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jjtjr · 11-04-2013, 06:16 AM

I had some roof leaks a year ago. I clean and resealed the roof with the rubber compound the is sold for this job. I also sealed the seams with the stuff that comes in a tube for the seams. That seemed to work for a while then leaks again. Every time I had leaks it damaged the inside paneling so that had to be replaced. The rubber roof is only good for 10 years the info said. Then it had to be replaced. The job would be expensive and only good for 10 years that seems to be a bad investment. So here is what I did.
Moved the RV into my friends building and removed all the roof stuff, AC, roof vents, side moldings, awning and what ever was there. Then peeled the rubber roof off.This exposed the wood sub roof. I was able to see how it was built. The design was not good. The sides of the roof that meet the wall sides have aluminum flashing which is stapled to the top wood. Over time these staples back out due to body flex.
I re stapled them again, belt sanded the whole roof to remove the glue big job.
Then applied 6 oz. chopped mat on the whole roof 33' of it. The mat came down to the side wall. Then applied 15 gals of epoxy resin. The fiberglass went over the front and back caps on the roof. No more seems. The side aluminum strips were also removed and resealed.Then applied the roof sealer again because it was white and looked good. Then installed all the roof stuff again. The job took 3 weeks in the summer. No more leaks for ever.The cost was about $1800.00 not including labor which was my own. Now I have a fiberglass roof.

Gocoffeer · 11-04-2013, 07:20 AM

JJ....That was an awesome effort...and it really appears to have fixed the issues you have experienced. If you might...I will throw in my two cents.....the rubber roof membrane was a flexible roof material and it took the torsions of driving and bumps well enough to not pull apart during RV use. Keep an eye for spider cracking of the fiberglass resin. If you start to see separation in the Liquid rubber roof material....reseal immediately since you have an open area again. I have been reading about the different roof philosophies on this forum for a while....my rig is old and I used liquid roof to fix an aging membrane too. Some people are trying out the RHINO liner material as roofing....some are moving to the TPO from the EDPM type.... to each their own. But our rigs were designed for some reason to have a flex up on that roof to make up for the rig shifting.

RV Wizard · 11-05-2013, 02:16 AM

Good job!

jjtjr · 11-05-2013, 05:10 AM

I have a friend that has a 42' RV with a fiberglass roof that was factory installed. That's why I did the same.

Gocoffeer · 11-05-2013, 05:57 AM

JJ...No reason to fear your job...just keep vigil so that you get a feel for the new type of material.

SATBOYZ · 03-18-2014, 10:45 AM

I have a 2004 Gulfstream friendship motorhome only 42000 miles the roof hand bad leaks and did a fair amount of water damage inside I took it into the largest motorhome dealer that is in Ontario Canada Sicard RV to have everything fix total cost was $28,900.00 picked up the motorhome in January to go south. Ran into rain on the way and the roof leaked more then before. I had to drive with a towel over my head was down south for 6 weeks and leaked whenever it rained got back and complained to Sicards RV that I went on the roof and could not see any repairs that was done on the roof was told the roof was repaired from the inside is this possible. left the unit there to fix the leaks hope they do a better job this time. you would think when you ask for a new roof it would be on the outside what,s your comments was I ripped off

RV Wizard · 03-19-2014, 02:37 AM

What does the dealer say was repaired specifically? For the cost of the repairs you state, many RV's could have been re-roofed with new decking and membrane.

jjtjr · 03-19-2014, 06:55 AM

Here's the deal Very little of roof leaks can be fixed from inside. The way the MH is built limits that. The reason are the way the walls are built as follows, there is a outer skin of fiberglass which is very thin then, bonded to that is a foam board which is 2" thick then bonded to that is a wood skin with wall paper on it which is the inside of the coach. the roof is made the same way, but does not have the outer fiberglass skin just a wood sub roof and a inner wood skin with gray material on it.
Now along comes a roof leak. The water can get in though a roof a few ways, one is a tear in the rubber membrane, that's easy to find, the other is from attachments on the roof Etc: vents, AC unit, Antenna, awning screws, sky lite in bathroom and any other attachment. The third is the rubber membrane brakes down from the suns UV with age.
The fix depending of the age of the MH, can vary. If its a tear the wood has to dry first in that area, then use Stainless staples to attach the rubber roof membrane to the wood sub-roof after that buy the white rubber lap compound that comes in a tube and is used with a caulk gun it is self leaving and is sold at the RV shops for type of repair.
The next is a leak from roof attachments, its best to do all of them at the same time, because if one is leaking its just a matter of time before an other will do the same. The old caulk has to be removed with a Spackle knife, some time you may need a heat gun it helps. Then use the same caulk as above I used a tube per vent, depending on the old caulk you may have to unscrew it clean the old caulk from the roof and vent and re-caulk with a different type of caulk which is made for vents that is also sold at the RV store then reseal it with the self leveling white caulk as above.
Remember this is done with all the roof attachments except the roof AC unit which has its own type of seal.
Now comes the big job!!! If the rubber membrane is old and porous, you can do two things the quick fix, is to clean the rubber membrane with a cleaner that is sold by the rv store for this type of cleaning and re coat it with the rubber roof sealer that is sold for this job. But the bad news is its a temp fix, it will need this sealer every few years if not leaks again, not good.
I decided that I wanted to do this job one time only, so I did the roof as I described at the beginning of this thread.
You can also have the roof redone with the rubber again by the dealer but you will be dealing with this same problem in the future.

Don't forget to also re seal the aluminum strips that run across the roof and sides at front and back of the MH.
That's it for the repair, the job may be small or some what big, but its all do able.