Opinions from other repair techs re: replacing rubber roof?
Hi all,
I own an RV repair shop. We have one insurance adjustor who argues with our methods almost constantly. Long stories on various issues, but they boil down to doing "adequate" vs. quality repairs.
The issue concerns a damaged RV roof. It's a 35 ft motor home, 2015 model so fairly new, with extensive damage to the EPDM roof membrane. As a rule I don't like to just patch. If the damage covers a large area, to me it justifies putting a whole new, one piece membrane on. The insurance adjustor agrees with that but he balks at replacing the luan underlayment.
In my experience, once the membrane is pulled up you're left with a LOT of glue to scrape off, and pulling the old roof off tends to pull chunks of the old underlayment off with it. It's difficult (sometimes impossible) to get the old surface smoothed out enough to be a viable surface for the new membrane. Over the years it's become my standard to lay down new luan and then lay down the new membrane. The result is a very smooth roof, without any question of bubbles or debris underneath that will never allow the new roof to completely glue down.
This adjustor refuses to accept that (we've never run into this with any other insurance companies, and we work with many). We've reached a standoff of sorts because I feel there's no question that a 35 foot roof membrane needs new underlayment since it would be a huge area to have to smooth out. This is a fairly new RV, the owners want it done right, and I can't stand behind my work if I have to cut corners like that.
I'd like to know what others do in these situations, the preferred method for quality repair.
I own an RV repair shop. We have one insurance adjustor who argues with our methods almost constantly. Long stories on various issues, but they boil down to doing "adequate" vs. quality repairs.
The issue concerns a damaged RV roof. It's a 35 ft motor home, 2015 model so fairly new, with extensive damage to the EPDM roof membrane. As a rule I don't like to just patch. If the damage covers a large area, to me it justifies putting a whole new, one piece membrane on. The insurance adjustor agrees with that but he balks at replacing the luan underlayment.
In my experience, once the membrane is pulled up you're left with a LOT of glue to scrape off, and pulling the old roof off tends to pull chunks of the old underlayment off with it. It's difficult (sometimes impossible) to get the old surface smoothed out enough to be a viable surface for the new membrane. Over the years it's become my standard to lay down new luan and then lay down the new membrane. The result is a very smooth roof, without any question of bubbles or debris underneath that will never allow the new roof to completely glue down.
This adjustor refuses to accept that (we've never run into this with any other insurance companies, and we work with many). We've reached a standoff of sorts because I feel there's no question that a 35 foot roof membrane needs new underlayment since it would be a huge area to have to smooth out. This is a fairly new RV, the owners want it done right, and I can't stand behind my work if I have to cut corners like that.
I'd like to know what others do in these situations, the preferred method for quality repair.
