Hi,
1st off, I am really a newbie to this sort of thing so it looked horrible to me.
I mean HORRIBLE
Secondly, I wish you lived near me!
Absolutely, GREAT information!
I do not know anyone (no husband/boyfriend and no /family/friend) who has the
time or skills necessary to help repair her.
Too answer some questions:
you chipped out the rotted wood with a screwdriver or something. Does that sound about right?
Yes that's right
is that bolt to hold the steps on?
Yes however I was cleaning her before I discovered the leak and was going in and out of the camper and I was obviously holding up however I have not been using the steps since
Pull out as much of the damp insulation as you can reach.
Did that
By that I mean, if you push on the bad wood does it just feel damp, does some moisture squish out but no dent is left, does your finger leave a dent or does it fall apart like shredded wheat that has been in the milk for a while?
The spot by the door where I took some wood out was the worst. The frame under the door and the cross beam for the sub floor. Either the leak or the low spot. The rest
I can feel is damp but still feels solid. The fan has helped to dry it some what but we have had so much rain the humidity has been high.
point a fan into the hole in the floor,
I did/doing that and used the Maxx fan to circulate air
It's been raining here also every day so I "batten down the hatches" so as not to get anymore water. Since I am not sure where its leaking, frt corner, door, window I covered all
HERE IS THE RUB:
I am in the process of packing and moving out of my house and was supposed to move into the trailer. I do not have time to do everything. I am already so tired I can't see straight. My closing is May 30 then I have to be out June 19 and wanted to be able to pack the camper to live in her so I am so
crunched for time. (I do have a place to stay and to take the camper if she is not ready to lived in by that time.)
:arrow: However, can the treatment wait for a few days? Or should it be done ASAP?
I was going to take it in this coming Monday (to the repairman) because this weekend I decided to go ahead and go to the Mid West Sunline M&G that's is not to far from where I live. John B and some other there will look at it and they are helping me with a few other things. But IF its better to treat her ASAP and it can't wait a few more days than I guess I can cancel.
Repair service is
www.happycampermobilervservice.com and got an initial quote of several thousand dollars.
Based on the photos I sent. Said it would be 3-4 days of work. Of course he would not know for sure until her got her and opened up the damage area.
It would be great if I can
remediate that with your advise!
:arrow: Maybe I can try and find someone who can treat the camper before I take her to be fixed? Would that be the best solution? Treat her first??
OR
:arrow: Could it possibly be repaired using your information without taking it to the repairman
IF I knew/found someone who was a good handy man??
Thank You!!!!!!!!!!
P.S Is dog in your profile pic a Great Pyrenees?
If I lived near you, I would help you out in a second. As it is, we are a bit far apart...
Yes, the dog is a Pyr and his name is Bear. We traveled up to the Tennessee boarder to pick him up from a litter born to two working LGDs on a farm up there. We picked the one who most coveted human attention as he was to be a family dog and boy did we get that! We also have an American Fox hound / Pyrenees mix and an Akita/Lab mix.
First off, don't you dare pay someone thousands to do this repair.
Next, the tarps are obviously going to have to come off at some point. The 100% correct and long term way to fix leaking seams is to take the seam or door frame off, clean it all out, put butyl tape back down and re-attach the seam. I don't think you have time for that so, go get yourself a tube or 2 of Proflex RV sealant. It is a lot like silicone but made of completely different chemicals. Run a bead ALL along where the door frame meets the camper side. This stuff is sticky and tacky but it will do the job. I use a damp paper towel to immediately clean up any spots where I put too much on. Then you will want to do the same to the windows, marker lights, strips that run up every corner edge, hot water heater, furnace... You get the idea, everything that stick to or out of the sides but NOT THE ROOF. Once you get the hang of it, you can have the whole camper knocked out in an hour or two. As long as the leak isn't on the roof, this should buy you a year or two.
I haven't been on SOC in a while so I have to ask if you have gone up on a ladder and inspected the sealant all over the roof?
As far as treating the camper and your move etc... That is a tough one. The thing about the Ethylene Glycol is that it is extremely toxic and you cannot have your dog in there while treating. It will take you probably 2-3 hours to slather on enough antifreeze to saturate the affected wood. after that, you can pack the trailer and do whatever you want while it dries, you just have to make sure no animals can get in there. Sometimes I lack a bit of patience so when I was treating mine, I sat in the camper one night with the AC on high and used a hair dryer on the floor for an hour or so.
You mentioned that the wood feels damp but solid. That is excellent. My gut feeling and rough estimate is that you could do this repair yourself for about $100 - $200 in supplies if you had proper tools.
Did you take a quick peek at the link to the repair I did on my bathroom floor? I will put a pic or two here to illustrate what I am going to try to describe. The toughest part of this whole repair is going to be patching up the wood that you had to pull out (well, and making the wallpaper look nice again after this is all done). The wood that is damp will be repaired by the penetrating epoxy and is just as simple as applying the epoxy to it and waiting 2 days!
So, to patch the wood... That beam that runs under your door and had the carriage bolt for the steps is not going to be replaced with any ease. My best recommendation is to clean up the cutout and sister it with a notched piece of good wood. Here is a picture and explanation of what I mean.
Take a look at the new wood closest to the bottom of the picture running somewhat horizontal to our perspective. You see how the new wood has a long "tab" that fits into the notch I cut out of the bad wood? That is what you are going to have to do under your door. I had it a bit easier as I could just cut it with a Jig. You can still get a nice neat cut in yours but you will have to use an oscillating tool.
I bought one of these when I had some real tricky cuts to make in the back of our old TT.
Amazon.com
That tool will cut right into the wood beam and you can get a blade that is the same size as the wood. You would make 2 cuts, one on each side of the bad spot and only deep enough to remove the problem area.
Ok, so now you would have 2 cuts into the wood but... how do you get the wood in between the cuts out? Well with a 90 degree blade for the same tool like this:
Buy Imperial 90 Degree Reach Bi-Metal Blade at Woodcraft.com
This would be some tedious work but you cut out bits as wide as the 90deg portion of that blade alternating to the normal blade. I know it is hard to make sense of that but as soon as you got to as far as that 90 will cut in, you would see what I am saying. This is the part that will take the most skill as you want as straight and even of a cut with as constant of a depth as possible.
Once all that fun is over, you measure how deep the notch is that you cut out. Then you make the cuts in a nice clean dry piece of wood from the hardware store to create a tab that would fit in the notch you just made in the bad wood. Here is an awful markup on one of your pictures to try to illustrate what I am talking about.
Cutting up as much of the floor as you can to make the good wood as long as possible will help with strength of the repair. If you can get enough floor up go to the next joist in each direction, that would be perfect and will help when you replace the section of floor you cut out. Making the cutout as close to a perfect rectangle helps as well. As you can see in the picture, you are obviously going to have to cut that joist to fir the new wood in. Use L brackets to secure the joist to the new wood.
I used large lag bolts to attach the good wood to the old wood in mine. You will probably find it easiest to remove that dangling carriage bolt and use another lag bolt to replace it. Lag bolts are very large and need a pilot hole drilled first. It is unlikely that the lag you use to replace the carriage bolt for the stairs will bite into completely new wood so what I would do is go back inside and run 2 lag bolts on either side through the good and old wood sandwiching it. Man, it is hard to describe that in words.
OK, so. After that, the worst is over. If you expanded your cutout earlier you just have to cut a patch out of plywood to replace the gaping hole in your floor. A circular saw and jig saw are all you would really need. The circular saw should be adjusted so it only cuts as deep as the floor is thick. This way you can make a nice straight cut right over the top of that joist. You use the Jig saw when you get close to the walls. Sunline used particle board for the floor. Measure how thick it is and get a piece of plywood of the same thickness. Measure your hole or even better, trace the outline on a large piece of butcher paper or something and cut a piece of the plywood to fit.
Ok, if you just put the replacement plywood right down on the hole, it is going to flex and not hold up on the edges. If you were able to cut the opening right up to a joist in either direction left and right from the door, cut a length of 1x1 or something that will fit in the hole and screw right into the joist running parallel to it and flush with the top of the joist. This is going to support the edges of the plywood. If you could not get the hole to the joists, cut some legths of 2x4 will go in the hole and run under the existing floor on either end (Perpendicular tot he door). They should lie flat. Place them so that half (2") of the wood is under the old floor and screw down into it through the old floor. Do that on both ends. This will tie it into the existing floor well.
Almost done. Now just drop the replacement plywood down and screw it into the extra supports you made. Since the existing floor is just particle board and has been in place for years, the plywood may be thicker in some spots. It was in mine. You can sand down the plywood. If it is much higher, you can either sand more use wood filler to even out the transition and sand it down to a nice even slope. Then you just clean up and put your flooring down.
Remember though, you have to pull of the wallpaper to get at the wood along the wall/floor line and door framing to apply the treatment and epoxy to it. That will leave it looking a bit rough but everything will be solid and fixed. You appear to like doing remodeling so maybe.... New wallpaper?
Don't pay thousands. It sounds like they want to tear it down and replace the entire wood framing. That is great and all but really not necessary and if you think you are stressed now, imagine if they had to tear your camper apart for 4 days. Someone who is handy should be able to do the wood work in an afternoon with decent tools.
Hang in there. you can relax in a month or so....:-D
