Hello everyone! I have been lurking in the dusty corners of this site for about a year and I have found a number of terrific threads regarding roof replacement projects, but it's time for me to give back.
Here's a little back-story on my project: My wife and I bought our 1996 Aljo 2440 TT two years ago for a very good price. I knew what to look for in terms of chassis and RV systems, but the roof was something I never thought to inspect thoroughly (I know now, BTW). The trailer gave us two very fun year-round camping seasons in Southern California, but the roof had become a growing concern. When I picked the trailer up for a trip last month, I found a line of water stain on the bed from the last rains and I knew it was time to pull the trigger on my roof project.
I ordered all of my materials from Amazon.com and I got almost 300 lbs of merchandise delivered at NO CHARGE! I think Amazon lost on my transaction, LOL!
Here's a quick list of parts I bought:
Dicor BriteTec TPO roof membrane (25' x 9.5')
Dicor TPO installation kit (2 gallons of adhesive, 6 tubes of lap sealant, one 100' roll of butyl tape, and some odds and ends)
2 new 14" roof vents
2 holding tank vents
Refrigerator vent base and cover
Extra 100' roll of butyl tape
On top of the Amazon order, I have been making daily trips to Home Depot for 3/8" plywood sheets, luan sheet, 2x3 lumber, 1x2 lumber, and other assorted goods that I need as the project progresses. I plan to make a final tally of cost and man-hours at the end of the project, but I will proceed with a quick recap of the first three days of work.
Day 1
I dropped one of the vents to get a look at the cross section of my roof assembly and was shocked to discover that everything forward of the "walkable" section of my roof was 1/8" luan!
I suppose it shouldn't have been a surprise, but it is now my goal to rebuild the roof in a fully walkable condition. After researching on this site and many others, I have settled on 3/8" CD plywood and some reinforcement of the factory rafters.
Here's the roof right before I started digging in. The rubber was so thin that I was finding tears caused by chassis flex after every trip.
I had three friends come over to help me get the AC and the awning off the trailer, but they all opted to stick around and help me clear the roof. We had the roof down to plywood in about 4 hours. I used two sheets of 3/8" plywood to support my weight as I moved around the roof during the deconstruction phase.
Not surprisingly, I found rot at the two aft corners of the coach. Aside from about two two-foot by two-foot sections of rot in the corners and some previously repaired sections of the roof, the rest of the framing was in great condition. Additionally, the rot did not travel down into the walls! Winner!
Driver's side aft corner.
Passenger's side aft corner:
Driver's side previous damage:
Did I mention that this was filthy work?
I closed out the day by making some new rafters to reinforce the saggy roof. Don't worry, I sanded the rafters to match after I took this photo.
Here's the roof right before I shut down shop for the day:
More to come...
Here's a little back-story on my project: My wife and I bought our 1996 Aljo 2440 TT two years ago for a very good price. I knew what to look for in terms of chassis and RV systems, but the roof was something I never thought to inspect thoroughly (I know now, BTW). The trailer gave us two very fun year-round camping seasons in Southern California, but the roof had become a growing concern. When I picked the trailer up for a trip last month, I found a line of water stain on the bed from the last rains and I knew it was time to pull the trigger on my roof project.
I ordered all of my materials from Amazon.com and I got almost 300 lbs of merchandise delivered at NO CHARGE! I think Amazon lost on my transaction, LOL!
Here's a quick list of parts I bought:
Dicor BriteTec TPO roof membrane (25' x 9.5')
Dicor TPO installation kit (2 gallons of adhesive, 6 tubes of lap sealant, one 100' roll of butyl tape, and some odds and ends)
2 new 14" roof vents
2 holding tank vents
Refrigerator vent base and cover
Extra 100' roll of butyl tape
On top of the Amazon order, I have been making daily trips to Home Depot for 3/8" plywood sheets, luan sheet, 2x3 lumber, 1x2 lumber, and other assorted goods that I need as the project progresses. I plan to make a final tally of cost and man-hours at the end of the project, but I will proceed with a quick recap of the first three days of work.
Day 1
I dropped one of the vents to get a look at the cross section of my roof assembly and was shocked to discover that everything forward of the "walkable" section of my roof was 1/8" luan!
I suppose it shouldn't have been a surprise, but it is now my goal to rebuild the roof in a fully walkable condition. After researching on this site and many others, I have settled on 3/8" CD plywood and some reinforcement of the factory rafters.
Here's the roof right before I started digging in. The rubber was so thin that I was finding tears caused by chassis flex after every trip.
I had three friends come over to help me get the AC and the awning off the trailer, but they all opted to stick around and help me clear the roof. We had the roof down to plywood in about 4 hours. I used two sheets of 3/8" plywood to support my weight as I moved around the roof during the deconstruction phase.
Not surprisingly, I found rot at the two aft corners of the coach. Aside from about two two-foot by two-foot sections of rot in the corners and some previously repaired sections of the roof, the rest of the framing was in great condition. Additionally, the rot did not travel down into the walls! Winner!
Driver's side aft corner.
Passenger's side aft corner:
Driver's side previous damage:
Did I mention that this was filthy work?
I closed out the day by making some new rafters to reinforce the saggy roof. Don't worry, I sanded the rafters to match after I took this photo.
Here's the roof right before I shut down shop for the day:
More to come...
Days 4 and 5:
Another sick day for the baby and another short day for me. During nap time, I managed to finish installing all of the fixtures on the roof and get everything ready for Dicor and Eternabond.
I found these extended rain spouts at the RV store and I am sure these will solve the incessant tapping of rain drops on the marker light next to our bed.
I shopped around looking for a replacement 14" vent with a built-in fart fan for the bathroom, but everything I found was $80-$100 and I just can't justify that cost for a fart fan. I decided to canibalize my old vent for the fan parts and graft them onto the new 14" Heng's vent. The procedure went swimingly!
At this point, I applied a bead of lap sealant to all of the new fixtures and let the Dicor set up overnight. I also ran eternabond over the front and rear termination bars and along the corner transitions. The tape ain't pretty, so I'm not spoiling the pretty pictures on this thread with some hack-job tape work. Use your imagination ๐
Day 5: The End!
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I hit the camper early! I hopped up on the roof and installed new VentAir vent covers over the two 14" vents and the construction had come to a close!!
I spent the rest of the day washing the camper, shampooing the carpets, and generally farting around with pet projects that have been bugging me while I waited for the carpets to dry.
Here's the finished product!
Bye-bye old roof, you were a good roof for 15 years, and a bad roof for 3. Have fun at your new home...
Final tallies:
Man-Hours: 57
Cash Spent: $1614.79
Cuts and Abrasions: 3
Thanks for watching. Feel free to shoot over any questions you might have.
-Blake
Another sick day for the baby and another short day for me. During nap time, I managed to finish installing all of the fixtures on the roof and get everything ready for Dicor and Eternabond.
I found these extended rain spouts at the RV store and I am sure these will solve the incessant tapping of rain drops on the marker light next to our bed.
I shopped around looking for a replacement 14" vent with a built-in fart fan for the bathroom, but everything I found was $80-$100 and I just can't justify that cost for a fart fan. I decided to canibalize my old vent for the fan parts and graft them onto the new 14" Heng's vent. The procedure went swimingly!
At this point, I applied a bead of lap sealant to all of the new fixtures and let the Dicor set up overnight. I also ran eternabond over the front and rear termination bars and along the corner transitions. The tape ain't pretty, so I'm not spoiling the pretty pictures on this thread with some hack-job tape work. Use your imagination ๐
Day 5: The End!
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I hit the camper early! I hopped up on the roof and installed new VentAir vent covers over the two 14" vents and the construction had come to a close!!
I spent the rest of the day washing the camper, shampooing the carpets, and generally farting around with pet projects that have been bugging me while I waited for the carpets to dry.
Here's the finished product!
Bye-bye old roof, you were a good roof for 15 years, and a bad roof for 3. Have fun at your new home...
Final tallies:
Man-Hours: 57
Cash Spent: $1614.79
Cuts and Abrasions: 3
Thanks for watching. Feel free to shoot over any questions you might have.
-Blake
Wow, 12 hours of uninterrupted work on the camper brought me a long way today!
I started the day by fastening the rear skin of the trailer to the new decking. I was a little concerned about the new deck mating up with the existing curved stress bar at the horizontal-vertical transition. I put a healthy helping of butyl tape down to take up any dead space, but I learned later that the new curve of the transition is quite different than the factory bend. Eternabond will be my new friend!
Here's the rear transition section ready for the new TPO membrane:
The corners look like trouble...
With the rear skin prepped, I moved on to covering all of the screw heads with Tyvek tape and covering all of the sheathing seams with wall board joint tape and duct tape. I don't really have a compelling reason why I used Tyvek tape on the screw heads...but I don't have a reason not to. I also ran duct tape along the two sides of the decking to protect the new TPO from abrasion.
Here she is, all ready for her new TPO roof!
Flash forward to 3 PM. SuperDad to the rescue again! We rolled out the new TPO and talked strategy. The videos all make this part looks so easy, but the truth is that TPO is heavy, clings to the sheathing, and likes to bunch in the corners as you attempt to fold it back on itself. We found our stride and soon we were laying down adhesive. Important note: once the TPO goes down, all the holes in the roof disappear, so you better have a really good mental picture to work from so that you don't step through your new roof!
Dad and I working out our strategy:
We had the TPO down in about an hour's time and we started screwing down the stress bars. The forward and aft straps are no-brainers aside from one major detail: The forward section should be wood substrate, TPO, butyl tape, skin, butyl tape, stress bar from bottom up. The aft section should be wood substrate, skin, butyl tape, TPO, butyl tape, stress bar. This ensures that there is never a path for water to be forced under the TPO while underway in the rain.
With the TPO glued down and secured at the front and back, we pulled the side taut and stapled the TPO in place.
Then, we installed the side stress bars. Finally, I started to work on each of the corners. I was disappointed to find that the new transition was not even close the factory transition and I really struggled to get the side straps secured. I'll probably end up filling the gaps with Dicor lap sealant and wrapping the whole mess in Eternabond. Sigh. I was able to install a few of the roof fixtures before the sun went down. Tomorrow will be the details day...and an over-due dump run.
Here's the trailer as it sits this moment:
This project has certainly not been difficult from a technical perspective. I am an avid DIY'er, but I am not particularly skilled in any specific trade and I felt like every step of this project was well within my capabilities. Almost every tool I own was employed in this project, but the most invaluable tools were the compound miter saw, the portable table saw, and my trusty DeWalt 18V drill. For anyone contemplating a roof project, I would say that the only major challenge is time. I took a week of vacation to work this project and I am 3 days ahead of my anticipated schedule.
Until tomorrow.
-Blake!
I started the day by fastening the rear skin of the trailer to the new decking. I was a little concerned about the new deck mating up with the existing curved stress bar at the horizontal-vertical transition. I put a healthy helping of butyl tape down to take up any dead space, but I learned later that the new curve of the transition is quite different than the factory bend. Eternabond will be my new friend!
Here's the rear transition section ready for the new TPO membrane:
The corners look like trouble...
With the rear skin prepped, I moved on to covering all of the screw heads with Tyvek tape and covering all of the sheathing seams with wall board joint tape and duct tape. I don't really have a compelling reason why I used Tyvek tape on the screw heads...but I don't have a reason not to. I also ran duct tape along the two sides of the decking to protect the new TPO from abrasion.
Here she is, all ready for her new TPO roof!
Flash forward to 3 PM. SuperDad to the rescue again! We rolled out the new TPO and talked strategy. The videos all make this part looks so easy, but the truth is that TPO is heavy, clings to the sheathing, and likes to bunch in the corners as you attempt to fold it back on itself. We found our stride and soon we were laying down adhesive. Important note: once the TPO goes down, all the holes in the roof disappear, so you better have a really good mental picture to work from so that you don't step through your new roof!
Dad and I working out our strategy:
We had the TPO down in about an hour's time and we started screwing down the stress bars. The forward and aft straps are no-brainers aside from one major detail: The forward section should be wood substrate, TPO, butyl tape, skin, butyl tape, stress bar from bottom up. The aft section should be wood substrate, skin, butyl tape, TPO, butyl tape, stress bar. This ensures that there is never a path for water to be forced under the TPO while underway in the rain.
With the TPO glued down and secured at the front and back, we pulled the side taut and stapled the TPO in place.
Then, we installed the side stress bars. Finally, I started to work on each of the corners. I was disappointed to find that the new transition was not even close the factory transition and I really struggled to get the side straps secured. I'll probably end up filling the gaps with Dicor lap sealant and wrapping the whole mess in Eternabond. Sigh. I was able to install a few of the roof fixtures before the sun went down. Tomorrow will be the details day...and an over-due dump run.
Here's the trailer as it sits this moment:
This project has certainly not been difficult from a technical perspective. I am an avid DIY'er, but I am not particularly skilled in any specific trade and I felt like every step of this project was well within my capabilities. Almost every tool I own was employed in this project, but the most invaluable tools were the compound miter saw, the portable table saw, and my trusty DeWalt 18V drill. For anyone contemplating a roof project, I would say that the only major challenge is time. I took a week of vacation to work this project and I am 3 days ahead of my anticipated schedule.
Until tomorrow.
-Blake!
