latitudes we find log cabins or log shelters. These are often still used by modern homesteaders or hunters for their simplicity and ease of being taken from the surrounding area with only special joints and tar. This provides the most insulation from all the other materials and even adds a floor to help with conduction insulation. A fire can be placed inside for warmth and cooking. Even a second floor can be placed for storage or sleeping area. The disadvantage is again time, energy, and resources. You could possibly have to pull material from quite a ways away from the building site.     

Now you can’t just carry around a log cabin in your back pocket at all times, but there are other ways to get your shelter needs combining all of these traits from above. Most camps were made with oil cloth or canvas back in the early days of America. Most reenactors like to use these and bushcrafters do too. However with the advancement in the oil based products, tarps can be a much better fit. The weight stays about the same, they don’t need reapplications of water protection, and they are pretty cheap. The disadvantage is that square covers are better than rectangles because there are more set ups or configuration you can do, but that another blog.

You can spend a lot of time trying to find tarps in this size. However I’ll save ya some time. You can’t find them, at least currently. And when you do they won’t be cheap. However y’all know I’m not gonna leave you out in the wind. It took me some time, but I think I figured out how to turn the Walmart rectangle tarps into a square tarp.

Okay I know it doesn’t sound that hard or complicated, but I have never seen anyone else do it. If all you have available to you is one of these blue tarps then it’s best to work with it. Now I’m sure someone could just read this part and say ok run off and get a tarp and do this, but keep reading on, there are a few tips you need first. To start remember square, a square tarp will serve you better in the long term no matter what due to the amount of set ups, it can perform. On the flip side rectangles can do some and maybe give you some added length however, anything a rectangle can do and square can do better. So when buying a tarp pay attention to size. Now talking about size, between 6-10 feet is the limits with 7 being the sweet spot and 8 being the runner up.

So don’t pick up that cheap 6’ x 8’ but instead 8’ x 10’. Now, next is the quality. I chose the cheap blue one to test. It could probably last about a year or two depending on use, but the brown ones you might even get 3 or 4 years out of them. I’ll be trying one of them someday but not in this blog.

So before you go and a buy your stuff also make sure you have the following. A pair of fabric scissors, you could probably work with something cheap but they cut better and smoother cut make the tarp look better. Next some sort of measuring stick, I used a cloth measuring tape. Better choices could’ve and should’ve been made. I would recommend a meter or yard stick. Also some sort of sharpie or marker will be needed to draw. A pencil or pen won’t cut it. Lastly some sort of lighter or open flame device. This will be needed to melt the new edge so that the material won’t rip or fray. After putting this much work in don’t skip this step. After that we’ll want to put grommets in it.You want the bigger ones and you can get this at Walmart too. Go with the metal ones. Lastly something that can help is some stakes to keep the tarp nice and tight, no mistakes.

As you are measuring it out, make sure you know that the 8’ side won’t be 8’ exact. You’ll want to get them as close as you can down to the inch if possible. The more accurate you are here, the more mistakes you can make during the cut and burn. After you have your 8’ side measured you’ll want to measure it on the 10’ side. I had some 4x4 lying around and I used that to keep my measurement line straight. But the yard stick would work well too. Now while measuring you want to make sure you have measured both side and made marks. Then in the middle and make a mark, then the middle between those as well.

In the end you should have 5 marks each with about 2’ of space. After your marks, connect them with the straightest lines possible. The yard stick will come in hand at this point. Measure again and prepare for the cut.

Now on to the cutting, cutting it like you would fabric is the best way; again the reason for recommending the fabric scissors. Cutting it with snips makes it more uneven than slide cutting. Also you could stake it out at this point to really get that crisp edge, but it will lose its tightness as you cut. Afterwards move on to the burning. The key is to not actually touch the flame to it but close enough to singe the material. You could do this real well with a soldering iron, but I didn’t think of this until after I did it. any mistake can be fixed with a little duct tape or cargo tape.

Once complete, mark out the spots for your new grommets. I like to mark the spot with an x. You want to make sure that there is enough material there that it won’t tear out. The location for each should mirror the other side. If you have to move it a little due to problem spots with the tarp that’s fine, an inch or two should not make much of a difference. The most important are the two that will go in the corners. I like to cut the x just enough that the grommets come through but are still tight. The seal it.

 I hope this helps you all save some time and money. While you maybe able to find a square tarp online, with this tutorial you can take your survival into your own hands. Next week will be going over some tarp set ups, I mentioned before. And I'll show you some simple knots to tie them all together. Trust me you won't want to miss out. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.