need water damage repair guidance on first TT..

It all sounds good. I use butyl tape whenever possible, followed by caulk. Don't use silicone. Lots of folks here use Proflex or similar. Do remove all traces of silicone before reassembly or nothing will stick.
Good luck.

The best= Eternabond tapes, butyl is OK under trim where the butyl is held in compression. Geocel Tripolymer caulks and sealants are what I use. Proflex RV is one of those caulks. Use this same stuff for your marker lights and around trim pieces.

The staples holding my siding are galvanized steel, I bet yours are too. For framing, I glued all the framing with liquid nails and then screwed/nailed it all together. You will discover the sequence and pattern of fastening and building along the way. Most trailers have the wall framing attached through the floor sheathing. The floor sheathing is usually the first to go on when mfg., I even had carpet and vinyl under the wall sill plates.

Good luck and be thorough. You only need to do this once and when sealed back up, it will be better than new. Add good insulation (extruded polystyrene) into the wall cavities if you can.

Good luck.

Getting into it a little bit now. Of course I'm finding a bit more damage than anticipated.

Wood at top corner of one side of roof needs to be fixed. Is it possible to peel back the roof and re-seal with success? I will have to peel back about 15" or so from the corner. I will also need to partially remove the gutter. Can this be done and resealed without having to take down the whole gutter? I'm trying to conquer this without taking any of the siding off the sides of the trailer.

What is the best way to get off the old sealant on the rubber roof? It seems to be some type of putty and caulk. It is not coming off too easy as I am being very careful not to tear the rubber roof.

Oh yeah I also need to get some of that black tarp-like stuff they use on the bottom of the trailers. That stuff have a name?

Thanks,
Ron

You may need to remove long lengths of trim or some siding to repair damaged frame work. It's not a bad thing, it's just another area that you can improve (at least that's what I told myself).

I have an aluminum roof that had roofing tar, silicone caulk, acrylic caulk, spray sealers, and some of the original mortite type of tape (now called butyl tape). I used a variety of mechanical removal tools like scrapers, putty knives, etc. I also used power tools like grinders with a wire brush. When I had everything scraped, using a heat gun and then wire brushed, I used solvents to remove the residue. You'll have to be careful with a rubber roof, don't use any petroleum chemicals. 3M makes an excellent caulk remover that should dissolve most caulks and sealants. The trick is to slather it on, cover with plastic wrap, and give it 12 hrs. to work.

rferoni wrote:
Hey all,

I apologize if this isn't in the right forum. Not really sure where to put the question. Sort of surprises me there isn't a repair only forum?

Snip...
Would appreciate any advice. Am I headed in the right direction?

Thanks,
Ron

Ron, Our repair forum is called Tech Issues :)

We also have a forum called Do It Yourself but that one is supposed to be for upgrades and modification discussions and not for repair type threads.
Barney

Wheres a good place to get the butyl tape and rv proflex? Also do I want the 3/4" wide or 1" wide butyl tape?

I also need the white vinyl trim stuff that goes inside the corner moldings. Where is a good place to buy that?

Thanks,
Ron

I was surprised that my local RV dealer had competitive prices on many repair supplies... and outrageous prices on others. Butyl tape is one of the items that was priced the same as Amazon and the rest of the web.

The local RV dealer also told me to just use silicone which is what their repair department doess even though they had the special RV caulk (Proflex) and everyone else in the world says to use RV caulk... I bought the RV caulk.

Everything else I buy off of Amazon. It seems like everything over $25 is marked up 100% at the RV dealer. I guess even though I get free shipping through Amazon prime shipping is built into the Amazon prime price making the local RV dealer competitive.

rferoni wrote:
Wheres a good place to get the butyl tape and rv proflex? Also do I want the 3/4" wide or 1" wide butyl tape?

I also need the white vinyl trim stuff that goes inside the corner moldings. Where is a good place to buy that?

Thanks,
Ron

I've heard Adventure RV is pretty good. I've bought a few things from PPL Motorhomes and was happy with the transaction. Screw cover is what the rubber trim inset strip is called.

Just want to say thanks to all for the advice. Getting ready to start putting everything back together.

Specs for RV Proflex say cannot use on rubber roof. So I could use it on everything aluminum but would have to use something different on the rubber roof portion.

I will post pics of entire process when I'm done.

Thanks,
Ron

So my plan to put this thing back together is as follows...

We(Dad and I) have started replacing the rotted wood. We are also using the West System from West Marine and Minwax wood hardener on some of the wood that can be salvaged. Examples would be the wall paneling in the bathroom. The wall paper is 100% fine but the wood got wet. We have let everything dry out really well(using fans helps a lot!)and then coated what we could save with the hardeners. West System is an epoxy and the minwax stuff is used straight out of the can. We are using the minwax more on the new wood we add as added protection.

Currently I need to add a wall panel section we cut out of the bunkhouse area. Any tips on making something closely match existing? I'm going to check around for wallpaper that has the same colors as existing wall panels. Or just paint it. Not sure here.

Butyl tape/Caulk....

After researching the web and talking to an rv repair tech at General RV in S.E. Michigan I am going to use the putty style butyl tape for the exterior corner moldings, let it squeeze out until no more comes out(may take days to weeks I've been told), then caulk also. Reason I'm going with the putty style butyl is some have said the once you use 100% butyl it almost impossible to remove. The trailer I have was built with the putty style and has held up for the last 10 years with no maintenance from previous owners. The leaks in the trailer came from the marker lights. Something happened that the owner replaced them and there was NO sealant around the ones near the corners.

RV tech told me to use either dicor or 20/20 caulk where the molding folds over rubber roof and Quad(from homedepot) or novaflex caulk where the moldings are on aluminum. RV proflex CANNOT be used on a rubber roof.

Should be back together soon!

Ron