Water Damage - Is it worth restoring?

If I am not mistaken, this point should be stipulated in the insurance contract. Isn't it? Even if only one-floor tile needs to be replaced, the insurers must ensure that the design remains unchanged or is not adversely affected. When my kitchen was flooded, we had to resort to ***Link Removed***https://www.lawtoncr.com/water-flood-damage/ water damage restoration and change almost the entire floor. The insurance companies necessarily considered the existing design and sought the same type of material.

JBarca wrote:

Hi Daniel,

I have acquired a somewhat extreme retirement hobby, I restore old wet campers. Get them cheap, and make a project out of it. I'm very selective about they ones I want to do, as I'm not wanting to get into 100% restoring. I can build one from the ground up easier when they are totally gone.

A camper that old, been outside untouched for the last 6 years, there are leaks in places you cannot see yet, beyond the rear wall issue. There are ways and tools to inspect the camper more to find them, but in your case, you may not want to even go there.

Everything in that vintage camper is rebuildable, cost and time aside. Your first issue, you do not have the ability to do the work yourself. To hire this work out it not cost practical. You will easily overrun the $15K you paid for it 18 years ago and that is without the parts.

I found this link at the Jayco site, is this your 22U, a 2003? https://www.jayco.com/tools/archive/2003-kiwi-too-htt/

I am currently restoring a 21 footer, aluminum sided, different floor plan, but it had been leaking in the back corner for several years before I acquired it cheap. The water goes down inside the walls, stops at the waterproof membrane on the bottom and starts taking out the floor. And that was only the back wall leaks. As of today, I have 658 work hours into it and I will be a little over $5,500 in parts by the time I am done. I am about 90% done now. The only way this can may any kind of practical sense to do is, you do the work yourself and you enjoy doing it.

Hope this helps

John

John - didn't see your reply from a few days ago until just now. Thanks for those great insights - and yes that is the 22U I have. Yeah - I just don't have the chops or the time to do it myself - I wish I did! It must be tremendously satisfying to do the kind of restoration you do as a hobby! Thanks again.

Daniel.

It's a big DIY job (ask me how I know). You're going to need to be real motivated and the new rubber ain't cheap. I'm not saying don't fix it. I do believe that unless you enjoy this kind of thing it's not worth the effort or expense. I'd sell it bloody cheap to make it move fast and don't look back. If you think this kind of thing is fun then I'd say go for it. If you do it yourself and get a good deal on the supplies you need it might be worth the effort. If you do it don't try to use anything other than exactly the rubber and coatings required for that job. Nothing else will last very long and next year you'll be doing it again. And, however you think it will take, times three...

Taffy.C wrote:
Hi There,

Trailer has been in continuous outdoor storage 250 miles away for 6 years. I drove up yesterday to do some repairs prior to transporting to my current location. I found that there is water damage - the roof seal has opened up pretty badly in the rear corner, and to a lesser extent across the back. There is visible bulging in the roof in those sections. Down the side (outside) there is a dry lichen-like growth - looks like where the water flowed down the inside. The fiberglass is also bulging slightly away from the frame there.

Inside there is visible damage directly underneath the location of the broken roof seal that extends across to the center line. Quite likely there is mold in there.

This is an 18 y/o trailer that I paid $15K for back then. Other than this, everything seems to be in good shape. But I think this is going to be a very costly repair job, and I can't be sure there aren't other areas of damage as well.

Just looking for opinions - is it time for a new trailer? Is this worth spending more money on? Its not something I can do myself.

Link to photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qgdukjismwpem9m/AADTygxczmnDN4635Tqbfy6sa?dl=0

Hi Daniel,

I have acquired a somewhat extreme retirement hobby, I restore old wet campers. Get them cheap, and make a project out of it. I'm very selective about they ones I want to do, as I'm not wanting to get into 100% restoring. I can build one from the ground up easier when they are totally gone.

A camper that old, been outside untouched for the last 6 years, there are leaks in places you cannot see yet, beyond the rear wall issue. There are ways and tools to inspect the camper more to find them, but in your case, you may not want to even go there.

Everything in that vintage camper is rebuildable, cost and time aside. Your first issue, you do not have the ability to do the work yourself. To hire this work out it not cost practical. You will easily overrun the $15K you paid for it 18 years ago and that is without the parts.

I found this link at the Jayco site, is this your 22U, a 2003? https://www.jayco.com/tools/archive/2003-kiwi-too-htt/

I am currently restoring a 21 footer, aluminum sided, different floor plan, but it had been leaking in the back corner for several years before I acquired it cheap. The water goes down inside the walls, stops at the waterproof membrane on the bottom and starts taking out the floor. And that was only the back wall leaks. As of today, I have 658 work hours into it and I will be a little over $5,500 in parts by the time I am done. I am about 90% done now. The only way this can may any kind of practical sense to do is, you do the work yourself and you enjoy doing it.

Hope this helps

John

Sell it with disclosed damage. Someone with the ability to do it themselves will buy it and repair it.

As long as it's moveable, never underestimate what someone will buy on Craigslist.

Throw a plywood roof on it, and someone's got a great hunting or fishing cabin complete with a propane heater and toilet....

Great advice - thanks a bunch

It will be a costly and time consuming job to repair and since you are not able to repair it yourself, selling it or scrapping it will be your best options.

To sell it, just because it was worth $15K when you bought it, doesn't mean it would have been worth $15K 18yrs later without the water damage.

Without the water damage, you would have a trailer worth on the best day $2,500..

With the water damage (and I can assure you it goes considerably further than what you can see on the surface) your looking at scrap prices, basically worth the sum of the good working USED parts like fridge ($200), furnace ($100), stove ($100), water heater ($100), A/C unit ($150), doors ($50), windows ($50 each) and frame ($300-$500 with a good title) and perhaps a few odd parts like tub and tanks.

So, you could take the time and sell each part separate and get more or sell it for reasonably low price and get it out of your hair quicker.

Just a rough estimate, you may have about $1600 worth of used parts with the potential to sell.. But that will take time and work to remove, list and sell..

I would try advertising it for $1,500 as is with a clear disclosure that it has considerable water damage that needs repaired and take the first offer for more than $500..

There are people looking for inexpensive fixeruppers and or parts trailers, price it right and it will sell.

Craigslist is a good free place to post, you can try Facebooks seller section also. If it is in a public storage yard, put a for sale sign on it.. If you have a place in your front yard to put it, move there and put a for sale sign on it..

The result of water damage to the front of my last travel trailer was replacement of the front cap and over $6,000 CDN. Sounds like you might be ahead if you sold your trailer for whatever you could get and put the $ toward some replacement.

Give it away if you can. Make sure title is transferred so that if the county/state find it on the side of the road...they don't come after you.