Hi Gagakev, thank you so much for your reply. Yes we are putting the same/similar items back so as to keep the structure as it should be. We had no idea the damp was so bad, one of the small overhead cupboards had wee bits of damp sawdust in it every so often which the started to spread to one of the strips joining the ceiling but really had no idea how bad it was and how far it had spread. It's very diss-heartening but I'm really loathed to give up on our little caravan just yet! I'm thinking that your suggestion of the awning rails sounds about right as the worst parts of the damp seem to be on both the left and right hand side ceiling corners. Are there any tutorials/advice on re-sealing them? Thanks so much for your help, it's really much appreciated.
Hi Kirsty, after carefully removing the rails, they will be screwed in under the cover strip, preferably with at least two people and you may try Camels suggestion as well.
Lay the rails carefully onto the ground, they will bend if not careful but you can do it!
You then need to clean every bit of the old mastic off both the rails and the van, this can take hours and hours, use a plastic scraper to get the worst off, then use either a solvent cleaner/remover to clean both area,s or use white spirit, after this the white spirit will leave a residue on the surfaces, clean again with a soft clean cloth and methalayted spirit.
If you are replacing some of the top frame work timber from the inside then this is the time to do
You are now ready to put it all back together, there are a few options for the new mastic, I used sikaflex 512 and also a W4 roll mastic (which was overkill really), I also sourced stainless steel screws which were a size bigger than the one,s which I took out, but I suspect you will be replacing some of the top timber's so make a pilot hole in the new timber first.
I will try and find the piccys in next couple of days and that will help with the inside as well.