Mold already??!!!!

Living in California we don't experience high levels of humidity or rain so I'm always curious to read the post from folks in areas with lots of rain and high humidity.

It seems folks who live in these areas use dehumidifiers either electrical or powdered type to keep the humidity low inside their RVs while stored between trips.

I remember one story where the RVer thought someone had broken into their RV and scattered flour all over the inside...every surface had this fine white powder. It turned out to be mold. Their dehumidifier had stopped working and the mold grew on all surfaces in a week.

Jayco is an excellent company to deal with for warranty issues. Why not take it to them for repairs? They are located in the Elkhart IN. area, maybe not too far from you in MI.

You vent away. That is why we are here. Not only to try to give answers but just listen.

You should not have to go through this. I would take pictures and keep copies of any conversations etc. for evidence. Hopefully both the manufacturer and dealer remedy the situation. Don't accept a simple clean up...they need to find, fix, guarantee their work or replace the unit.

Once we get to the next campground with (for the PC)wifi. Later today I will try and get some photos up. We live in michigan too- and we have the dehumidifier going all the time even this past winter. The spots where mold are showing up nothing is stores there. It seems like it's coming from the outside in if that makes sense. This is our fifth camper- and we've had a couple of oldies in the past and never had a problem with this. Oh and i forgot to mention that when the hubby called the dealer the tech he spoke with said the same thing was happening with a forest river about the same age. And he said he'd never seen anything like it. I'm so disappointed I love this camper almost more than my house. We are very shall I say anal about taking care of her. We have the max air vents as well. I'm thinking of pushing for a replacement. We did not pay this kind of money to be dealing with this. I also use those damp rid containers too. In so upset- this is my baby and ya know- it was the floor plan I had always dreamed of. When we tented before we got married- I'd see these big fifth wheels with the big window in the back and always said someday we are getting one just like that. Sorry- I need to vent a little- I just want to cry.! We take such good care of everything we have, and I'm just heartbroken over this.

I know a person who bought a new MH. The next spring when they went to use it, the cupboards were full of mold. They fought the mold for most of the summer. As it happened the factory didn't seal either air conditioner correctly and they leaked a lot of water into the ceiling. Their insurance totaled it.

Bill

Yes, cardboard of most varieties and or many fabrics hold moisture (water) for a very long time and if there's not adequate moving air ventilation, mold will grow. Almost guaranteed! The higher the humidity and ambient heat level, the faster the mold grows also.

The OP lives in Michigan and so do we but on the west side of the state where the ground is mostly a well drained sand base and sand dunes. If the OP lives in an area with lots of clay content in the soil, the humidity level close to the ground will be very high especially during periods having weekly rain a day or so and then hot sun evaporating the moisture up out of the clay.

We store our RV's always with 2 to 3 windows on opposing sides open about an inch or more and also have one or more roof vents open because we have Max Air roof vent covers on all our 14 X 14 roof vents so rain can't come inside. Also, all of our RV's have crank out lower window bottoms (we order our new RV's with them always) and of course when open an inch or two, no rain ever comes in. We're on our 51st year of RV'ing and have learned what works really well. Sometimes when there's been a lot of rain (doesn't happen very often) I will put 1 or 2 Damp Rid containers in the 5th wheel basement if we aren't going to use that RV for a couple months. Consequently, due to these various actions taken, we have never had any mold grow but our 3 homes away neighbor who take no preventative actions did have mold in his Cougar 5th wheel along the bottom of some of his walls. He killed it with Lysol spray liberally applied and then left his one covered roof vent open and 2 of his horizontal sliding windows open a couple inches with having the purchased sliding window plastic vents he attached to the outside of the window frame. He told me he emptied 4 cans of Lysol spray as he did all the lower walls, inside all cabinets, basement storage areas, all around the toilet area, etc.

The too he may have a leak but he's pointed out two different areas with mold so unlikely to be a leak.

You should NOT expect mold in a one year old trailer.

With that much mold I would be asking them to replace it. No way are you, or they, going to get that mold out without basically tearing it apart and replacing a lot of materials.

We found mold in a couple cabinets on the floor this summer. I thought it was a leak, but I have come to the conclusion that it was the cardboard boxes from board games sitting on the carpet in a very humid condition, and never dried out so it molded.

You have water in there from somewhere. You should see some mushrooms soon.

Home depot sells spray that will kill the mold spores. Somewhere there is either a leak or very high humidity inside the trailer.