19H Roof Replacement

[Scott91370]

New member and first time poster. Didn't see anything on this so I thought I give somewhat of a write up on my replacing the roof/ceiling on my 19H.
It's out first RV and I didn't join a forum like I should have for hints, tips and tricks on keeping it well maintained - and now I'm paying for it. In hard work and cash.

The seal for the AC started leaking but it happened pretty slowly, at least the visual signs, and I didn't catch it in time. There were placed I could put my finger through the Luan from the inside. The roof coating looked great though. It actually got so bad the roof in the center was sagging about 2". So last weekend I started by taking off everything from the outside I could. Radio and tv antennas, fridge vent, tank vent covers, bathroom fan and skylight. Then I went to the sides and pulled the awning, gutters and spouts. Ne t everyone from the ceiling inside; lights, CO & smoke detectors and cabinets (including microwave and stereo). Then peeled off the roof liner and started removing the wood & styrofoam insulation.
Got to this point and had to stop.

[Scott91370]

The next stage was to get the aluminum frame out of the trailer. After removing all the white roofing material and the flashing under it that give a smooth transition from roof to wall I had to pull what felt like several hundred staples that connect the wall to the frame and maybe a dozen screws that go from the top down into the wall frame. After that it was as simple as carefully lifting the frame out. Make sure all the screws connect the roof to the wall are removed, I had a couple that went up from the bathroom walls but since you have to open the walls to remove them I used a sawzall to cut these - I'll replace from the top when I put it back in.
Got the roof out and here is where I am now:


Next step it to take the roof into the garage and remove the rest of the materials and clean the frame by getting all the oxidation off. After that I will also clean the mating surface in the trailer.

[DaveT]

Wow! What year is the TT?

[Scott91370]

Dave - It's a 2007 but we bought it used two years ago. It didn't show signs of leaking at the time but shortly after I noticed some brown coloring on the ceiling.
Not sure if you're familiar with the ceiling in these but it is 1/8" luan (I believe) on top and bottom with foam sandwiched between with roof membrane on the outside and a paper for the ceiling. The water was coming out between seams of the ceiling and I don't know how long it had been that way but long enough to ruin it.
The new ceiling will be White .090 FRP Wall Board (looks like a textured wall/ceiling in a house) with R19 insulation. I haven't found the luan for the roof yet, it would be nice if I could find it in a single piece but I doubt that will happen. The top layer is Dicor BTF95W21 BriteTEK and I am using the Dicor install kit.


One thing I was curious about and there may be a good reason the manufacturers don't do it. If I made a small crown from left to right and front to back (maybe 1/8") to where the a/c unit is this should keep water from being able to sit at the a/c unit and leak.
I have also thought about wrapping the roof material all the way inside the cabin so if it does leak it will come inside to the floor (easily and quickly seen) instead of going into the roofing materials.

[bankr63]

Quick question to save me some investigative work on my own 19H. In the dead space between the bathroom wall and the back wall above the bunk - are there any utilities or other obstructions? Thinking about opening this space above the toilet to make extra storage for towels etc.


I can't stand knowing that there is dead space inside my RV


Good luck with the restoration! That is one BIG project!

[bankr63]

Originally Posted by Scott91370

One thing I was curious about and there may be a good reason the manufacturers don't do it. If I made a small crown from left to right and front to back (maybe 1/8") to where the a/c unit is this should keep water from being able to sit at the a/c unit and leak.
I have also thought about wrapping the roof material all the way inside the cabin so if it does leak it will come inside to the floor (easily and quickly seen) instead of going into the roofing materials.

Jayco does this on their wood framed truss roofs. The Jay Feathers use aluminum framing that I guess is not really able to do this? I suppose they could come up with an aluminum truss, but that would probably add cost to the unit.

BTW - another question. Ballpark budget for all this? Just wondering in case I ever have this problem. I'm about to attack a soft spot in the floor, and the potential cost of that is cause for pause.

[bedrck46]

Scott91370


By chance did the TT have a rooftop A/C unit?

[DaveT]

Looks like you are doing things right this time.

[Scott91370]

Originally Posted by bankr63

Quick question to save me some investigative work on my own 19H.

There is some wiring for the lights but it should be easy enough to work around. I will be home early enough from work tomorrow so I'll get you a picture.

Originally Posted by bankr63

BTW - another question. Ballpark budget for all this? Just wondering in case I ever have this problem. I'm about to attack a soft spot in the floor, and the potential cost of that is cause for pause.

As of now I'm at $1200 (much less than the $3000 the shops estimated). I don't think a floor would be as much - the epdm was about $500 of this total.

Originally Posted by bedrck46

By chance did the TT have a rooftop A/C unit?

It does and not knowing about the loosening of the bolts that keep the seal tight is what caused this. ALWAYS check the bolts. Heck, at this rate tight bolts and a new seal every year would have save me a lot of headache.

[Scott91370]

bankr63 - here are a couple of bad pics. I have a tarp on so I couldn't get a great overhead shot.
The space is roughly 48" wide, 13" form bathroom to rear and 12" deep.





If you look at the pic in post #2 you can see the opening as well.

[bankr63]

Originally Posted by Scott91370

bankr63 - here are a couple of bad pics. I have a tarp on so I couldn't get a great overhead shot.
The space is roughly 48" wide, 13" form bathroom to rear and 12" deep.

If you look at the pic in post #2 you can see the opening as well.

Thanks so much Scott. It was the picture in your first post that got me thinking of this again. I could see that open space and it reminded me that this had been in the back of my head for a while.

Looks like a simple shelf for the bottom, and a bit of molding to cover the wires to the marker lights and the new opening will give me another storage cubby.

[Scott91370]

I am going to attempt to document everything I did and I'm sure it will be in several posts so if you get to point where it looks like I stopped I may still be putting up more info - that and photobucket is SOOOO slow right now.
The pics in my first few posts are gone because I rearranged my photobucket account but I will have them in the future posts.

Well after 7 months and an insurance company that said they wouldn't cover it because it was the a/c gasket - a maintenance item - I am finally done!!

[Scott91370]

So last September I went to the camper for the first time in a couple of months and felt like it had shrunk. The ceiling was LOW! About 3" lower in the center than the ends. Turns out the a/c gasket had given - possibly the factory one - and water had deteriorated the wood on either side of the ceiling and the weight of the a/c was making it sag. After some research I decided it wouldn't be all that difficult to do myself and I should be able to get it done in time to take it to Colorado for our annual hunting trip. Bot was I WRONG! All of the other roofs were basically wood beams that had some left to right curve to them to help water drain and it made this look so easy. Come to find out this is a wood/foam insulation/wood sandwich that is all vacuum bonded together. From what I understand now is you can buy the complete roof assembly from Jayco (wiring and all) for about $1300 shipped. You would still need the rubber membrane but the amount of time saved would have been worth it for me.
So after tearing the roof open to see how bad it was we had this:





Everything removed so far was the delaminated stuff and was falling apart. As you can see there is quite a bit still damaged but it would hold my weight (about 160lbs).

[Scott91370]

To get the roof off there are a bunch of screws and staples. On the outside then all of the cabinets had to be removed because they are also attached to the ceiling.


The staples run the left, right and rear of the entire trailer. The there are between 4 and 6 screws along with them. Then on the top there were a total of, what I remember to be 8 screws. But that's not all. The bathroom walls each had at least 2 screws as well - these cannot be removed easily without pulling the walls open. Guess what....I didn't open either wall. Mostly because I didn't see them until it was too late. After I had lifted the ceiling around the perimeter to make sure all the screws were out I decided to brute force lift it and that's when I found them. The reciprocating saw took care of these and I didn't worry about replacing them because they really aren't structural.
That got us to this point:


I was able to lower it by myself. It wasn't too heavy but the height it was at I couldn't have put it back alone. You can see this is the inside (ceiling not roof).

I took some wiring pictures (not very good ones), a bunch of measurements for all the vents and holes and stripped it down to this:


As you can see there isn't much support. I thought about taking it to Colorado before digging into the project but after seeing what was holding the a/c up I have a feeling it would have bent in the middle and caused more damage. Glad I didn't!

[Scott91370]

After stripping everything down I took frame measurements and bought some 1.5" square tube to make more joists spaced 2' apart. I welded brackets to the end (like a T) and used self tapping screws together. I know I may catch some flack for having aluminum and steel touching but I'm sure it will be ok.



Next I attached the ceiling material. It is an almost exact match to the fiberglass material the inside of the main door is made of and it has plastic seam covers. Doesn't look bad and it won't rot like the luan. After gluing that in place I put down my insulation. There is a company nearby that will cut it into what ever size needed, even at beveled. It was $100 for enough to cover the entire thing plus I had a 4x4 sheet and scraps leftover.


You can see several measurements on the foam so I could make sure I got them in the right spot and orientation.

The brown tube in the background is the rubber roof. The 19h uses a 8'6"x14'6" piece but I opted to spend extra and bought a 9'6"x21' piece - I'll use the leftover for the roof of a hunting blind.

[Scott91370]

To get the roof back on after gluing and riveting everything together was a trick because of the weight and height it had to be lifted. I had 5 other people come help with this. And I wish we had pictures because while being a fairly smart idea (if I may say so myself) it had to be somewhat humorous to watch.

We backed my brothers 3/4ton truck into the driveway and loaded the assembly onto the roof of the truck and had 3 people hold it in place. Then pull the truck out and around so the bed was facing the road. I backed the trailer up to the driveway so it was at it's lowest point. After that my brother backed his truck up to the trailer and we guided the roof over it. It took about 10 minutes to get it in place because the tank vents but went pretty smooth!

Next was screwing and stapling the roof in place. I forgot to get a pic of it on without the rubber membrane but just picture it as brown instead of white.

Next I put down the rubber. The glue is pretty slow to dry so it only turned out OK. I do still have some air bubbles and ridges but no leaks!
Here it is with everything installed on the roof. I still need to find the bathroom fan vent cover. With everything else being white it looks bad. But I guess if I wait a few years the new stuff will match. And since you can only see it if you're in a 2 story it's not a huge deal.

And this brings me to---------

[Scott91370]

So overall I spent about $1700 - but the floor and front bed are soft and I'll have to waste more time and $$ on those.


The good -
The roof is done and if I had to rate the way it turned out I'd give it a 7. The rubber membrane not being tight is what brings it down. If it would have been smooth I would give it a 9.5, heck maybe even a 10.
I was able to replace all the screw trim that had yellowed over the last 10 years and this made it look like a much newer model.
The interior went back together quite well.


The bad -
The rubber not being tight. I used Dicor glue and even though it is holding like crazy it dries slow and when an impatient person has to wait for something it doesn't turn our well. So while I would recommend their products make sure you can take your time.
I forgot to drill a hole for the radio antenna - this can be done at any time though so it's not a huge thing.
I did not put a TV antenna back on. I will never put a TV in the trailer. The wiring is there just no antenna.
I still have the floor and bed to do.


Would I do this again? HECK NO!! It is a ton of work. But one thing I would do different is use 3/8" plywood for the roof and not the 1/8" luan. It would have been easier to rivet in place and been more sturdy in the long run. And there is room for it so why not.


Since I still have the floor to do I am thinking of removing the couch and making the dining table a U shape that can easily hold 6 people plus a chair at the end. There are only 3 of us in the family so we'd still have plenty of room to sit (more really) but the main reason is when we are hunting there is usually 8 of us and we play poker. This would give us all a place to sit. Normally we sit 5 at the small table in my father in law's pop up but that is TIGHT! I think we could fit 7 with a chair or probably 8 with this configuration.


Well, time for your constructive criticism and pointers for people that would be thinking of tackling this in the future.


Hope this helps somebody in the ling run.


Now to go find out why the a/c is not blowing cold. I stored it in the same config that it sits on top of the camper in and it worked when removed. Wish me luck!!

[WVDusty]

Huge job but it sure looks like you did a great job..


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[RedHorse1]

Wow Scott, that's a very impressive rebuild! My hat's off to you.

[DocBrown]

Holy buckets that looks fantastic! I'm not sure I would have tackled that project but you did it well.