Possible solution to wood rot
The constant enemy of campers is water and the resulting wood rot. I've read here of people having water damage to their campers even when it is only a few years old. Even though many manufacturers us...
Forum Discussion
Reddog1 wrote:HMS Beagle wrote:I would raise (pedestal) the area of the penetrations 1 to 2 inches. The pedestals would be molded in. The flanges of the penetrations would be about 2 inches wider than the item fitted to the penetrations. For example, the standard opening for vents and A/Cs is 14 inches. I would make a pedestal 18" by 1 or 2 inches high. With the raised pedestal, it is very unlikely you would have a leak at that point.
... Then be very careful about the roof penetrations - how many and how treated.
Wayne
This is how boats are built and I don't understand why Bigfoot and NL don't do it. If you are building with stick and panels, then it's extra work - but with a molding you do the work once in the mold and its free after that.
For the most part, water runs downhill. Why the world's RV builders and roofers don't understand this is one of life's mysteries.
As proof of this, one time I built a shop out of salvaged materials. The roof was salvaged corrugated iron with hundreds of holes and I thought it might leak badly. My father's advice was simply make sure they were installed with the holes up (holes on the peak of the corrugations, not the valley) and ignore them. In a very heavy rainfall every once in a while you might feel a very light spray when a raindrop happened to bullseye a hole. But even in very heavy rain there were never any drops on the floor, let alone puddles. Yet with the lights out it looked like a starry sky, so many holes were there. The holes were at the top of the hill.
