Droopy floor

First repair I decided to do , In front of the wheel arch floor had drooped down, pushed up quite easily from underneath, this was due to the amount of damp that had crept under the plastic floor covering from the front.

Jacked up

Looks a bit drastic the caravan was jacked on the jacking point then lowered onto the side of the caravan until the floor came level

Brackets

I made these from old shelf supports as it meant they where quite lightweight but really strong, okay wont win best built but should do the job.

Supports fitted

I used 2 holes that where already in the chassis then drilled another 2, I know Al-Ko say you should never drill their chassis but I had no choice, but made sure the holes where painted over all bolts used are stainless steel with sealant behind the washers.

Top corner

I really wanted to avoid removing the cupboards, but due to the top corner feeling damp I decided to do.

Removing wall light

The screws for this are behind a covering strip see next phot.

Removing the screws.

Wire removal

All the wires I take off are labled using masking tape and writing info on them. I might remember now where they belong but a couple of months on and my age, you never know.

Removing decor strip

The decor strip on the bottom of the wall unit has to be removed glued and pinned I used a heat gun on a low setting and gently eased it away.

Strip removed

My idea is to only take the bottom of the unit out because it may cause to much damage to remove the whole unit. Here the screws are visible with the strip out the way.

Plastic lugs

Removed the caps to reveal screws into the wall, all screws removed and the base came off.

Base removed

Now I can get access to the corner was not quite as bad as I thought.

All the rot removed

Stripped all the front furniture out, stripped anything that was damp or rotted and began putting in new timber, my tip here is to take the screws out the rails on the outside remove the damaged wood on the inside, cut the new timber to size put glue/sealant on it, the get someone to hold it on the inside while using some smaller screws fasten them back into the rail. I always replace all the polystyrene panneling and timber before I actualy take of the rail for resealing, gives a lot firmer base and makes sure everything is in the correct position.

Repaired door frame

This is where the battery dox fits sides where solid just the top rail a little bit rotten

The cause of all the damp

this is where the front fibreglass panel joins the fibreglass roof, it has had repairs in the past hence the large number of screw, pointless really as they where just going into rotten timber, all the screws will be removed and all the old sealent taken out. Its realloy hard to understand how one bad rail can effect as much as the caravan that has damp, but once the rails get damp they just get worse.

Half inch gap

This is where the fibreglass front panel meet the side panel, this had loads of sealant in it , now I know why this gap must have been there when the caravan was manufactured , I am going to fibreglass this together to form one piece, will be a lot stronger and less likely to get damp.

Roof stripped

Cut all the damp out of the roof panel had soaked up from the front, Fitted new timber frame to take the new roof.panel.

New side

Started rebuilding the side, I am using 20mm polystyrene floor panels as used in underfloor heating, I used these in another caravan I did and I was really pleased how strong they make the wall, Quite a bit more expensive than normal polystyren but woth it in my opinion, the timber is treated and then glued on with Sikaflex 512 on any joints and serious stuff on timber not covering a joint.

Removing the front windows

The windows will slide along the grove in the strip, If you undo all the screws in the rail and gently apply some heat to the strip you can just pull it a bit away from the recess and slide the windows out.

Props holding the frame up

All the strips on the caravan I had up to this removed had extra screws behind the rail holding the timber on the inside, fortunately for me the middle screw would not come out, so I took all the others out and went into the van to get another screwdriver, only to see the frame on the inside had nearly come away from the top, no extra screws behind this one, stuck a couple of props inside the caravan and removed the stubborn screw, Once the windows where out I put three screws back in the rail and removed the props, could have caused quite a bit of damage if it hadn’t been for the screw.

Prop

This is where from the outside screws hold the window frame. If the top timber had not rotted away I think this maybe would have given aditional support to the top of the windows,

Best laid plans.

Was going to leave the front window frame in ans just strip the ply off, trouble was I soon realised it was only the ply holding it together. So removed all the window seals undid a few screw that where behind the seals and took it out.

Easier to work on.

At least with the frame removed I can get at the old sealant to remove.

Back of frame.

You can see where the frame is coming apart the timber is not to bad quite solis but all the screws that hold it together are rusting away. I put 2 strenthening batons on before I removed the frame , this is really all thats keeping it together will do as a template for making up a new one.

Old sealant

Going to remove all the old sealant although to be honest there is not as much as I thought there would be, maybe another reason for some of the leaks.

Years of sealant

There are so many screw been used in this rail to try and stop the leaks (pointless really as the timber must have been rooted when it was done) and loads of sealant, looks like they have also tried bathroom sealent.

The other side of the caravan

I had left this side for a while as a bit of an experiment, just to see if it was possible to dry a wall out without removing it. I stripped the vinyl of the surface of the wall board and left it for over 3week while I continued doing the other side.

The other side of the caravan

For 3 weeks with a heater and an dehumidifier on 24/7 the wall board showed as all the damp gone and the timbers the same, because I had to strip it off anyway as I wanted to replace some timbers . I began to strip the polystyrene out, I was amazed at the amount of water that was trapped behind it, it actually ran down the blade of the scraper. and also the timbers where still wet on the side that was against the side of the wall but showed dry on the outside.

The other side of the caravan

I am sure now that if a caravan has a bad leak and you just reseal the rail where the water is getting in , no amount of drying will get rid of the trapped water and obviously timbers will continue to rot. Again this is my own opnion and if anyone knows different please let me know.

Screw holes

You can see on the next 2 photos the amount of screws that have been used to try and reseal the rail on the front, this was to no avail as the timber that they where supposed to screw into was long gone totally rotted away.

Oops a lot of swear words

Moment lack of concentration and I slipped with a stanley knife and put a big cut into the window, oh B....R something else to sort later.

Removing curved wood

The water had soaked up from the front and rotted about 12" of the timber behind the roof spar.Took a bit of time but I removed all the rotted wood back to solid.

Nice and clean now

New timber

The curve took a lot of working out as it is different as you go along the roof. Not fixed in yet I intend to do it all together with the otherside and the front and use a lot of sealant to make sure its good and watertight.

Rebuilt front wondow frame

Really would like to say here is the front window frame I built,

Confession

I took the old frame to a local joiner who has a workshop he made good the old frame to use as a template, and then built a complete new frame out of new timber

The finished frame

But if you look at the photo you can see so many weird angles, I do not have that sort of skill or machinery to be able to do it, I would have had to codge it.

Such a good job

Built all as one piece the original was in three pieces that where screwed together, the new frame is not only lighter but is twice as strong.

Finished front

If anyone wants his number please ask I will be happy to supply it, should just point out you have to be able to take the old item to use as a template, as he is not into stripping things out and doesnt really have the room.

Finaly got rid of all the damp timber now for the good bit.

The new frame not fastened in yet as I need to screw the bottom shelf to it after I have built the top and side frames

This side is almost complete

New polystyrene and ply fitted to new timber frames. Looks a bit patchwork but instead of taking all the wallboard off as it had nothing wrong with it, bone dry. I decided just to strip the vinyl off the wallboards and paper the lot. After a few experiments with what to use for a covering, I found the best result was to paint a weak mixture of a waterbased glue to seal the ply and the using a really good quality heavy vinyl wallpaper and some heavy duty pre mixed wall paper paste it left a covering that ripped the ply when i tried to remove it from a test peice, then tried steaming it off would not come off , so I think that will do nicely.

The best part of this type of caravan is there are 2 boards that fit on either side of the walls just under the windows stands about 2" out to allow the heat to come up from the radiators , once these boards are on you cannot see the sides.

I have also added extra timbers to take the blinds as these where originaly metal plates.

Window frame fixed in

Better weather today, Front frame now fitted and if you can see at the top, the new timber with loads of sealant, this has to follow a curve so I did it in three pieces, was going to remove the excess sealant but it will be behind the ceiling so thought I would leave it alone.

Loads more strength to the front now I was quite worried I might catch the front and break one of the fibreglass uprights they have no strength at all without the frame.

Leak

Must admit when I took the caravan apart I could not really understand just where all the water damage had come from. Now I can see the problem if you look at the Photo of the front where the top rail fits, the roof cuts back, so if you follow where the rail was at the end it no longer covers roof and the front, but is just over the front, wondered why there was so much sealant at that end under the rail when I removed it, once water had penetrated the sealant it goes straight into the caravan,

Think this was a bit of a design flaw, because where I have followed the curve with the new timber, the original was just straight so at the ends of the rail there was nothing to fix to so they put the rail lower than it should be, now hopefully when I replace the rail I can lift it up to catch the roof and the front.We shall see

Rotted wood

This is how the fronts neen rotten timber then onto some good , great when you get to the good stuff just worrying as you take the ply off just how far you have to go,

The batten in the pic is just a temp fix while I replace the timbers and re ply, its very weak until the ply is back on and the baton just stops the wall bending out.