How to Build a Tent

For camping enthusiasts and boy scouts, building your own tent can give a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that can't be found from using a store-bought tent. A tent can provide a camper with a sense of protection and safety from weather or wildlife, even if it is only made of canvas or cloth. Using just a few materials, you can quickly make a tent that will keep the rain off while still collapsing down to fit in a backpack.

Things You'll Need

  • Canvas sheet
  • Tent stakes
  • Silicone waterproofing spray
  • Plastic twine
  • Hammer
  • Grommets
  • Washers
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Instructions

    • 1

      Waterproof the canvas by applying silicone spray to the outside of it. The tarp should be approximately 10 feet wide by10 feet long. This should create a tent large enough to shelter two people. Make sure the canvas tarp you bring with you has metal grommets along its four edges.

    • 2

      Place the canvas flat on the ground three to four feet from the base of a tree with one corner pointing directly at the tree. This will be the setup site, so it should be flat with soft enough ground in which to drive the tent stakes.

    • 3

      Drive a wooden or metal tent stake through each grommet in the canvas except the one pointing at the tree.

    • 4

      Tie a length of plastic twine to the bottom of the tent stake furthest from the tree and pull the free end of the twine underneath the canvas toward the tree. Pull the twine through the grommet closest to the tree, and then loop the twine around a branch high enough to raise that corner of the tent to form the top ridge of the tent. Pull the twine tight and tie it around the tree trunk.