I have a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight tent. It hasn’t been used in probably ten years. Stored rolled up.
Opened it up today and it’s still in marvelous shape, but the floor interior has a bit of stickiness to it.
Any ideas on how to get rid of this effect while doing no damage to the tent floor?
Thanks to all.

Unscented talc or baby powder

Urethane coating degrading perhaps.

Urethane coating degrading perhaps.

I agree with deerfoot that the cause is probably the urethane coating degrading after this length of time. The fix for that problem is removal of the degraded coating and application of a new coating, plus sealing the floor seams.

There are abundant YouTube videos about this topic. Outdoors equipment vendors sell the wash and application for the coating and also the seam sealant.

Alternatively you could try hanging it dry for a week and see if that fixes it. I find airing out cures a lot of ills.

Be sure to not store your tents in a hot environment. Heat in the garage or attic is a common cause for the coating degradation that leads to "stickiness".

This will eventually occur with all PU coated fabrics. Proper care and storage can prolong the service life of PU coated fabrics but once the chemical breakdown is noticeable there is no practical way to restore the waterproofness. This is one of my favorite articles regarding tent fabric waterproof coatings.

Tomcat: "This will eventually occur with all PU coated fabrics. Proper care and storage can prolong the service life of PU coated fabrics but once the chemical breakdown is noticeable there is no practical way to restore the waterproofness. This is one of my favorite articles regarding tent fabric waterproof coatings."

Nice article - explains a lot. Thanks for posting.

I have discarded several tents after many years of use when this problem started. I did scrub the floor of one floor and i greatly lessened the problem but only temporarily. I storage my tents in the basement which is always cool and dry. And they seem to last for decades.