Forum Discussion

Mike_Ehrmantrau's avatar
Oct 14, 2015

Water Damaged Wall in Class C

I purchased a 1997/8 Class C Four Winds Dutchman earlier this year. It was a little bit of a fixer upper but it seemed to be in good mechanical shape.

After I purchased it and did some climbing on the roof, I discovered that the RV had a leak at one point all along the driver's side. The ceiling and roof seem to be sturdy but the wall in the bathroom had peeling wallpaper.

My plan had been to add a rising grab bar in the bathroom for my father who has mobility issues. I figured I would need to a couple of layers of plywood to the existing plywood wall once I peeled away the bad wallpaper.

Once I pulled the paper away and attempted to fix the plywood, I discovered there is not much more than luann between me and the foam insulation. Also, I am not sure if the metal bar in the wall is the spine that holds the RV together.

Attached below are pictures I took tonight after pulling down some of the plywood/luann.

If I wanted to attach a liftable grab bar to the exterior wall, what could I attach it to?

Should I layer thin layers of plywood against the wall to rebuild the interior?

Could I attach the plywood to the metal bar in the picture via screw or rivet?

Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated.






The metal bar is just to the left of the gap. It looks like the foam insulation was miscut 18 years ago and the gap was left behind.

12 Replies

  • shepstone wrote:
    Pretty nasty stuff there. You will have to find out if there are studs of any kind in the wall and rebuild from there. I cant tell if the metal piece is a stud or not , you will have to remove some more of the luan to find out for sure. Does the rot go all the way to the outside wall?


    Hard to tell. It does appear to be a stud. Would you suggest I peel back more and take more pictures? I was planning to use Abatron's Liquid Wood to harden dry rotten stuff. I have used it in the home before with good success.
  • Pretty nasty stuff there. You will have to find out if there are studs of any kind in the wall and rebuild from there. I cant tell if the metal piece is a stud or not , you will have to remove some more of the luan to find out for sure. Does the rot go all the way to the outside wall?