Roof Leak Help

[mcr1010]

To easily clean the lap sealant on roof, I have had good results using paint thinner to remove the black stuff down to clean sealant. Then wipe down with 91% alcohol to remove any residue.
And as others have mentioned, by all means, use Eternabond tape and forget about your leaks. It will last longer than you have your RV.

[Bogie]

Well it is back at the supposedly professional RV repair place, I was just going to tear it down and do it myself and write off the money spent, the wife wants to give them the chance to make it right, but I assume they are just going to put the same silicone sealant up there. They tried to tell me they used Alpha 1021 which online seems to be a product similar to Dicor, but from the way it pulled off it worked exactly as the same silicone sealant that you use in bathrooms. It barely even stuck to the roof and came off in one big rubbery glob. What's funny is as much bullshit they tried to tell me and lie about what they used, which just makes me trust them less to fix it right. Oh, the other great line is, "Oh, glue did not dry properly, we fix."

Oh well, I am ordering some supplies and need to make a drive to some local RV places to find dicor and eternabond to keep on hand and when I get the RV back home I'll just rip off their crap and fix it myself anyways unless by some miracle they used something designed for RV that I think will hold out for a month or two. The good thing is if they use the silicone caulk again, the section they did will be easy to clean. That stuff sticks better to itself than anything else.

[The Gritz Carlton]

A roll.of eternabond in the locker is great insurance. Gorilla Tape is a good back-up for most any repair as well. Saw a guy "tape" a basement door back on recently.

[Bogie]

I think once I get this all sorted out I am going to write an article on the "real" stuff that you need to keep in your RV when you first buy one. Sure the dump hose and surge protector are important but that's not the stuff that will break.

Right now my list is:
5200 Marine Sealant
Eternabond
A tube of Dicor
More tools than you think you need.
Assorted automotive fuses
Multimeter


I will look into:
Gorilla tape

[Bob Denman]

Don't forget the six-pack of your helpers' favorite adult beverages...

[Mcscocon]

Add a multimeter....
Power drill/driver
Hex nut drivers
...etc
Oops I see you got my #1

[Bogie]

Got it back. They used something different but not sure if it is a lap sealant or some other silicone based caulk. At least it is sticking to the roof right now. I am going to test if it is silicone after it is fully cured by trying to stick a small piece of eternabond to it and see what happens. At the worst at least it is a fairly small area of the roof.

Current plan is to see if the seal holds for at least a few weeks while I gather all the materials I need to do a proper fix, then I will just do the repair myself. Have 50' of Eternabond and going to pick up a few tubes of Dicor, denatured alcohol, and a plastic scraper to try and redo the entire front cap. Hopefully on a nice 70 degree day and not when it is in the 90's lol.

First task is to clean the roof though, they left it full of footprints that need to be scrubbed off.

[Bob Denman]

Glad to hear that you've got it back, and you have a solid plan!
Good luck!

[blw2]

eternabond is good (I guess), but in my research I found plenty of failures. Has to be clean. Has to be not stretched when applied. Lots of things. They have several good technical notes and videos posted on their site. Worth a look before you get into it.

[Bogie]

So, I figured I would go up there to see what they actually put on it since I had some time today. Another crap job. So they put black silicone and covered it with either white silicone caulk or perhaps they uses a thin coating of Alpha 1021.

Here is what I pulled off in one easy strip, and then just had to clean up some residual white sealant.


As you can see it tore very easily and was a very thin layer. With the flexing and vibration of driving an RV that probably wouldn't have lasted a month.



So - I ripped it off and cleaned it up as best as possible. First scraping, then dawn dish soap, cleared that off, and then denatured alcohol. Applied Eternabond and then (even though this probably isn't necessary) sealed and covered the Eternabond with a tube of Dicor.

[Ubides]

Originally Posted by Bogie

So, I figured I would go up there to see what they actually put on it since I had some time today. Another crap job. So they put black silicone and covered it with either white silicone caulk or perhaps they uses a thin coating of Alpha 1021.



Here is what I pulled off in one easy strip, and then just had to clean up some residual white sealant.





As you can see it tore very easily and was a very thin layer. With the flexing and vibration of driving an RV that probably wouldn't have lasted a month.







So - I ripped it off and cleaned it up as best as possible. First scraping, then dawn dish soap, cleared that off, and then denatured alcohol. Applied Eternabond and then (even though this probably isn't necessary) sealed and covered the Eternabond with a tube of Dicor.

The strip that’s held by screws on the top corner going down on both ends have to be removed and cleaned that includes the strip once cleaned use s good sealastic that will not be effected by the sun. Once done you should be good and would last a couple of years. Let me know if that did the job, good luck

[Bogie]

Yeah hoping that the fix I got in there should hold now. Cleaning it was a pain but I just did the section that they had already removed as it is like 100 degrees outside lol.

I will clean up the rest of the front cap in the fall, but probably just put tape over the top of the old Dicor.

[Bob Denman]

It's difficult to tell the folks who "know their stuff": from the wannabees!

That is until you actually see the work that they do!