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Hemling's avatar
Hemling
Explorer
Feb 15, 2023

Luan woes

I'm not sure if I am posting in the right forum or not, so I apologize in advance. My topic kind of fits a few places I suppose. Long story short, my 2017 Keystone Sprinter 33bh has water damage. I noticed it on our trip from Florida to Wisconsin last summer. About a 4 inch by 6 foot strip right in front of the slide out seems like nothing is there except linoleum. Very odd - it is a high traffic area and I never once noticed softness, just one day it was like a chunk 'fell off'. I took it in and it was estimated a little under $9K to repair. This is, of course, a near-full disassembly and inspection. I have comprehensive coverage on it (not sure I can drop company names here), so I am in the midst of a claim. I have maintenance records that show the roof seals are not in need to repair. Insurance company feels that the seals around the slide are to blame. I feel like it is environmental - we have traveled a lot with it, and lived in Florida for 4 years. We've been through storms and lots of weather, both on the road and at sites. Never had an internal water leak that I can recall. Insurance has been hemming and hawing for about a week on it. Calling back and forth and such. What are my chances of having this claim honored do you think? Anything I can do to help my chances? I guess on a positive note, they are entertaining the idea of covering me and didn't laugh me out of the conversation for mentioning it. On a related note, I am preparing for the worst and doing the job myself. I can tap on the bottom of the membrane below the camper and can tell that something is bouncing around under there - bits and pieces of flooring. I have done flooring work with plywood - any tips or tricks with deteriorated Luan / sandwich board that they use in there? I assume that I can just replace the bad pieces of Luan with marine plywood or something similar in the right thickness.
  • Nevermind - guess I'm on my own. Just got my 'middle finger' certified letter from my 'insurance' company that they won't be covering any of my damages. Essentially anything caused by seepage of water or wet/dry rot is not covered. Learn something new every day. Guess I've been wasting money on all these coverages. On to plan B!!!
  • marine ply or advantech would work. advantech will be easier to find and cheaper if it is the right thickness. just don't use pressure treated it can corrode metal. also try to cut out a section that will overlap the frame where the edges meet.
  • Hemling wrote:
    Nevermind - guess I'm on my own. Just got my 'middle finger' certified letter from my 'insurance' company that they won't be covering any of my damages. Essentially anything caused by seepage of water or wet/dry rot is not covered. Learn something new every day. Guess I've been wasting money on all these coverages. On to plan B!!!


    No, you haven't been wasting money on all these coverages . . . simply because you haven't had 'all these coverages'
  • It is unlikely that any insurance co will cover this type of damage from water intrusion. IMO, your issue was poor quality/bad design from the manufacturer. An example of comp coverage would be a tree falling on RV, or hail, wind blew it over, or even a tire blowing, which could do damage similar to yours.

    Hope you get a few tips to repair from several of the regular rebuilders on this forum. JBarca comes to mind. You may try to send a PM to John for tips. He is a very friendly/helpful guy!

    Jerry
  • Now go find a large rotting tree to park it under and pray for wind!!!!!