Roof leak and damage. Fix or forget?

mr_andyj wrote:
congrats on selling.

So, $16,000 to fix!!!? wow!
Assume $60/hour shop rates, and $1,000 in parts. $15,000 divided by 60/hour is 250 man hours of labor that they quoted you to fix it. That's a little over 6 weeks of one guy working all day, every day (5 days/week full time) for the repair.
I need to get into the RV repair business. I would fix in less than a week....

You sir, obviously have never repaired a water damaged RV.

I have.

Not once but twice.

The next RV, it will be a complete gut and removal of the box and build fresh from frame up. It can be that bad.

The first TT a 20ft early 1980s, removed all upper cabinets to remove and replace nearly 80% of the roof trusses from the inside. Replaced all the ceiling, the entire front inside paneling and built all new upper cabinets. All work done by myself, spent every waking hr after work and every weekend working on that trailer.. Took 6 months..

The second and current mid 1980s 26ft TT was a total gut job on inside and outside. 95% of the roof trusses were gone, replaced or repaired 25% of the sidewall structure and 100% of the front and rear wall structure.. Repaired two bad spots on the floor to boot.. All new ceiling panels, all new wall panels, built all new upper and lower cabinets, beds, bunks.. All new outside skins and roof. That took 9 months to complete with just myself working every spare waking hr after work and every weekend.

I do not intend to buy a new unit, nor do I plan to buy another used unit. If I were to buy another one, no question and no hesitation, I would remove all the good items and cut the bolts hold the box on and shove it off and burn it and start fresh with all new flooring and all new walls and roof.

Rot knows no boundries and I can assure you, the water damage visible is less than 1% of the over all hidden damage.

If you want to slap a bandaid on it, sure you could patch and go in a weekend, if you want it fixed right and fixed the first time and permanently, nope, not going to happen.

Granted, in the OPs case, the dealer shot a high price out there, it may have been done to discourage the OP (might have been a good idea at that) or it most likely was due to the unknown factor.. The unknown of just how extensive is the damage, once you open up the ceiling, walls and floor you are committed, I would bet that the dealer didn't want to gamble, underbid and take a huge loss..

OP did the right thing since they are not able to do the work themselves, they sold it as a project or parts, someone else bought a project or parts trailer.

It is a losing asset.. You lose money from the second you put your name on the title until the second someone else puts their name on that title. Its a RV, not a sticks and bricks home.