Water damage, the good the bad and other upgrades

[shadow]

When I bought my rv a couple of months ago, I was told that the roof had been resealed, but when I was on the roof replacing a broken vent with a fantastic fan, I noticed that the roof had not been resealed for a very long time. When I started looking around I saw that the roof had separated from the front of the rv. One of many lies that the previous owner told me. It also explains why I could smell a musty smell in the rv.

Now the good part, sort of. The over cab part of my rv is fiberglass, so the water that got inside (and there was a lot) couldn`t rot out the whole over head bed area. So, I started carefully taking everything a part, and once I got the top layer of wood removed the damage was very apparent. There was foam board insulation on the right and left sides of the bed area, its in like new condition and reusable.

In the center was fiberglass insulation, and it was soaking wet. With the foam board and fiberglass insulation removed the damage was exposed, and its bad, but not as bad as some that I have seen on youtube. There was originally a bottom layer of half inch plywood, but its beyond destroyed, I was using a screw driver to remove it in pieces. The frame support on top of the plywood is still solid and intact from what I have seen so far.

Below what was left of the plywood was an inch of standing water, so I got some old bath towels in there to soak up the water.
I am still in the demolition phase and only have the weekends to work on it, but I`m in no hurry.

 

[BradKW]

Don't know how hard it is to remove that damaged perimeter wood, but once it dries out you might keep wood restorer products in mind. I think they are basically a thin epoxy that will absorb into rotted wood...I've had occation to use it in the past and been surprised how functional the results were...

 

[LoupGarou]

Nasty!

It may be salvageable, but it depends on your skill set, tools available and wither you have a place to work on it.

A Kreg Pocket Hole Jig and some marine grade plywood may be all that's needed.

A Moisture Meter is a must when purchasing a used RV.

 

[djkeev]

Sometimes in fiberglass construction, the wood is the source of structural strength.
The fiberglass is actually molded around the wood bonding all into one unit.

It can be extremely diffucult to remove the old wood and install new wood without sacrificing structural strength.

This is why some nice looking boats become trash, the main wood structure inside the fiberglass rotted away.

Figure out what you have and how to rebuild it so as not to have future sagging and cracking issues.

Dave

 

[cyndi]

Wow! That looks bad! I'm glad you have the time to work on it!

 

[shadow]

Sometimes in fiberglass construction, the wood is the source of structural strength.
The fiberglass is actually molded around the wood bonding all into one unit.

It can be extremely diffucult to remove the old wood and install new wood without sacrificing structural strength.

This is why some nice looking boats become trash, the main wood structure inside the fiberglass rotted away.

Figure out what you have and how to rebuild it so as not to have future sagging and cracking issues.

Dave

I still have more demolition to do, but so far the wood structure is separate from the nose cap.

 

[Matlock]

If the window and marker light caulking hasn't been redone then that's one of the first places I'd look. You might consider pulling out one of the front windows and reseal/caulk it before you get into the finish work inside. If one window is leaking then they all need looked at. If they didn't reseal the roof then you can guess that no exterior water sealing was done.

Just my ol 2¢

 

[Almost There]

I wouldn't just consider it, I'd pull ALL the windows and all the marker lights and reinstall them with fresh caulking.

I can't begin to tell you how many fiberglass RV's I've seen in parks and dealerships, and you can stand there and see the delamination going on at tail lights/marker lights/window edges, etc. etc. A lot of owners have the roof work done and then can't figure out where the rot is coming from because they didn't realize that EVERY opening is a possible source of penetration.

 

[Gary68]

eww,somebody has some work to do,on the marker lights,you should be able to find new gaskets

 

[shadow]

All of the windows need to be resealed, and all of the marker lights need to be replaced, that`s the main priority right now.
I only have the weekends to work on it, and its been raining here for over a week. If its not raining this weekend I`m going to
try and get as many windows as I can resealed.

I wish I had a place to park the rv out of the weather to work on it, but I don`t.

 

[gargoyle]

Never buy a smelly RV, unless you want to repair it.

Get a big tarp and cover it. It will help keep any more rain out.

 

[VanKitten]

I expect to have some water damage too. One big advantage I will have is that this is the high desert. I have no problem finding dry to work in....when it rains here, it often doesn't even reach the ground before evaporation!

Please keep posting pictures as you do the gutting. I want to see everything you do, you will be my guide as a I begin the same process.

RV is expected to arrive here before Nov. 1! Yea!

 

[shadow]

I will be posting more pictures as the demolition progresses, but I am taking my time because I am not a carpenter and have never done anything like this before. But so far I havn`t run into any problems that I can`t fix or figure out.

 

[vsession]

It's looking too familiar! 

Here a thread about my repair of my old Class C:
https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-Water-infiltration-Class-C-overhead-repair

 
Make sure it's very dry before rebuilding and do some water test before closing all that. I had no experience at all with carpentry and it was not hard to do. Good luck.

 

[shadow]

Just a quick update.

I found a really good deal on ebay for led clearance lights, so I ordered 8 new led amber clearance lights for
just under $20.00 dollars, wish free shipping.

 

[Matlock]

Just a quick update.


"wish free shipping".

I know what ya meant but still seems appropriate for lots of things these days.

 

[shadow]

It should have said, with free shipping.

 

[shadow]

Another update.

I am almost done with the demo work. I also thought I had all of the leaks seal up, but I didn`t. After a good rain Friday night I found an inch of water in the bed area Saturday morning. So after more looking around trying to figure out were the water is still coming from, I found that the front marker lights were leaking a little, so I resealed all of them.

Still looking for any other leaks, I also found that the front window seals are bad and also leaking. My rv has two front windows, and the windows are plastic or some type of plexiglass, and were the end of the rubber window seals come together, they have separated from age. So I filled the gap with silicone to stop the leak. This is a temporary fix to get me by for now. They will be properly fixed as soon as I can afford to have it done.

Then I went up on the roof and replaced a broken plumbing vent cap, and then spent the next four plus hours sealing the roof, until I ran out of Dicor, so I need to order some more.

 

[shadow]

Here are some more pictures to show the progress.

This is the right side with the paneling removed. The frame you see around the foam board is not wood, its two by two
steel frame. What sucks is the paneling was glued to the steel frame. 

Here you can see were the front window was leaking.

This is the last piece of paneling I have to remove on the left side.

Then I have to remove this frame work so I can clean it, repair it, and put it back in place.

That`s it for now, more to come.

 

[LoupGarou]

RV windows have water weep holes in the tracks. Make sure their clear of dirt and free to drain.