Whats best to use to seal around vents, seems, ets on roof?

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hoorders

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Joined
Oct 1, 2007
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Cookstown, Ontario Canada
Hello everyone,

Just got our first trailer....its a 2000 23ft Salem Lite........Its in fantastic shape over-all. I was checking out the roof the other day and noticed that all around the vents, seems, etc there is a thick layer of some sort of caulking.......obviously there to prevent leaks which im glad to say there are none.
My question is, is there an actual product sold for this or does everyone just improvise and use whatever sealant they feel is best.
What is some of the best stuff to use on these areas of the roof to prevent leaks?

Thanks very much.

 
The caulking used around vents is called Dicor and is available at RV stores and RV repair shops. Eternabond tape can be used over seams. In this small project I used Eternabond on top of Dicor to re-seal a skylight on the roof of our coach, kinda belt and braces.
 
Thanks fpr the reply and the pics.........it looks like a huge job to clean up all the caulk around the vents and such............can Dicor be applied right over top of the existing Dicor?
 
I prefer to completely remove the old caulk. Yes, it does take time to remove it all. Some folks have told me they're not as diligent as that and they merely remove the loose/cracking stuff. In my case, I could have merely put Eternabond tape over the old caulk and it would have been a good seal for a long time to come.
 
hoorders said:
Thanks fpr the reply and the pics.........it looks like a huge job to clean up all the caulk around the vents and such............can Dicor be applied right over top of the existing Dicor?
Click to expand...

As Tom mentioned it is best to remove the old caulk. It may have dirt and other stuff on it that could prevent a good seal between the two. If it's Dicor it's not that hard to remove. Use a plastic putty knife and be very careful if your roof is rubber. Clean around the area so the new caulk will adhere well. Dicor makes two kinds, one strictly for rubber roofs and the other for any roof.
 
Dicor is the leading manufacturer of EDPM rubber roof material for RVs and they make a line of caulks (sealants) under the Dicor name that are designed for use with those materials. There are other brands that are equally good - Alpha is another top brand. For horizontal, flat surfaces a "self leveling" caulk is good - it is semi-liquid and spreads out slowly to cover the area, seeping into crevices and such. Better and easier than a paste-type caulk that has to be squeezed into each nook and cranny. But you can't use self leveling caulks on rounded or vertical surfaces - it runs right off!

If you have a metal or fiberglass roof, there are additional products that can be used and the ones available in home & hardware stores will work fine if rated for exterior use on metal or glass (most exterior caulks are).

Brush on coatings such as Kool Seal can be used in some circumstances, e.g. worn spots in the roof fabric or hairline cracks.
 
A "friend of a friend" coated his '99 EPDM roof with a product called Liquid Roof and I found it via Google. I was planning to do my 2000 EPDM as I wanted something that didn't "build up", especially around the perimeter or the roof where you can see it from the ground. Wonder if anyone knows anything about this product....thanks in advance
 
Check the caulk annually and replace if necessary.
 
Tom said:
Check the caulk annually and replace if necessary.
Click to expand...

That's not as bad as I thought.  The service guy at a local RV shop told me to check it 3-4 times per year.  Given the fact that I don't like heights (i.e. being on roof), that seemed to be a major inconvenience. 

Regarding the eternabond tape, will it eliminate the need for yearly recaulkings?  That would be nice since otherwise I would probably ask the dealer to do this during the yearly brake/bearing/etc.l checkup of the 5th wheel I plan to buy.

Gary
 
GaryB said:
Regarding the eternabond tape, will it eliminate the need for yearly recaulkings?
Click to expand...

I'll let others with more experience of Eternabond answer, but I'm assuming I won't have anything to check in the areas where I've applied Eternabond.
 
It is my understanding that once Eternabond is applied properly it is considered permanent. I have used Eternabond and have not had to redo any of the areas that I installed Eternabond.
 
I have had EternaBond on some of the joints on my roof for almost 3 years now.  I was recently on the roof cleaning the vent fans and doing some other work including some more sealing.  The EB that has been there looks like new after I cleaned it by washing with water and Simple Green.  I expect it to be good for at least a total of 10 years if not much longer.  Well beyond my RVing days at least.  BG
 
A tip found inside the box holding my Eternabond ....

To prevent the leading edge (or any edge for that matter) of the tape from picking up dirt which adheres to the exposed adhesive, apply a small/thin bead of caulk to keep it "clean". I didn't read the tip before applying the tape and it now looks "dirty" around the edges. But, since I'm not on the roof that often, it's not a big deal.
 
Tom,

I generally ignore that tip as it just sets up the problem of the caulking needing to be replaced in the future.  That would be a big pain you know where!!
 
Tom said:
A tip found inside the box holding my Eternabond ....

To prevent the leading edge (or any edge for that matter) of the tape from picking up dirt which adheres to the exposed adhesive, apply a small/thin bead of caulk to keep it "clean". I didn't read the tip before applying the tape and it now looks "dirty" around the edges. But, since I'm not on the roof that often, it's not a big deal.
Click to expand...

So they are saying to apply the tape, and then caulk around the edges of the tape? Sounds kinda silly to me. I thought you couldn't use caulk on a rubber roof?
 
Silly maybe, but I'm just the messenger. If you don't do it, the edges of the tape look really dirty after a while because the adhesive hangs onto any stuff that comes its way. (My white tape now has "black" edges.) They're only suggesting a very small bead of course, because the tape and backside adhesive isn't very thick. Jim made a good point that any caulk is counterintuitive to the idea of using the tape.

Since it's on the roof, there's no real reason to worry about it though, because nobody but you will see it up there.
 
They are saying apply the tape and apply the caulk to the ends of the tape.  The caulk seals the adheasive on the tape so dirt won't stick to it, I suspect painting would also seal the edges so dirt won't stick..

The reason you should not use most caulks (Dicor is an exception) on rubber roofs is it tends not to stick.

However it WILL stick to the Eternabond edge, rather well in fact  A very think layer is all that's needed
 
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