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Caravanfixer's Story!!
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Fixed it
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13/09/2006 Once upon a time there was a family that decided to upgrade from their lovely tent to a caravan. They saved up their hard earned cash and set out buy a caravan off Ebay. They were so excited that they bought a caravan before the damp tester they ordered had been delivered. The damp tester was delivered the day after they bought the caravan!!
Their lovely Compass Rallye 1989 cost them £1160.00. The helpful members of UKCS then told them that their new van was infact a 1986 model.
Damp tester delivery received and out they went to their lovely new van, Oh dear what a disaster, damp meter was screaming its head off. So they stripped back the panelling and to their dismay they found the van riddled with damp at the front, bathroom and back end.
The wonderful husband of the family loved diy (not) and the wifey was keen to set him to work so their lovely caravan would give them wonderful holidays in the future.
Their lovely Compass Rallye 1989 cost them £1160.00. The helpful members of UKCS then told them that their new van was infact a 1986 model.
Damp tester delivery received and out they went to their lovely new van, Oh dear what a disaster, damp meter was screaming its head off. So they stripped back the panelling and to their dismay they found the van riddled with damp at the front, bathroom and back end.
The wonderful husband of the family loved diy (not) and the wifey was keen to set him to work so their lovely caravan would give them wonderful holidays in the future.
Links for Materials Used
Here is our lovely new van, at this point we are planning our first trip away in October with plenty more to follow. Our damp test meter will be delivered tomorrow!
Damp tester delivered and this is what we have discovered. All trips have been cancelled and poor old Andie is put to work. Pages from other members of the "fixed it club" websites are printed off and with our "bible" we begin our new project.
The pictures above show back left corner, back right corner and the panel as we are stripping it. The water is coming in through the awning rail we think. We have removed panelling and polystyrene to get a better look and find that some of the wood is rotten so we will have to replace what can't be salvaged. We think the front end is in a similar state and inside the bathroom as well.
We have stripped inside and dried out all the timber. We are now going to take the awning rail off, reseal and wait for the rain. If we are correct everything will be dry and we can reboard the inside.
We have tested with damp meter and what was dry is now wet again. After checking with other "fixed it" members we are happy that we sealed using the correct tools so water must be comming in from elsewhere, suggestions are that water is coming in through screwheads or that the rail was not screwed in tight enough.
So off comes the rail again and more panelling stripped.
So off comes the rail again and more panelling stripped.
We have found a wood baton running above the length of the window, we have managed to screw between the two pieces of wood thus not creating a good seal. We think that on a previous fix that the wood should have been sealed in between so we are replacing with one whole piece of wood then putting the rail back on reseal and then wait for rain again. We hope that this solves the problem so that we can apply wood hardener on exposed wood and then replace the panelling.
Plenty of rain in Peterborough, Gypsys are out in force repairing gutterings, they had a look in our van whilst passing, they just laughed at us and said we were poor old soles, talk about adding insult to injury, even the Gypsys don't want our van!!
We now know for sure that the van is dry. All the polystyrene is replaced after the wood hardener had cured. We have replaced the panels with 3mm hardboard glued with pure pva and stapled into place. After this we used lining paper to cover and then painted! We then had the enjoyable job of putting back in the seating, window seals and electrics. Back end all done!
We now know for sure that the van is dry. All the polystyrene is replaced after the wood hardener had cured. We have replaced the panels with 3mm hardboard glued with pure pva and stapled into place. After this we used lining paper to cover and then painted! We then had the enjoyable job of putting back in the seating, window seals and electrics. Back end all done!
We have not entered any pictures of the front end damp as seem to have mislaid our memory card, oh dear..... However we can say that the problem was the same as the other end this was confirmed when the front window rail practical fell off into our hands when we removed it! The top and sides of the front window frame had to be replaced due to being completely rotted. We have removed some of the roof paneling as the water from the frame had seeped upwards and had left a dirty water stain so with the hard board we have paneled further up and used a trim from BQ which is nearly a perfect match to hide the join. Again repeating the progress from the other end we have now replaced all the paneling and painted and papered to match!
Our repairs are now nearly finished, it has cost less than £150 including the power tool that we have purchased (staple gun) Its been a lot of time and effort, blood sweat and tears! We have a small repair left in the bathroom but as it is now the season to start going away we will leave this job for October as we think that it is just a small amount of water ingress from the shower vent but as we will not be using the shower we will see if it drys out on its own accord.
The van has now had its yearly service and a stabiliser has been fitted. The biggest shock that we had has been we have a gas leak in the hob, thank goodness for the service! Two new tyres later, service completed and NO DAMP we are ready to go!!!!!!!!!!
I've now bought my awning and breathable ground sheet and hope to have our maiden trip before Easter.
Many thanks to the UKCS "fix it club", I'm sure that if we had not had your advice then our caravan would be burnt out somewhere in the fens. Also not forgetting V&G Caravans in Whittlesey who have been most helpful in giving advice and providing us with the materials to fix it.
Our advice and moral to the story is to anyone buying their first van.................
BUY A DAMP TESTER BEFORE YOU BUY A VAN!!!!!!!!!
The van has now had its yearly service and a stabiliser has been fitted. The biggest shock that we had has been we have a gas leak in the hob, thank goodness for the service! Two new tyres later, service completed and NO DAMP we are ready to go!!!!!!!!!!
I've now bought my awning and breathable ground sheet and hope to have our maiden trip before Easter.
Many thanks to the UKCS "fix it club", I'm sure that if we had not had your advice then our caravan would be burnt out somewhere in the fens. Also not forgetting V&G Caravans in Whittlesey who have been most helpful in giving advice and providing us with the materials to fix it.
Our advice and moral to the story is to anyone buying their first van.................
BUY A DAMP TESTER BEFORE YOU BUY A VAN!!!!!!!!!
