Sequence of Roof recoat

PatrioticStabilist said:

It's lumpy under there and I'm afraid in my effort to clean it off I might cut the rubber roof.  I'm not into it yet so not sure what I'm getting into.  I've cleaned around one and it looks good but the other looks different somehow to me. Seems like a layer of something in between the skylights.  The one in the middle and the one on the side so I was thinking if I clean it down as far as I can then put this webstuff then butyl it might smooth it out.  Maybe its just tons of caulk in some of those places, will know later. Let me see what I'm getting into, to durn cold right now to do anything with it, I'm hoping its just caulk...

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I'm guessing the lumpiness is old caulking. WebSeal actually wouldn't be very good for leveling out the lumpiness; the butyl tape would be much better. Better still would be removing the old caulking. You are wise to be concerned about damaging the EPDM. To reduce (if not eliminate) the possibility of damage, I would suggest a plastic scraper with the corners rounded off. Use a heat source such as a heat gun or a hair dryer to soften the caulking to make scraping it off easier (be careful if using a heat gun since those puppies can get seriously HOT which could damage the EPDM) and be gentle while scraping. You don't have to get every last bit of it off the surface, just enough to level it. If the lumpiness is under the EPDM, then you may have structural damage (delaminated plywood?) which will need to be investigated and dealt with instead of covered.

Carolyn,

Keeping in mind the age and model difference (mine 01 Southwind) some info that may help you. 

My rear furnace would not start, fan or anything ... like yours.  Front worked fine.

I just replaced the rear furnace blower motor as it was pretty much froze up ... could still turn the motor a little using the squirrel cage for leverage, but very stiff.

My furnaces are Atwood model 8520 IV's .... outside covers are held on with 4 screws (sounds like yours is different.)

Once cover is off on mine there is a switch and a ckt brkr ... found cb popped ... if the cb is popped and fan hard to turn, I'd suggest you probably found your problem. 

You can try resetting the cb ... however don't be surprised if now both furnace fans are inop .... check the probably 20 amp fuse for furnace power in the DC fuse box ...  don't ask me how I know this!   ;D

Like I say, different model years so may be different but may give you some clues.

If you can pin down the model number of the furnace we could give you better info.

Howard

This is more technical and probably doesn't belong here.

No its not rot under there as inside the skylights the rubber roof is loose, that's why I wanted the glue, apparently sunlight and heat made it do so about an inch or so back under them so I can see under it some.  I would imagine there is dry wood though, but I haven't messed with that  yet after getting the skylights off and doing minimal cleaning. This is stuff where the skylight outside edge is but I'm still not sure what all that is, another day to look at that though. I'm wondering if they used some kind of fabric, tape or something and it is wadded up where the outside edge was, I will find out but not today.  And yes I will try a heat gun or hair dryer.

I went out and turned on the chassis and coach battery switch.  I don't want to run the batteries down in this puppy.  I got the beeping but now it stops in a short time, beeper may be weak I don't know.  When it quit I heard something click underneath.  I'm guessing the gas valve turns on?? It came from where the propane tank is, surprised I heard it.

I recleaned the front thermostat and then went out and blew out the exhaust tube.  In doing so, of course, the tiny tube you reach into things with with the compressed air flew off into the tube I think?? I don't see where it fell off but I'm not sure it was on when I did that. I looked in it and didn't see it so maybe it fell off, jeez.  I took the front of the furnace off and there was a pretty good size wasp nest wrapped around some stuff.  I took it out and blew everything out.  I found one connection a bit loose and pushed it back on.  I'm happy!

So go back in and turn back furnace on, kicks right off, good warm air coming out in short order.  I tried the other furnace, didn't see any kind of switch that the cover pushes on but decided to go out and replace the cover just in case so turned off the thermostat.  I also started the diesel to see where the battery levels were and to see if they were charging, I see all batteries are fully charged.  I did not see that the charging light in the bank up there come on, because fully charged I suppose.  At least those work, wouldn't have had to start it to find that out but wanted to make sure I had enough power, if I understand how all this works correctly. I know the blower runs off the batteries when not hooked to shore power and I also read under a certain voltage they won't run at all.  But the first one is running.
I turned it off just in case it was reducing the voltage for the second, still nothing.

So I tried it again and nothing.  I had to quit for now as I have a lot of things to do.  When I come back I will take the cover off again and check and see if the fan motor will turn.  Hubby has this fancy meter to check continuity of circuits but I have neglected to learn about that stuff.  He can likely fix this in short order but I want to learn.  If I'm out someplace I can at least have enough knowledge to hopefully make sure I don't get taken, I hope, for repairs.

It states on the paperwork with the manual I have an excalibur 8500-II Series furnace.

I still wonder about the thermostat, as in the house we have had to replace several, these are both original equipment. 

Ok, so next look at fan motor and the delay switch.  I know to many of you this is very basic stuff but I'm like a toddler here and just learning.  By the way I love learning new stuff.
I have considered going to a class at our community college to learn about some basic electrical stuff.  Hubby has tried to explain to me but I don't know if its his explanation or if I just don't get it.  I don't know how he learned all this stuff, he just always seemed to know.

I will work forever on something like this and he will look at it for 15 minutes and have it fixed, I can hardly stand it!! :-X

And of course I forgot to look for the circuit breaker, drat.  Let me see if I can locate it.  I need to get ready and here I go out there again.

I GOT IT TO WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YAH RAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D

By the way the model no is 8535 II

I took the cover off again and stuck my long screwdriver into the fan and turned it.  It immediately met resistance, I am almost positive more wasps nests.  I couldn't turn it much.  I was looking for a circuit breaker but found a 10 amp fuse.  I wondered what it was, looked like it was sticking out so pushed it and it clicked into place.  Ah ha!

I went back in turned the batteries on, the sniffer off and on cause it was beeping.  Then the thermostat on and the temp up. I heard fan turn on, also it was hitting something that sounded like paper, gotta be wasps nests.  Shortly heat turned on and it was running, but its making a noise, likely needs oiled but its really putting out heat.  I doubt it was used as much as the other as one heat duct is right by the drivers seat would probably burn you up up there.  I let it run a bit, turned the thermostat down and let it turn off by itself.  When I get back I will take my sweeper out and see if I can suck stuff out of there.  I got a nest out of the other one and I can see a big mud daubers nest in the back of it, but they not only have it screwed on but tape around it so I didn't take the cover off.  By the way only 2 screws in each cover.

I can't beleive it, I now have 2 working furnaces.  I'm so excited, that probably saved a few dollars.  Yee Hah!!!!!!

Only thing not checked is the water heater, hubby said let him check that one with that heat probe and all that stuff, so ok by me.

I also saw the black tank says full, I hope that is not true.  I suppose I could take a bucket and test that quickly.  Grey says empty.  Water tanks says empty.

Hubby decided to get 2 new AC's, the back is original and sounded like a freight train, the front is newer but still old and we definitely want good AC's.  He also is getting my satelite TV dome, the stationary one.  We don't need the other one, so those will all be new.

Will come together but I doubt it does this trip.

It is 45 so far they are saying 65 today and by Friday 75 then cooling off again.  To bad we can't do the roof Friday,  darn.

He is still talking about one with slides, I said forget it for now, lets see how this one and I get along and sell the other one, gosh.

It's really cold out, got 26 last night.  Today hubby put 2 new pair of gas struts on, man I could not have done that.  He was really pushing on them to get them on, he said if it had been warm he might not have been able too.  Anyway, now all my bays open and stay open, YES! 

The propane door wouldn't stay up at all and the other side drifted down quickly.

He has been busy since he has been home.  He said he is thinking of tenting the motorhome cover so we can sit heaters up there and warming it inside, then we can clean the roof good, get it dry, also take off the AC's.  Then we can prime the roof and let that dry then do the rubber roof.  It just has to be about 70 will cure in 24 hours below it 48 hours.  But it does have to be above 50.  So we shall see.

Gary RV Roamer said:

I would be reluctant to use any silicone caulk, because nothing sticks to silicone once it is down. Ever again. If you need to touch it up later or add another layer, you are pretty much out of luck if you have used silicone. Got to strip the old out to add any new. But if you get it right the first time, it will certainly keep the water out.

If you can't find a caulk designed for use with EPDM, better to use any non-silicone exterior grade (window and door) caulk, or even a kitchen and bath caulk. Lowes carries Geocel Proflex, if I remember correctly, and that's a tri-polymer caulk that works well in most all RV applications. American Coach uses Geocel Proflex RV at the factory, on many types of seams.

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Agree with GARY, don't use silicone !!  We spend all winter here in Ontario Canada cutting out water damaged areas and rebuilding them on trade-ins that owners used silicone to seal thinking that it would work.  Stay with Dicor or rubber roof wherever possible.  You'll usually notice silicone tubes say "sealant" but not adhesive. Got to have good adhesion.

We aren't I bought Dicor caulk, proguard proflex primer and liquid roof.  Also dicor bonding adhesive 901BA.

Today is beautiful.  Tom changed oil on the Winnie, I'm taking the stuff out.  Our 2 week tenant is gone.  So I'm cleaning cabinets in the diesel pusher and moving stuff in the kitchen over.  Tom says you don't need all that stuff, I said I cook when on the road so yes dear I do.  I have thinned out some stuff though.

I cleaned in the Winnie, just have to vacuum and mop.  He washed the outside.  Saturday our ins folks are coming over to look it over, they are very very interested in buying it.  I hope they do, its a nice smaller motorhome.  They don't have a problem with getting the cruise fixed and I adjusted the price some for that. They had a class C before so he is familiar with a motorhome.  I hope they take it, if not off to PPL next week.  I enjoyed the 20k miles I put on it.  But now I'm moving on to something bigger.  Hope its as reliable, its pretty durn old!

My neighbor across the street wants to buy one of our old Silver Streaks, it needs work, but they are durable for sure.  He is going to fix it up and make a guest house for his sister out of it.  She is also an interior designer so I can only imagine how she can make it look.  If he offers me a decent price its gone. We won't have time to work on it for years and its just sitting there.

We don't even have to try to sell stuff out here, it sells itself.  My tenant next door put a car up for sale one day and sold it the next.  Amazing to me.


He took drywall and insulation up for the carpenter to finish insulating and drywalling the little one bedroom we are building.  We are working on the diesel starting tomorrow.


Ok, back to work and moving. 



It appears we are going to have at least 3 beautiful 70 degree days, if I didn't have this to do I would be working on the roof today.  We have to get the stuff off and cleaned first.

Hubby took drywall and insulation up to our carpenter who is building out the little one bedroom rental.  It's going to be a cutie.  Our newest TT is complete and rented.

Tom says you don't need all that stuff

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Thanks for the laugh!  Tell Tom every husband on this forum says the same thing, but they're sure glad we have the stuff when it's needed!  A good example was our second day at the Catalina rally over the holidays.  Someone didn't clean up after their dog near our site.    Jerry managed to step in it and then tracked it inside the motorhome.  I smelled it before I saw it.  Thankfully we have tile flooring and that cleaned up okay but I've just finished two loads of throw rugs that he hosed off and let dry outside for a couple of days.  I had backup rugs tucked away and brought them out so we didn't have walk on cold floors (22 degrees in the morning).  Also Jerry had to switch to his other shoes because the other pair was soaking wet and had to dry out.  Your Tom likes to eat and he'll like it a lot better when you have what you need!  :

ArdraF

We FINALLY got back to work on the diesel.  The Winnie is all cleaned up ready for the folks to look over tomorrow and go in a run in so hope its sold.

Tom got his heat gun out for me and I got all the caulk off around the skylights in just a few hours.  The humps of caulk I was worried about was a gray with some kind of hard cream colored caulk under it.  You could not heat it to remove it, I did get a lot of it up but it was tough.  But I have smooth surfaces for the most part to work with now.  From the color I thought it was wood or something, nope, just caulk.

Tom got the ac's off, the solar panel and raised the antenna.  I still have to removed the caulk on the end caps and look over the vents.

We are going to glue down loose places where items were taken off the roof. and the rubber roof is loose underneath.

The roof material is in less then great condition toward the front.  We are going to go ahead and use this since we have it and see how it does.  As hubby says if it lasts a couple of years then we will redo it.  From what I've read about it, it sounds like we will be fine.

I'm gluing any loose places, then going to clean it good and go from there.  It's 72 today but the wind picked up so a bit of a chill. 

I wish I could download pictures need to work on that.

We have 2 days coming of 74 day temps and over 50 night temps, Saturday and Sunday.  We are going to try to get it cleaned, primed, and liquid roof on.

I just came in about 6:30.  Got the caulk off except around 2 vents.  We also want to go down the roof edge and remove that caulk, then we are ready to glue and clean. 

Tom took off the solar panel he said he is pretty sure it works, of course, it won't under the cover. 

The heat gun is a small miracle, wish I had it before.

So we have our work cut out for us tomorrow.  We also have someone looking at the Winnie and I will have to take them for a drive.

Good Luck on selling the little RV. Hopefully they will recognize the quality of the work you have done on it. Personally, I have enjoyed reading all about the adventures you have had with your motorhome renovations. Keep us posted on how the roof comes out....

Yesterday I got all the caulk off, amazing, those big humps of stuff around the skylights was some kind of cream or tan colored caulk.  Even the heat gun didn't melt it.  If I could get it started I could peel it off.  I got it off for the most part of smooth if not, so no more humps of stuff around them.  I went ahead and cleaned the caulk off around the vents too.  As hubby said it was likely the original from looking at it and there were cracks in it.

I went down one side removing, he went down the other.  Then he got one bucket of water and cleaned with a scrub brush and some RV roof cleaner conditioner and had 2 buckets of rinse water.  got that old boy on his hands and knees mopping, He! he! We couldn't hose as we have the skylights and AC units out and those holes are open!!  He changed waters frequently, looked pretty good and then didn't leave it soaking wet either.

We are behind schedule were hoping to be putting on liquid roof today but will be priming instead.  I'm about ready to go out and glue anything that appears loose with dicor bonding adhesive 901 BA.  Then I'm going over any places that look alligatored and smear dicor caulk in those even with the roof so we won't have it look uneven in those places.  There are several that are pretty bad looking.  Also going to put dicor back in the edges of the end caps.  When we are all done we are running eternabond totally side to side on the end caps just to be on the safe side. 

I found differing suggestions as to whether we should use the caulk on everything before we put the roof on or not.  So we decided to do it this way. 

The cure time on the primer is 10 hours at 70, it is now 65.  I'm sure we won't get 10 hours today.  It's only supposed to get 60 tonight so we might be ok to put the  liquid roof on tomorrow.  If its tacky we likely won't and it may be a week before we can as the temps are going to go down. 

Tomorrow night 47 but a high of 67 tomorrow.  We have read that it will take 7 to 10 days for the rubber roof to cure.  We don't want to walk on it to put the stuff back on the roof before he leaves the 18th if we don't think its cured enough.  Hoping the weather warms up and stays above 50 for a few days and it will be good to go. Also we have talked about tarps around the motorhome cover and setting up a couple of heaters for a day or two and that probably would dry it good.

I am going to take the carpet protector I bought, its sticky stuff and stick it over the ceiling openings inside to keep the dirt and leaves out.  That should work.

Ok to work shortly.  Hubby likes to listen to all the political shows till noon on Sunday. Ok it just hit 70 degrees out so out I go.

Be sure to have 2 people do this, no way one can. We are going to finish the primer, both of us are getting tired.

We found when it says work time is 30 minutes, its 30 minutes.  We are around half way done, all the way around the skylights so the rest is just flat surface.  I have used a gallon and have a gallon left.  But I also bought a couple of quarts extra, just in case, hope we don't need it.

I think this stuff is going to give good coverage, looks like it filled the alligatoring.  I haven't taken my usual pictures today, not only can't I download them that gunk was solid on my hands, guess it will just be after ones.  Lacquer thinner will clean it off though.

Poor old Tom hasn't been exercising on this project and he is stiff and can't get up and down very well.  I'm pretty flexible from doing manual labor.  He said riding around in a pickup on a job and sitting at a desk will do that.

We got the primer on, 2 gallons exactly did the roof and top sides for a 38 ft Eagle.  We had a light on for the second half as it was getting dark so I couldn't get a good look.  I told Tom we need to get it out in the light to see what it really looks like. But it looks like it did a good job of covering.  It took brushes, squeeges, and a short nap roller to put it on.

We are 2 tired old people tonight.  But we both like doing this stuff or we wouldn't.  I still think sometimes, you sold a perfectly good motorhome and are working on one with all kinds of stuff that needs done before you can use it.  Even makes me wonder sometimes!

Our luck finally ran out.

Dear old Mr Tom, who informed me yesterday he knew everything, or he just corrected me that he knows more then me, created a colossal mess.   (Payback is hell)

We put the primer on, it did good, it rained last night no problem.  I went out to look at it this morning, OH MY GOD.  He had taped off around the upper trim so the primer wouldn't drip on the sides.  The plastic even though it was taped down here and there blew up into the primer and of course stuck.  It's about 8 inches or so. I have been out there for several hours pulling all of it out I can get off and leaving the rest. We aren't quite sure how we are going to fix it.  He thinks maybe lightly sanding it, of course since he knows more then me, I'm sure that is the best solution).  I'm wondering if a light coating of primer over it might just cover it as its ultra thin plastic and just leaving those pieces I couldn't get off.  Anyone got suggestions? 

At least it wasn't the liquid roof and "we" won't make that mistake again.

I think Tom is due at least one "gimme"

I just had to give him a hard time, it was such an opportunity I just couldn't pass it up. ;D

It's basically on the drivers side, the end caps are ok and the awning side has maybe 3 spots so not as bad as it could be.

I was able to peal some off but we still have to do something with the rest, have to think on it a bit. 

But we would welcome suggestions from others too.

And I promise to be nice. :-X

Plastic is soft, so it ought to sand out w/o difficulty, except that the sandpaper is going to "load up" and have to be changed frequently. Tom probably already knows that, but get "open kote" paper for removing soft, thick stuff.  I would probably use 40 or 50 grit.

Having had a few faux pas like that myself, you have my sympathy - as well as a grin over what Tom must have been thinking (or saying) when he discovered the mes..