Caravan underside rear corners.
Hi, has anyone had to sort out the problem of the underside corners of caravan floor soft and delaminating? 7 yr old Swift in my case. It's only a small area on each corner but needs stopping before it spreads.
I'm not sure how to proceed on this one. Cheers
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I'm sure there will be someone more technical along better qualified than me but I have seen on you tube somewhere of someone using a beading of plastic strip at the edge of the underside this would stop the water flowing underneath, it seeps towards the wood runs to the bead and then drips to the ground. You could try a bead of silicon or stick some plastic beading along the whole length or just the corners.
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I have seen somewhere someone sticking a length of hosepipe on the underside to form a lip so that water cant run backwards on to the wood but I suppose any plastic strip would do the same job, its caused when they do not fold enough of the material underneath I suppose.
It was "travelling K" on you tube she used some on the A frame because road spray was rotting the front of her caravan
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I don’t know if this would work, but Rustins make a wood hardening liquid to restore rigidity where wood has gone soft.
I imagine that the sequence might be;
Dry out the area.
Apply Rustins hardener.
Seal the wood, perhaps with polyester resin.
Seal the edges.
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Last years very wet summer lead to lots of problems like this arising. The plywood isn't waterproof, neither is the black paint, it's supposed to breath so don't seal it. The idea is that even if it gets wet whilst towing, it will dry when stopped. BUT, if rain water runs down the back and or sides long enough, (especially if it's parked nose up) it will run onto the ply and over time, it doesn't dry out, it will rot and delaminate.
I bought some 90 degree plastic trim form a DIY store and cut the sections to size to fit all around the back edge and the corners. I stuck it in place under the original moulding with Plumber's Gold, (It will stick even if under water). It leaves a vertical edge so the rainwater has to drop off.
So far the bottom corners remains dry.
Dave.
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Hi. I also have found some slight rotting at the back underneath of my 2005 fleetwood colchester it has a back panel on. What is proberly worth looking at is on mine I have lights on the side at the top I reckon water has been getting in there and dripping down.
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The water that caused the same problem on my Lunar was water going down the drainage channel from the roof. For some reason, Lunar chose to turn the channel under the caravan and fixed it to the floor! I've taken this off the floor so that it just hangs free, (it's only about 100mm). The other thing is that the distance between the floor and the bottom of the back panel of the 'van is only about 25mm whereas at the front there is a good 150mm so water can't run back underneath and up onto the floor. To prevent any future problems I have stuck a 90º plastic angle strip right along the bottom of the back panel of the caravan to make water drip off before it gets anywhere near the floor.
To repair the floor, which wasn't in too bad a state thankfully, I let it dry out thoroughly and then covered the area in bitumen backed flashing (as builders use). I put this in place and then used my heat gun to soften the bitumen so that it impregnated the flooring. A bit belt and braces but so far it appears to have done the trick.
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