We have damp and rot at both back corners where the guttering meets the base - is this common and how best do you fix it?

[Ian Mchardy]

Me , my partner and 14 month old son are excited new owners of a Bailey Discovery 516 but have discovered small damp rotten areas in the wood at the very back corners where the guttering meets the wooden base. I cant tell whether this is getting in from higher up in the guttering or if it is just from the drip at the bottom of the gutter..

 

[Ian Mchardy]

I wondered whether this was a common problem and how best to go about finding the leak? Should i remove the guttering and replace the sealant?

 

[Buckman]

Congratulations on your purchase. Did you do a damp check on the caravan prior to purchase? Can we assume that you bought privately and not from a dealer?

Do you have any idea when last the caravan was serviced and when the gas appliances were checked for safety of your family?

I ask this as it may be a good idea to get in an Approved Workshop Scheme technician to service the caravan first and they can also tell you what needs to be done about the damp as it may be more widespread that first thought.

 

[ProfJohnL]

The biggest concern is your damp patches. You don't tell us how old you caravan is, but I shall assume its construction is not the latest wood free system, and that means if you can detect damp patches inside the caravan, and you have rot, then its almost certain the damp is considerably more extensive than you can see, and rot may have spread some way from its visible signs.

Assuming you do have wooden battens in the wall construction it will need to be exposed and all affected material replaced with treated timber.

Any suspect seals will need to be removed, old sealant cleaned and replaced with fresh sealant.

Providing the repairs are done competently there's no reason the caravan shouldn't last

 

[Dustydog]

Wooden base? Do you mean the floor? If you have a photo pointing to the damage that will help. Caught early damp is not hard to fix. Left it is terminal. I e just removed my front windows and frames revealing damp in the wooden 2x1 above. Wood replaced , not hard and all reassembled , resealed with Soudal , good for another 15 years. Follow Buckmans advice if you don‘t know.

 

[Ian Mchardy]

Thanks for your replys guys! heres a few pictures.. assuming that the leak is above the problem area, it would presumably be the seal of the guttering.. how do you go about replacing this without damaging our van please?

 

[Ian Mchardy]

..and once I have the guttering off, do I gently peel the wall back to replace all of the rotten wood?

 

[Dustydog]

Ok. Firstly you need to establish where the seal has failed. Water travels and can be tricky establishing the exact entry point. A damp meter correctly used will give an accurate picture of what’s going on. I suspect the awning rail seal has failed. A lot of awning rails are no longer available so very careful removal and cleaning up is necessary. Once everything is clean reseal with Soudal RV 61 and ss screws. Yes you will have to pull back or replace the wall board so you can dry out the timber. If it is rotten replace.
If uncertain follow Buckman’s advice and consult an AWS engineer

 

[ProfJohnL]

Thanks for your replys guys! heres a few pictures.. assuming that the leak is above the problem area, it would presumably be the seal of the guttering.. how do you go about replacing this without damaging our van please?

Unfortunately until the extent of the damage has been established, it's really impossible to know how much work is necessary. Having seen the pictures, the rot in the floor looks quite old, and that means there's a greater chance it has damaged a greater extent of the caravan.

I'm sure you will realise that whilst a forum might be able to identify strategies to try, no forum member can give you a perfect answer, it really needs an expert to be able to see it "hands on" to give more reliable advice.

 

[audiorob]

Ok so before starting work can we ensure we are on the same page……
I suspect from your photos that the damp has been found externally under the rear corners of the van.
Damp testing should be undertaken INSIDE the van checking the lower walls, side and rear, and the floor (which may entail carefully rolling back the vinyl flooring). Depending on the layout of the van one corner may be inaccessible beneath the shower tray, but at least one side would be indicative of both if the damp you have seen is in both rear corners.
Do not attempt to do anything with the external wall which is very thin aluminium sheet, but if the interior is showing damp and any blistering or sponginess is present then any repairs need to be tackled from inside.
As the floor is a sandwich construction you may be fortunate that only the external ply is damp and provided you can prevent recurrence them a small section could probably be replaced.
Unfortunately though the damp you see may be just the tip of the iceberg.
I have not owned a damp meter and hope another poster can recommend a suitable purchase - not expensive!
A full service with complete damp check will cost near £200 but could be a good investment for both safety and indication of the extent of any remedial work that is needed.
Please also check the age of tyres - the 4 digit side wall code indicates xx week followed by xx year and should never be over 7 years old regardless of appearance or tread depth -5 year being ideal.
I echo the Profs post that the forum can only suggest how the issues may be tackled.

 

[otherclive]

I have a damp meter brought off of Amazon. Here is the link. Clearly it isn't professional standard but whenever my AWS technician carried out a damp survey I would check some points and my own readings were not too far adrift. But of course I used it to spot trends between services so that if a trend started to rise I would be able to act early.


Damp Meter

 

[Dustydog]

I have a damp meter brought off of Amazon. Here is the link. Clearly it isn't professional standard but whenever my AWS technician carried out a damp survey I would check some points and my own readings were not too far adrift. But of course I used it to spot trends between services so that if a trend started to rise I would be able to act early.


Damp Meter

Exactly the one I have and still very accurate. But it is knowing where to take the readings and how to interpret them. I’d hate to think of Ian ending up with a used dart board looking wall!

 

[Buckman]

Exactly the one I have and still very accurate. But it is knowing where to take the readings and how to interpret them. I’d hate to think of Ian ending up with a used dart board looking wall!

Same here as we have the same damp meter and as said not far off the professional Protimeter.

 

[Ian Mchardy]

Thanks chaps! I dont have money for a damp meter at the moment, but will carefully investigate from the inside and replace all rotten wood. What sealant do you recommend?

 

[Dustydog]

Shame, A damp meter is a bit like a doctors stethoscope. It gives a good indication of where the damp is and often where the water input is. Replacing rotten timber is obvious but you don’t want all your hard work ruined because the root of the problem has not been established.
See#8 for my repair suggestion and materials. Good luck.

 

[Mel]

Thanks chaps! I dont have money for a damp meter at the moment, but will carefully investigate from the inside and replace all rotten wood. What sealant do you recommend?

Would absolutely not presume how to tell you to spend your money but without a damp meter you may spend more money on stripping and replacing than you need to or miss somewhere and it will cost you more in the long run. They are less than a tenner on Amazon.
Good luck in your renovation. Post some photos as we would all love to see the project.
Mel

 

[Ian Mchardy]

ah ok will get a damp meter so!

 

[otherclive]

ah ok will get a damp meter so!

A good decision it will really help in identifying the scope and extent of the work. Plus it will help in assessing whether repairs have worked, and shudder the thought could help find any other possible areas of damp that won’t be visible but could present a problem. In its early stages damp can rarely be seen, doesn’t smell or damage interior linings. It’s at this stage a meter is so useful. Good luck.

 

[otherclive]

My water pipe is making a whistling nose after the pump as stop and my taps spert out the water I keep getting the air out but doesn't do anything should I change the water inlet picture of where the nosie is coming from
Thanks

You should really post this in a new thread otherwise it’s going to cause confusion as it’s nothing to do with the OPs problem and thread.

 

[Tonyfromsuffolk]

Newbie here having recently got a 2006 bessacar 645 in a private sale. Checked for damp internally with no issues, stupidly didn’t check underneath , but noticed when greasing stand winders there is damp in both rear corners. Inside the rear valance there is a piece of timber upstand. These are in separate pieces for lh, rh and centre. It appears from taking off the rear corner awning rail cover that the rail stops at the bottom of the caravan and drains against wooden floor base and into rear valance which was then be sucked up by the timber uprights that sit in the water this soaking up to the floor piece. The damp meter shows 33% in very corner but only 10% about 4 inches away. It very localised but crumbling outer plywood. Does anyone have experience in diverting the water flow lower to prevent further wetting of floor. I have removed sodden and crumbling timber uprights which were serving no purpose other than giving the valance a bit of support. And removed the corner steady to allow wet rot treatment of the corner. Now looking to divert water lower. Was thinking of securing a piece of plastic /pipe to channel the water lower . Seems a daft flaw in design to introduce water to the timber floor base.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Oh dear,

The problem with damp, when you can see it it's almost certain that its spread a considerable distance unseen, so you really need to survey and establish exactly how far it has affected any of the absorbent materials.

Its not possible to advise on the detail of what needed just from your description and photographs. There are a number of people who have done YouTube video's about repairing damp affected caravans, but whether its entirely relevant to your challenge I couldn't say.

All affected areas need to be removed and sometimes just a bit more to remove any possibility that wet or dry rot spoors remain. All the affected timber needs to be replaced with treated timber.

When done properly a repaired caravan can be fully serviceable but it may still show signs of the repair. and it will almost certainly have a reduced value.

Good Luck