Fleetwood orbit water damage

[drpparker1995]

Hello guys I bought a Fleetwood orbit 210fq a few years ago for a permanent home. It's a great camper but I've notice the floor is really soft all over especially by the bathroom. Me and my uncle are thinking about 3/8 inch plywood over the old floor to give me and my wife a new sturdy floor. Any advice

 

[IBTripping]

The first step would be to find out if there is a leak allowing water to enter your rv. If you haven't done an annual check of the roof, that is the first place to start. Check all the seams on the roof. If any look questionable, I'd re-caulk them with RV specific caulk.

 

[drpparker1995]

It was a used camper when I got it and I can tell the previous owners allowed the roof to leak over the front door and in the front corner. I'm gonna reseal all the corners where I noticed a small leak. Would installing new plywood over the old floor fix the spongy floor

 

[Rene T]

Don’t just do where you see a small leak. Do the entire roof

 

[drpparker1995]

How do you find out what kinda roof you have

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

Would installing new plywood over the old floor fix the spongy floor

Depends on your definition of "fix". If it's to briefly make yourself feel better about a damaged floor then yes. The only caveat is what happens when the damage continues to expand and additional problems surface later. Rot never stops, even if you mitigate the source of the moisture so if you don't address the root problem, you'll be forever adding layers.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[drpparker1995]

So it's basically a temporary fix but won't last more than a few years most likely

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

"Years" would be optimistic.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[drpparker1995]

So it most likely wouldn't even last that long

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I'm not quite as negative as Mark, but the risk of continuing rot is more than slight. You need to expose the floor to see how bad it is ("soft" covers a wide variety of ills). If it has thoroughly dried you may get by with adding a layer, but if the wood is spongy the rot is probably still spreading. And the leakage may well be continuing too. The proper solution, of course, is to remove the cabinets, pull up the old plywood and lay a new floor. Maybe replace the insulation as well. You may also find damage in the sidewalls if water has been running down inside. I think the Orbit has a metal frame sidewall, but the skin is almost surely laminated on luan plywood that can be water-damaged too.

You didn't mention the model year, but the 2008 Orbit brochure says it has a rubber (EPDM) roof. Fleetwood used EPDM membranes from Alpha Systems to build rubber roofs.

 

[drpparker1995]

I know the bathroom and front door were soft I saw the bathroom was this really dark wet look

 

[Kirk]

I saw the bathroom was this really dark wet look

The first thing that you need to do is to stop the leaking. If the roof has not been resealed regularly then it probably needs a complete re-caulking job. Depending on the age of the RV, the EDPM roof could also be in need of replacement, especially if it has not had regular care. Such roofs usually last from 15 or more years but there are seams that must be serviced regularly and it should be inspected annually.