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Hi My first post here but have been reading messages for a little while.

We have just brought our first tent, second hand from my sister in laws neighbour. We have 4 year old twins and where looking for a good way  to get away locally for the weekend. The tent we brought was a Wynnster Hawk 6. We paid £50 on the provision it was all sound.

We decided to do a few trial runs in our garden before we attempted a real live campsite and so on Saturday we pitched our tent in our friends garden and camped for the first time..LOL! The boys loved it and where so excited woke at 4.30am with the dawn chorus (I hope that improves!). We did try the bank holiday weekend in our garden but due to freak storm conditions we abandoned our camping in our garden but at least we knew it was waterproof.

The sunday was quite hot, so we decided to leave the tent up and come back when cooler to take it down, Plus we could get some measurements for groundsheets etc. My husband has gone to take the tent down tonight only to find that our friends neighbour treated their fence with wood preserver on sunday afternoon and has covered our tent with a fine mist of treatment. Our lovely new (second hand) tent is now covered in a mass of brown spots and blotches.

We brought the tent to try, it was a good tent and was well looked after. We wont get another tent in that quality for that price. My husband is going to see them tomorrow to "talk" about what has happened. The neighbour is claiming he didnt see the tent, though I have pictures of our first camping trip (sad I know!!!) which show our tent is clearly visible above the line of the fence. They must have known it was there.

Does anyone know what wood preserver does to tents? Would it effect the waterproofness of the tent? Can we claim on their insurance? I wonder how we stand because we only paid £50?

I have been avidly reading all the posts on here. Have learnt alot and was looking forward to planning our first live trip but feel all upset now!

Many Thanks in advance for any replies.

Sorry to hear about your problem. Most fence preservatives are water based & if not allowed to soak in usually wash off surface after a while. If the waterproofing on your newly acquired tent is good, i would have thought that it would not penetrate into the material, & should wash off in time. (i have spilt some fence preservative on my jeans & it has washed out after a couple of washes).

All the best with it & hope you enjoy your camping

Oh what a shame. The best thing you can do is to put the tent up again and get a hose on it, or wait for rain, to see if it leaks. don't try to wash the stains off with any sort of detergent though, that will certainly ruin it. it may still be okay, even if it is stained.

don't tell them you only paid £50 for it, tell them how much a new one will cost to replace it. Tell them you have booked your holidays, and the campsite  and how the kids and you are going to be so disappointed .

i doubt they will claim it off their house insurance though, as the excess will probably be about a £100, which they will possibly have to pay up front, before any claim is paid out. . How inconsiderate of them. Your friends garden lawn/plants must have been sprayed with the stuff too.

I do hope that the tent is salvageable, and that the neighbour is the sort you can get some sort of compensation from.

 Wood preservative should not damage the tent material. If it does not wash out it may fade over time. If you try to clean it off be sure to re-waterproof the fabric before using it on holiday. I don't want to get into the insurance issue. If you can still use it go ahead and tell the neighbour he/she owes you one. Then use this trial as another  reason to upgrade next year.

It may be an accident, most fence sprayers are rubbish. If not sue american style.

Get the hose pipe out see if it leaks ( Doubt it will ) let it dry and pack it away ready for first trip.  Don't worry about how it looks tents get covered in mud, bird muck, tree sap and anything else the world can throw at them.  Campsites are not cat walks as you will discover and a bit of variation just adds to the ambiance 

Have you tried Grangers Tent and Canvas Cleaner ? maybe give a little bit of it a go ?

I also fully concur with the above poster, campsites are defo not cat walks and a bit of staining here and there makes absolutley no difference at all.