Attempting to modify bedroom of old Dutchmen

Pictures would help. Hopefully you have checked to be sure the water damage is not continuing. If and when you decide to remove the damaged walls, be prepared for anything. Yes, you might just have some superficial damage that can be repaired with some new supports and some paneling of some type. However, you may have more than that. meanwhile, if your child is afraid. Get some wallpaper or contact paper and cover the damage. Good luck.

Just for reference and in case you do more online research, it is a DutchmEn, not a DutchmAn.

Broccolli wrote:
Hi all! I have a 25 foot 93 Dutchman Royal that has some pre existing water damage in the rear bedroom. My child is afraid to sleep in there as it just looks scary.

I was wondering (as a single mom) has anyone used a contractor to rip walls out of one room and re-post with hopefully 2x4's and panel (with a thicker wall) we have permanent site and want strength to the support.

We may add twin bunk-beds (so I can sleep in the same room and calm my baby's fear) but as of right now are unable to throw tons of cash into it.

If you have gutted one room via handyman/contractor what did it run you cash wise and how long did it take?

May add bunk beds one at six inches off floor (so I can clean under and one 42 inches above it so we still have cabinet access and neither of us crack our skulls open.

Thanks in advance and please feel free to not have a filter! Iam looking for all opinions <3

I wish it was easy and cheap to do but it isn't.

Most likely if you pull the paneling off you WILL find much more extensive damage.

Finding a contractor who is even willing to tackle this job is going to be like pushing a boulder uphill with your nose. Not to mention the hrs of labor cost that will be involved.

I would suggest you take a look at my rebuild.. Granted it was the entire trailer, front to back inside and out and nearly took me almost 3 yrs to complete and the better part of $5K-$6K in materials alone..

KOMFORT REBUILD LINK

A note about the above link.. Google for some reason insists on using their own PDF viewer which makes a mess of the pictures. If you want to veiw the pictures properly you can download (save as) the PDF and open it with your local Adobe Reader. File is large and may take a a little time to download.

robsouth wrote:
Just for reference and in case you do more online research, it is a DutchmEn, not a DutchmAn.

Thanks... clearly auto correct failed me on that. Any ideas on actual repairs or are you just trolling?

Gdetrailer wrote:

Broccolli wrote:
Hi all! I have a 25 foot 93 Dutchman Royal that has some pre existing water damage in the rear bedroom. My child is afraid to sleep in there as it just looks scary.

I was wondering (as a single mom) has anyone used a contractor to rip walls out of one room and re-post with hopefully 2x4's and panel (with a thicker wall) we have permanent site and want strength to the support.

We may add twin bunk-beds (so I can sleep in the same room and calm my baby's fear) but as of right now are unable to throw tons of cash into it.

If you have gutted one room via handyman/contractor what did it run you cash wise and how long did it take?

May add bunk beds one at six inches off floor (so I can clean under and one 42 inches above it so we still have cabinet access and neither of us crack our skulls open.

Thanks in advance and please feel free to not have a filter! Iam looking for all opinions <3

I wish it was easy and cheap to do but it isn't.

Most likely if you pull the paneling off you WILL find much more extensive damage.

Finding a contractor who is even willing to tackle this job is going to be like pushing a boulder uphill with your nose. Not to mention the hrs of labor cost that will be involved.

I would suggest you take a look at my rebuild.. Granted it was the entire trailer, front to back inside and out and nearly took me almost 3 yrs to complete and the better part of $5K-$6K in materials alone..

KOMFORT REBUILD LINK

A note about the above link.. Google for some reason insists on using their own PDF viewer which makes a mess of the pictures. If you want to veiw the pictures properly you can download (save as) the PDF and open it with your local Adobe Reader. File is large and may take a a little time to download.

Thank you Gdetrailer, did your contractor work with you and allow you to pay as you go to redo the entire camper (great idea by the way)

I have had a campground resident an roofer, the manager of campground as well as a mobile RV repair service check the roof and I am in the clear since we resealed it a month ago. Damage is all new since last year, camper was just bought from a "friend" and was formerly used approximately 4 days a week. Possible cause is the snow amounts NJ/PA had over winter (I believe we had over 6-7 feet total but I am sure the former troll will correct me on that)

I had a 94 31' Dutchmen Classic for 18 yrs. What your wanting can be done, of course the labor will be the biggest expense. Building a wall is not a big deal. Since you already have damage, I would want to support the ceiling to prevent any additional damage. Give it careful consideration as the damage will probably be far worse than you suspect.

Building a stronger wall you could consider a Murphy Bed that folds up against the wall. Then the room could also be a play area during bad weather and maybe calm his fears.

There's no possible way to estimate the labor cost from a keyboard. You could ask a few contractors to look at it and give bids. As to the financial end, I know very few contractors that will work without being paid upon completion. I've done it a few times and it's never worked out well.

FWIW, I totally rebuilt my rig and it took 6 mos. but I have all new mechanical systems.

Broccolli wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

Broccolli wrote:
Hi all! I have a 25 foot 93 Dutchman Royal that has some pre existing water damage in the rear bedroom. My child is afraid to sleep in there as it just looks scary.

I was wondering (as a single mom) has anyone used a contractor to rip walls out of one room and re-post with hopefully 2x4's and panel (with a thicker wall) we have permanent site and want strength to the support.

We may add twin bunk-beds (so I can sleep in the same room and calm my baby's fear) but as of right now are unable to throw tons of cash into it.

If you have gutted one room via handyman/contractor what did it run you cash wise and how long did it take?

May add bunk beds one at six inches off floor (so I can clean under and one 42 inches above it so we still have cabinet access and neither of us crack our skulls open.

Thanks in advance and please feel free to not have a filter! Iam looking for all opinions <3

I wish it was easy and cheap to do but it isn't.

Most likely if you pull the paneling off you WILL find much more extensive damage.

Finding a contractor who is even willing to tackle this job is going to be like pushing a boulder uphill with your nose. Not to mention the hrs of labor cost that will be involved.

I would suggest you take a look at my rebuild.. Granted it was the entire trailer, front to back inside and out and nearly took me almost 3 yrs to complete and the better part of $5K-$6K in materials alone..

KOMFORT REBUILD LINK

A note about the above link.. Google for some reason insists on using their own PDF viewer which makes a mess of the pictures. If you want to veiw the pictures properly you can download (save as) the PDF and open it with your local Adobe Reader. File is large and may take a a little time to download.

Thank you Gdetrailer, did your contractor work with you and allow you to pay as you go to redo the entire camper (great idea by the way)

Broccolie,

I should have made it a bit clearer, I did ALL the work myself. There was NO "contractor" involved. I spent nearly every free minute I had for nearly three years. 2hr-4hrs every week night and often 10hr-12hrs each Sat and Sunday..

RV construction does not make it easy to tear apart, refurb or flat out work on. You often can not use normal carpenter tools in normal ways since you are often working in very tight spaces. RV construction does not use 2x4s, instead they use 1x2s and the interior paneling is GLUED AND STAPLED to the studs. Extremely time consuming to remove and causes a lot of damage to cabinets and other walls. Just the way it is..

If I was to hazard a guess on labor cost for my rebuild I would guess you could take the material cost and at least DOUBLE it and then add 25% more to that for good measure.

Rehabing your trailer just in the one room alone most likely will set you back $2K-$3K in labor and materials and that is if no other major damage needs fixed.

As far as finding contractors that will wait to the end for payment, good luck. Many are going to want a deposit to cover at least materials IF you can find one that is willing to take on a RV.

Your best bet is to find someone who is a "handyman" carpenter and even then you might have a tough time convincing them to do it.

I wish you luck but this is more of a DIY thing with RVs, there is no money in them for folks trying to repair and rebuild them and in the end the value is determined by the year of manufacture.

Hey GDE, the Komfort rebuild is impressive! We are considering buying a small class C and doing similar. I would love to see the detail in the pics but they did not render well on google docs and there's no way to zoom in. Could you email that or give a link to the pics?

I tried to PM but you have PMs blocked...