I need advice on roofing - Fleetwood
I am new to RV’s. 3 years ago my daughter bought a Fleetwood 5th wheel to live in. It had a slight leak so I built a pole barn over it. In March of 2020 the land she was on sold and she lost her job. So I moved her house, put a tarp over it, and told her I’d repair the roof in July. In June I started researching RV products and after hours of watching videos on Youtube and reading manufactures sites I purchased Dicor 501LSW and five gallons of Proguard F99911 Liquid Roof only to have Amazon inform me that they were out of the F99911. This might be for the best as I subsequently read that Fleetwood is not a true EPDM and that plan would have failed without an unnamed primer. So I have ordered four gallons of RV Roof Magic as it says it works on both Alpha System and EPDM Roofs. Question 1: Will this combination work out well for us?
NEXT, When I cleaned off the roof with Dawn dishwashing detergent I found problems.
1. There is a patch - a 4” by 12” bandaid - that didn’t quite work. I found a Youtube vid using a patch kit from Camping World that looks like this patch - it looks questionable, is it a good product and just poorly applied? Should I get a larger patch and put a new bandaid over the old one?
2. Across the ‘stern’ there are tiny cracks along the ‘carpet strip’ that ties the corrugated aluminum to the EPDM. On fiberglass boat I’d lay a mat down, resin over it, and then put the gel coat over the entire thing. It would be ugly but it would not leak. Putting a liberal coating of the Lap Sealant over this is 90% likely to be good enough, my guess without having ever worked with this product or application. Is there a standard way to deal with this fatiguing rubber sheeting edge? Would getting a roll of the Camping world roof patch and putting it across the entire seam be a disaster or a good fix?
3. Across the ‘bow’ we have a similar issue only there is an extra ‘carpet strip’ I’m guessing someone put this down after manufacturing because otherwise why wouldn’t the builders just use a wider joining strip? I don’t think this leaks, but he front right corner has damage showing inside the house and a notable 8” diameter soft spot about a foot back and in from the edge. And the roof is detached from the dual carpet strips for about 3 inches from the side. I can not see where the leak is but it clearly has one! I am considering buying a bucket of emergency patch and slathering it over the entire area and putting down a two-foot square of aluminum plate/sheeting over the mess then painting the liquid roof over it. Are there any of these patch in a bucket products that do not adhere to Alpha or EPDM or RV Roof Magic products?
4. Knowing I would need to learn about patching as soon as I started blowing the roof off I removed the radio antenna. That hole is about two feet away from a bad soft spot close to the back of the RV. The soft spot has holes in the black rubber. Maybe a dozen of them with the longest being about an inch long. To just slather a patch here like I’m considering for the front right corner would be about 3-foot square. Do any of you have a better idea? Thank you for your time and expertise!
NEXT, When I cleaned off the roof with Dawn dishwashing detergent I found problems.
1. There is a patch - a 4” by 12” bandaid - that didn’t quite work. I found a Youtube vid using a patch kit from Camping World that looks like this patch - it looks questionable, is it a good product and just poorly applied? Should I get a larger patch and put a new bandaid over the old one?
2. Across the ‘stern’ there are tiny cracks along the ‘carpet strip’ that ties the corrugated aluminum to the EPDM. On fiberglass boat I’d lay a mat down, resin over it, and then put the gel coat over the entire thing. It would be ugly but it would not leak. Putting a liberal coating of the Lap Sealant over this is 90% likely to be good enough, my guess without having ever worked with this product or application. Is there a standard way to deal with this fatiguing rubber sheeting edge? Would getting a roll of the Camping world roof patch and putting it across the entire seam be a disaster or a good fix?
3. Across the ‘bow’ we have a similar issue only there is an extra ‘carpet strip’ I’m guessing someone put this down after manufacturing because otherwise why wouldn’t the builders just use a wider joining strip? I don’t think this leaks, but he front right corner has damage showing inside the house and a notable 8” diameter soft spot about a foot back and in from the edge. And the roof is detached from the dual carpet strips for about 3 inches from the side. I can not see where the leak is but it clearly has one! I am considering buying a bucket of emergency patch and slathering it over the entire area and putting down a two-foot square of aluminum plate/sheeting over the mess then painting the liquid roof over it. Are there any of these patch in a bucket products that do not adhere to Alpha or EPDM or RV Roof Magic products?
4. Knowing I would need to learn about patching as soon as I started blowing the roof off I removed the radio antenna. That hole is about two feet away from a bad soft spot close to the back of the RV. The soft spot has holes in the black rubber. Maybe a dozen of them with the longest being about an inch long. To just slather a patch here like I’m considering for the front right corner would be about 3-foot square. Do any of you have a better idea? Thank you for your time and expertise!
