What’s the best material to use for waterproofing a survival shelter?

A good question as choosing the right material could mean the difference between a good night sleep and waking up every 20 minutes to sort out the small puddle forming under your bed.

The answer depends mostly on where you are in the world as certain climates or areas only have one option available, such as spruce bows in Siberia or reeds in desert areas, but if your in a more temperate climate you’ve normally got several options.

Option 1 – Grass
This is normally the worst option as it doesn’t generally last for very long, shrinking and splitting when it dries, and you also need a huge quantity of it to make your shelter completely water proof which would require some kind of harvesting tool, so stay away from this unless your making a tent in the middle of an endless grassy plain.

Option 2 – Reed’s
Anything too thick should be avoided, such as cat-tails as you probably wont find enough of them and gathering them also means getting wet. The thinner straw coloured reeds have often been used in the past to thatch round and long houses and do a good job of keeping off the rain. The only down side is that it takes a very long time to tie all the bundles together and unless your building a long term shelter its not worth the effort. It also means you will need a lot of string or some kind of cordage to make the bundles, which will add a huge amount of time to building the shelter.

Option 3 – Leaves
These make one of the best options for smaller shelters and if your building at the right time of the year in woodland the ground should be covered in as many as you can be bothered to pickup. The best way is to use a blanket or some kind of sheet, pile them all up into the middle and drop them on your shelter starting at the bottom. They should settle on their own and act as countless tiny roof tiles, and providing the layer is thick enough it will be completely water and wind proof. If you do choose this option it’s often worth laying a few extra branches on the outside to the leaves just to keep them all in place.

Option 4 – Sticks and branch’s
The only way to make a water proof shelter out of branch’s alone is to find hundreds of straight ones and lay them in a thick layer at a steep enough angle as to make sure the rain runs down them before it drips off into the shelter. This option is only really practical if you happen to be in an area where there are thousands of easily gatherable straight sticks, such as a willow copse.

Options 5 – spruce
Should you be in an area with an abundance of spruce branch’s your in luck when it comes to shelter building. The strong needles make up a good amount of volume to block wind and rain and work as an excellent base to add other materials on top. Should you be stuck somewhere that’s very cold, an under layer of spruce branch’s with a layer of snow on top makes for a snug place to sleep, just make sure your careful with how big your fire gets as you’ll get dripped on during the night.

Option 6 – Moss
Certain types of moss such as sphagnum grows in huge clumps and often carpets the floor of the woodland its in. It can be easily cut or ripped into mats and layered on the outside of the shelter like a piece of lawn turf. It isn’t water proof though and acts as a giant sponge, but does an excellent job of blocking the wind and so makes a good choice to block any areas below your sleeping level that don’t need to be water proof.