Ceiling removal

[jbreault]

Has anyone attempted or know how to drop the ceiling panels inside? Had some water find its way in over the winter and the insulation is wet. I want to remove and replace the insulation and it’s not easy through the little 3” light holes. Found the seam sealant cracked although it was good in the fall when we put her away. Going to do the eternabond tape job next.

Thank you!

[Gary.Jones]

Jeff

You will be tackeling a project that I have never seen discussed on here before, so good luck and I will be following the thread to learn something that I dont know how to do.

I had a fairly massive water leak in my 15 Anthem at a football game tailgate at Penn State a couple years ago, and the lights all went out inside the coach. Customer Service suggested that I drive to Middlebury to let them work on it for me, and although it screwed up some costly plans, we headed west to get there. When there, the head repair guy and I had a session and his concern was black mold and mildew as the insulation was sopping wet in the front passenger side of the coach, and we were there two weeks. My initial concern was only that someone find the leak and get it stopped, but to his credit and my appreciation, he told me that the leak was the small part of the problem.... the mold and mildew problems behind the wall was what concerned "them" (Entegra CS) the most. So, they tore out the cabinets and the "sheet rock" to dry it all out (on their dime). The problem was a loose Girard awning mount which apparently acted like a funnel welcoming all the water that came its way. So, I have no idea what they did, but they solved the problem, completely re-did the interior up in the area of the passenger seat, and it looked like new when they got done. Just as important, they put the coach in a rain room twice and wet everything down completely and intensely to see where the problem was while they had it all apart, and whether they had it fixed or not before they reassembled the coach.

I think you are doing something that is very important, and that is to get the wetness out of the coach. It could really be long-term problems. How you do that yourself is way above my pay grade. We have some pretty savvy people on here and some of them "service techs", but not sure that we have any body and paint types here. Good luck!!! Please keep us informed about what you do and how it goes, or where you take it to have it worked on.

Gary

[Rollin101]

Originally Posted by jbreault

Has anyone attempted or know how to drop the ceiling panels inside? Had some water find its way in over the winter and the insulation is wet. I want to remove and replace the insulation and it’s not easy through the little 3” light holes. Found the seam sealant cracked although it was good in the fall when we put her away. Going to do the eternabond tape job next.

Thank you!

The ceiling panels go under the outer walls. Only way to remove from inside is cut ceiling along the wall, not recommended.
I had a problem with the 2013 we had and Entegra removed the roof to fix problem.

[jbreault]

So far I ended up pulling out all the wet insulation through the light holes, and a bunch was wet. Now more air can get in and dry everything out. I believe I’ll seal the leaks from the top and stop the water from coming in. It’s way beyond warranty now, but I’m going to call on Monday and make an appointment for later this year for them to look at it and fix a few other things I don’t trust the local dealer to do. I’ll stuff new insulation in once it’s all dried out, I only hope I got all the wet stuff out.

[jbreault]

Originally Posted by Rollin101

The ceiling panels go under the outer walls. Only way to remove from inside is cut ceiling along the wall, not recommended.
I had a problem with the 2013 we had and Entegra removed the roof to fix problem.

Man, not what I wanted to hear... I’m not going to be doing all of that, was just hoping to get them down far enough to reach in. Have to replace some wood trim too, never easy but always, always, always check your roof caulking. It was good in the fall, but didn’t make it through the winter.

[Johnontheroad]

There was some concern that the panels in front of the TV (on my 44B) were sagging and NIRVC quoted 2 hours to drop and reattach the ceiling. Turned out it wasn't sagging so never had to test the quote.

Way back when I had a leaking front cap on my 5th wheel Carriage, took it to their recommended place who dried out the insulation then sprayed it inside the cap with a mold retardant. No idea what it was but it seemed to have worked, no mold when I sold the fiver a year later. Maybe there is a retardant you could use for extra safety...

[Gary.Jones]

Jeff

I sure makes sense to try to remove all the insulation that you have any question about, and then I would try to either push some fan generated air through the ceiling space, or alternately pull a lot of dry air through some other space so that you are actively moving air through all the space that you found anything close to wet. I think that you really need to dry all of that out before you move on. Not sure the best way, but a series of small fans (computer style "muffin" fans?), or maybe even some of that flexible ducting like on portable air conditioners that pipes the dry air up and into those holes or out of those holes to force the circulation.

This is really a revealing story for all of us. Roof leaks are a major problem. Some, like Brobox, advocate early and complete Eternabond taping of all joints on the roof and yearly inspections. I am sure that is good advice. I have not done it to my 19 yet and never did do it for my 15 Anthem (except for the factory work that Entegra did about one year "in") but I am going to slot that into my coach maintenance schedule this summer before we head off for the big summer trip. At least a thorough inspection this summer.

Water intrusion is an amazing thing. Our Sticks and Bricks has a wood porch across about 2/3 of the entire front of the house and I stated to get some water deterioration in a section of fancy wood work near the top of the porch and could not figure where the water was coming from. Then I discovered one cracked architectural shingle about 20 feet away and around a corner and inserted a shingle above the crack to block the water. That stopped the damage. Could not believe that water could run that far away and around a corner to do damage. So, I learned a hard lesson about making sure that water gets nowhere in the house or coach (that's, two hard lessons).


Keep us informed of how its going as you go through this whole process please. We will learn from what you are trying, and how it works.

Gary

[jherrin99]

Originally Posted by jbreault

Has anyone attempted or know how to drop the ceiling panels inside? Had some water find its way in over the winter and the insulation is wet. I want to remove and replace the insulation and it’s not easy through the little 3” light holes. Found the seam sealant cracked although it was good in the fall when we put her away. Going to do the eternabond tape job next.

Thank you!

I can not help you with the inside ceiling problem, but I have had experience with leaks in the roof. I added the eternabond tape to my roof a few years ago but ended up with a minor leak recently. After pulling the eternabond off in the suspected area, I had developed a crack in the white fiberglass roofing material beside the original caulk. The eternabond did not prevent it from leaking and hid the problem from my view. I would have noticed the crack if it had not been hidden by the tape. After repairing my cracks, I ended up removing the eternabond tape and old caulking and applying new self leveling silicone sealant all the way around the roof. There were many places where dirt and water had gotten under the eternabond. Perhaps I had a bad batch of eternabond tape or something, but it clearly did not work for me. It would have been a little cheaper and not much more work to just remove the old sealant and apply the new versus covering it with the eternabond. JMO

[jbreault]

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

Jeff



I sure makes sense to try to remove all the insulation that you have any question about, and then I would try to either push some fan generated air through the ceiling space, or alternately pull a lot of dry air through some other space so that you are actively moving air through all the space that you found anything close to wet. I think that you really need to dry all of that out before you move on. Not sure the best way, but a series of small fans (computer style "muffin" fans?), or maybe even some of that flexible ducting like on portable air conditioners that pipes the dry air up and into those holes or out of those holes to force the circulation.



This is really a revealing story for all of us. Roof leaks are a major problem. Some, like Brobox, advocate early and complete Eternabond taping of all joints on the roof and yearly inspections. I am sure that is good advice. I have not done it to my 19 yet and never did do it for my 15 Anthem (except for the factory work that Entegra did about one year "in") but I am going to slot that into my coach maintenance schedule this summer before we head off for the big summer trip. At least a thorough inspection this summer.



Water intrusion is an amazing thing. Our Sticks and Bricks has a wood porch across about 2/3 of the entire front of the house and I stated to get some water deterioration in a section of fancy wood work near the top of the porch and could not figure where the water was coming from. Then I discovered one cracked architectural shingle about 20 feet away and around a corner and inserted a shingle above the crack to block the water. That stopped the damage. Could not believe that water could run that far away and around a corner to do damage. So, I learned a hard lesson about making sure that water gets nowhere in the house or coach (that's, two hard lessons).





Keep us informed of how its going as you go through this whole process please. We will learn from what you are trying, and how it works.



Gary

Thanks Gary, I do have box fans pointed at the ceiling and a smaller 12 clip on fan I’m moving around from hole to hole. Only 3 areas were really wet, the rest is dry but still airing it out.

I did find some mold cleaner/detergent/preventer I’m going shoot up in there along with some large silica absorber bags I’m going to toss in while we’re in FL next week. When we return I’ll pull it all down again and inspect.

[brobox]

Jeff, on my Travel Supreme with the same ceiling panels, one of the panels de-laminated from the FL heat while still under warranty. Travel Supreme replaced the ceiling panel in a short period of time. Wish I know how they did it. Might be worth a call to CS and see if that has changed on the Entegra's

[jbreault]

Originally Posted by brobox

Jeff, on my Travel Supreme with the same ceiling panels, one of the panels de-laminated from the FL heat while still under warranty. Travel Supreme replaced the ceiling panel in a short period of time. Wish I know how they did it. Might be worth a call to CS and see if that has changed on the Entegra's

A couple of mine developed the ‘waves’ so I would ultimately like to replace them along with the wood trim that split around the big mirror. If they have to pull the roof like previously stated, it’s going to have to stay...

[brobox]

My one panel looked worse than that and it was replaced from inside the coach. Bad news on yours, there is water damage and hopefully not of the roof wood as well.

[jbreault]

Originally Posted by brobox

My one panel looked worse than that and it was replaced from inside the coach. Bad news on yours, there is water damage and hopefully not of the roof wood as well.

I was up on the roof all day yesterday doing the tape project, it wasn’t any softer than normal, so hoping that wood is alright!

[MRUSA14]

Those photos kind of give truth to the old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.