Flooded trailer

Keep the air moving and the dehumidifiers going. There is nothing set in stone that says a flooded trailer will be a total loss. If the water sat on top of the vinyl sheet flooring and drained out the door opening (typical) you may have dodged a bullet.

I'd suggest that you inspect underneath the RV and the bottom of the flooring. In some cases water enters this area and saturates insulation or soaks the floor material. You want to remove any water soaked insulation and get fans going underneath to prevent the growth of mold and mildew. What I would do is spray all surfaces that were wet with a mildewcide just for the added abatement of molds and such. You might get by with diluted bleach/water but there are better products out there.

You may wish to inspect your gray water drain system, also. There is a vent that may be plugged or positioned too far into the tank. An air admittance valve may have failed, also.

You will just have to wait and see, now. If it's a lino covered floor, you stand a good chance of recovery. These things do happen, so, you are not the first. Let the equipment runs for a couple days, see what gives after that. Opened the door and windows too, right?


Gary Haupt

Mold in the insulation under the flooring would be my concern. I would pull the bottom covering and check the insulation as you may need to replace it if saturated.

Some trailers will drain where the floor meets the walls, check all compartments under the trailer skirt and if they are wet clean out and air dry as much as possible, also open all floor cabinets and drawers to check for dampness, the vinyl floor may turn up at the edges and corners, otherwise if you are not living in it put a heater on, not the cabin heater, that creates too much humidity, that is what you are trying to eliminate.

On the carpet rent a carpet cleaner to suck the moisture out of the carpet or use a dry-wet vac for this.

Good luck, it is not too bad, it did not sit in a river full of silt and who knows what for several days.

navegator

One other step to those already mentioned. Turn on the air conditioner and turn the thermostat down far enough that the compressor runs as much as possible. It makes a great dehumidifier. When we had a flood in our house, the mitigation company turned our AC down to 60 to keep it running.

If you have any carpet, either pull it back to expose the pad and bottom or the carpet, or completely remove it. Pull any base trim you have in order to allow the water to evaporate.

Also, you might want to check with a company such as Servpro. They specialize in water clean up, and this might be the way to go if you have insurance. I'm not sure if they'll work on RVs, but it's worth a shot.

Also tell insurance yourcompany.

WE had a valve broke in the middle of the night and it flooded our trailer in the 1990's.

We called our insurance to let them know.

I told them I don't know if any damage or not as I'm drying it out. I'll know more when it gets dry'd out.

I got trailer dried after about 2 weeks (using a moisture meter) to make sure it was dry.

I totally forgot about calling back our insurance company being everything turned out OK. About 3 years later I get a letter from them saying they will close out the "pending potential claim" if I don't respond within 30 days as they needed to close out pending claim.

I don't know if we would of been paid or not or what steps to take after that, but at least insurance company couldn't say its to late to claim after initial damage.

Also highly recommend a "moisture meter", maybe a $30 or $40 dollar from big box store so you can measure wetness. What looks dry on the surface might be a different story a few centimeters underneath the surface.

Ever since that experience I don't use city water at all and also I installed a on/off switch for the water pump located in bathroom. Pump is always shut off when we leave RV or go to sleep. And it's easy to turn the pump on in middle of night in the bathroom.

You never know when you'll have a plumbing failure, the fresh water tank has a limit how many gallons can flood. On city water, pretty hard to run out of water.

Hope this helps

(post was edited so a 3rd grader can now understand, I hope.

do what every body says, and take the kid out for ice cream. its all in the camping book. things happen. it could have been black water.

Since you have a trailer look underneath. If you have a vinyl liner that covers your floor insulation you may have to get in there and check for trapped water or moisture. It happened to us and rotted some cross members. (I know more now than I did then) You may have to open up the bottom and dry it too.

Sadly, this was our first trip with a new to us 2011 trailer. The cabinets are all warped already. Going to call our insurance company tomorrow and see what they say.

From your description of the loss it sounds like it should be covered. An insurance company providing coverage and the trailer getting fixed correctly are two entirely different things. Please don't forget that.
Your most important job once coverage is afforded is finding a reputable repair shop. Once you find that shop, trust them to do their job. Let them know you'd be happy to assist with any claims-related issues but don't try to control the repair.
50/50 as to if they repair or move forward with a total loss. If they decide to total send me a PM and I can give some pointers on how to maximize the offer.