Hi all and thanks for having me on here.
My wife and I have just got back into caravanning after a few years break. We've only spent £2,000 on this one and went away in it for the first time last week. It's a 1998 Swift Challenger 520SE.
It was pretty cold so we had the blown air heater on full and it tripped out. I know about the reset switch behind it so I took the draw out and thumbled around until I found it and reset it. While I had the draw out I noticed some of the vinyl wallpaper had curled over at the back of the cupboard. I got my torch on it and to my horror, after feeling it, it was very wet to the point where pressing on the wall behind the vinyl squeezed water out like a sponge.
I thought I was pretty good when it comes to checking for damp before buying but I didn't check behind the fire as I'd never expect it to be there. Silly me. The van was sold as seen and apart from this problem the van is very clean. There is no damp smell at all and looking outside all the normal water ingress places look good. The only thing I might ad is that the main window on that wall leaked a bit when it absolutely poured down. Not a lot but certainly a few drips.
I've since bought a damp meter which is showing into the 40's on that wall but only in the area where it feels wet. I've also checked the cupboard in between the cooker and the fridge and that wall is also spongy.
Anything above cooker height is dry reading a mere 10-18%
I plan on repairing this myself but hoped I could get some useful tips from people on here. I'm pretty DIY savvy but never done anything like this before. I presume I'll need to rebuild the timber and wall board once I've found and sealed the leak.
Thanks again and sorry for the long first post.
Cheers
Gaz
My wife and I have just got back into caravanning after a few years break. We've only spent £2,000 on this one and went away in it for the first time last week. It's a 1998 Swift Challenger 520SE.
It was pretty cold so we had the blown air heater on full and it tripped out. I know about the reset switch behind it so I took the draw out and thumbled around until I found it and reset it. While I had the draw out I noticed some of the vinyl wallpaper had curled over at the back of the cupboard. I got my torch on it and to my horror, after feeling it, it was very wet to the point where pressing on the wall behind the vinyl squeezed water out like a sponge.
I thought I was pretty good when it comes to checking for damp before buying but I didn't check behind the fire as I'd never expect it to be there. Silly me. The van was sold as seen and apart from this problem the van is very clean. There is no damp smell at all and looking outside all the normal water ingress places look good. The only thing I might ad is that the main window on that wall leaked a bit when it absolutely poured down. Not a lot but certainly a few drips.
I've since bought a damp meter which is showing into the 40's on that wall but only in the area where it feels wet. I've also checked the cupboard in between the cooker and the fridge and that wall is also spongy.
Anything above cooker height is dry reading a mere 10-18%
I plan on repairing this myself but hoped I could get some useful tips from people on here. I'm pretty DIY savvy but never done anything like this before. I presume I'll need to rebuild the timber and wall board once I've found and sealed the leak.
Thanks again and sorry for the long first post.
Cheers
Gaz
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