Roof Repair

Got a sheet of rubber down to cover it until the weather is better so i can finish gluing it down. Got some bubbles in the lap seal because I was rushing due to it being almost 3 am. Will probably cut out the bubbled part and lay it down fresh.

Two layers of wood board glued together for the sheeting

All of the joists done. The front one split on me so I filled the split with epoxy and screwed the split back together.

First joist replaced. Didn't go to the edge of the top rail due to the way it was constructed. There is am upright that ties in.

Few pictures of the tear down

Got the major part of the roof repair finished over the weekend and was able to pull it out of the shop Monday morning. My temporary rubber kept it dry, now i need to finish the exterior rubber and the inside. Here is the inside before any work was started, didn't look too horrible.

Got the major part of the roof repair finished over the weekend and was able to pull it out of the shop Monday morning. My temporary rubber kept it dry, now i need to finish the exterior rubber and the inside. Here is the inside before any work was started, didn't look too horrible.

Another thought I just had. Since I will be using the eternabond tap around the entire patch should I try and remove the top trim rail between the roof and side wall or just leave a lip on the roof to attach to?

Kinda running into a chicken and egg problem also. I can pull the trailer into my shop to repair the roof, but it will take up two of my three bays and if the shop doesn't make money I can't fix camper. I have been reading through your repair posts for advice and quite informative by the way. If I cut the roof off it has to stay inside, but not sure I can fix the rafters and top plate with roof on. Can one be done before the other or is a one shot deal? Basically I need to do the repair over a weekend hopefully, if nothing else at least get the wood replaced and a new skin on top.

I see. This is pretty much the approach to what I did for the rafters, cut back to good material and sistered in two pieces of plywood with filler between. Mine had an advanced stage of "water cancer" and I was able to recover the patient fully. I must have used 20 tubes of construction adhesive in the process, every piece that was replaced got a liberal dose of adhesive when joining.

One of the parts of the process that held up time was removing the thousands of staples and screws holding the siding and roof to the top plates and framing. In retrospect, I could have made better use of a sawzall and grinder rather than trying to pull them. Since I did my project, I now have one of those small reciprocating flush saws. That would have been an excellent tool for the job.

Painting aluminum: Any bright or mill faced aluminum needs a primer for good bond. It is all about the fast oxidation of the surface of the aluminum. Commercial fabricators of aluminum parts will maybe anodize, prepaint. Either that, or apply an etching primer that reacts favorably with the oxide on the aluminum. Both of these steps are beyond the kin of the usual handyman. The Sherwin-Williams Industrial DTM primer is very good, better results than the two-part process of etching and primer, IMO. I would assume it has a blend of etchants in the formulation. The good news about the SW DTM primer is that you can source it just about anywhere in the US at your local SW dealer. Some don't carry it as a stock item but delivery is usually in a day. You can brush, spray, or roll it on.

Painting the inside surface of the aluminum sheet isn't going to net you much in the way of durability or function (unless you camp every year at sea-side). If the price of the painted sheet is similar to the unfinished, I'd choose painted every time.

Here is a picture of my front rock cover made from vinyl coated aluminum sheet goods. The cover is the same now, (3 yrs.) as the day I made it:



Picture of roof after applying two coats of elastomeric roof paint: