Hi all,
New to the site, and Jayco ownership. I recently picked up a 2005 27BH trailer. Upon further inspection, a soft spot had developed in the roof due to a small leak around the seal on the TV antenna. I wanted to share the repair, the process we undertook, and subsequent follow up for anyone who wants something to reference. Searching for roof repair when this was initially discovered brought up a lot of helpful info, hoping that I can reciprocate.
We started by peeling back the ceiling. The only soft spot in the ceiling was mostly covered by the transition strip. However, once I started pulling, the material was quite brittle and easy to take down. You can see the water stains which were hidden by the strip, speaker and vent cover. The attic area was very dry despite a heavy snow/rain winter in our area. This indicated to me that it was an old, slow leak that had taken its toll on the roof, ceiling and trusses over time. A section of the truss had become brittle and was easily pulled apart. By the time these pics were taken, we had already pulled loose material out of the ceiling.
We elected to cut a large rectangular section out of the ceiling. This brought our longer seams out to a beam. For secure mounting. One end will be covered by the track for the privacy curtain, the remaining seams by transition strips that I will buy from RV Parts Nation
We cut an “H” in to the roof membrane and peeled back the material. The TV antenna was removed. I’ll never use it. We cut the rotten OSB out, and continued to cut until we reached the trusses for our seam. Once again, you can see the impact the water had on the trusses for the roof.
We rebuilt the trusses with new material, and laid the fresh plywood for the roof.
We chose to reinforce the trusses with a piece of plywood to defer and distributed the weight away from any of the joints. There are also added "cross braces" between the existing good beams and the repaired beams. Neighbouring beams and the exposed wall panel were treated with an anti-rot epoxy for good measure.
New insulation was put in to the ceiling to replace anything we could see had been damp. I bought single rolls of R14, which fit perfectly.
I purchased a textured wall panel from a local plywood shop for the ceiling. The texture is almost a perfect match, the colouring, however is not. As it is new and the other panels are 12 years old, it is much brighter than the existing panels. We tacked it up using brad nails. I will cover the seams with transition strips. This makes for a very easy removal if I ever want to check on the patch and see how it is doing.
This is the view from above. We pulled the existing membrane back in to place and adhered it using a roofing adhesive. We were able to source a large piece of TPO as well. This is where my repair is a bit difference from most. We covered the entire area which was repaired with a new piece of TPO, plus extended it past the mid point of the roof so water won’t run and sit on the edges of the patch. We sealed the entire outside trim of the patch with Dicor. I may go over it with Eternabond tape as well to be safe.
My take aways:
1) I was lucky that the rot hadn’t made its way to the wall panels (as far as we can tell)
2) Roof repair is possible. Finding ceiling panels is nearly impossible.
3) It will be interesting to see how the patch holds up. It was suggested to us by a roofer. My two concerns with it are that it may begin to lift in high speeds, or that if it somehow leaks, water will be trapped underneath.
All in all, the work wasn’t awful, and the cost was reasonable. Much better than $6k + for a new roof.
Will keep everyone posted on the viability of our repair.
Linear Mode
