Search the Community

I thought I'd start a thread on dealing with the bit of rot I discovered in the process of painting the interior of the RV. I had begun the painting process in the kitchen area and was working my way forward. I was due to head to my daughter's with the RV to stay and help her out for a few days after the birth of her 3rd and would be sleeping in the RV while parked in their yard. We have been having an extra wet winter here on Vancouver Island (and that's saying ALOT!). I had been investigating drip from the over cab vent and had been catching the drips with a basin. It was a slow drip and hard to pinpoint, but it didn't seem to be from the frame of the vent. Finally realized it was actually coming through where the rivets attach the plastic dome to the wind up mechanism. It dripped worse when the weather was windy as well as rainy. I checked under the mattress to see if it had gotten wet and found it to be quite damp. So, was removing it to take inside and dry out. After getting that awkward beast off the bunk, I noticed on the driver side of the bed platform that the wallboard wood look a bit warpy. On further investigation, it was downright rotten!! It is a fairly contained area, which I'm hoping is a good thing. The pictures below show the area with the damage/rot. The screws in the metal support right there are not holding anything. I have since taken it to a local RV repair place that was recommended to me by a friend. They were really helpful in showing me what had probably happened. The sealant was obviously pulled away from the trim and over time, it has gotten wet and rotted. They plan to peel back the fibreglass siding to get at it and replace the rotted area. The repair guy said as it was a Winnebago, it would have aluminium structure supports, making it easier to repair. They pointed out a few other areas where they could see that water would/could be getting in and said they could reseal the whole thing for me. They showed me around their shop where there were at least 6 other RVs being worked on. One was a 30 foot Class C Frontier with all the siding and windows stripped off. The owner was having the wiring redone, insulated and any areas of rot replaced. A huge job! It was a 1985! It made me feel slightly better about having to pay to have mine repaired. If it was cost efficient for the owner of this oldie to have all that work done, they couldn't be too outrageously expensive. I have mine booked in for Feb. 23rd. They will give me quotes on all the work prior to doing anything. They will call me as they work on it, getting my ok to proceed with what needs to e done. In the meantime, I have sealed some of the seams myself as we continue to have wet, wet weather. I have successfully stopped a leak that was coming in on the passenger side of the over cab with Pro Flex RV and was the reason the underside of the mattress was wet. I have had an electric heater drying out the rotted area and the new leak. I now have it at the back in the bathroom in the shower drying any wet that may be there where I found the seam needed to be sealed. I will update here as to the work that is done on it, costs and any further dilemmas. I did have to take it in to the Toyota dealer to have the hood latch fixed last week. My son in law was all set to do some work on the engine for me and wasn't able to get it open! It cost me $110cdn. for them to get it open and then clean up the latch mechanism and reattach the release cable. Yikes!

Need advise and recommendations on roof treatments. Particularly, types, longevity, resealing vents, etc. Dealing with an 84 Monterey and want to prevent future leaks and preserve integrity of roof.