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 We took our ABI Award Northstar caravan out for a weekend outing, and upon pitching her up we noticed that the ceiling panels at the front of the caravan were bulging downwards slightly. I must say at this point that the caravan doesn't smell of damp at all, but I have noticed a "drip through" at the awning rail just beyond the door when it is raining. When I say "drip through", I mean precisely that. The water doesn't seem to enter the caravan at all (well what I can visually see), but the water seems to drip past the awning rail and down the exterior wall. So from that I know that the caravan could do with a reseal especially as it's now 10 years old and I know little of it's history.

 Anyway, back to the bulging ceiling panels. Over the course of the weekend, the panel bulges seemed to diminish somewhat, and the bulges can be pushed inwards, but don't seem to stay put. If I remember rightly, the ceiling voids are filled with a type of mineral wool as opposed to the usual polystyrene blocks as they cannot get the curved shape, so I know then that the ceiling panels haven't come unbonded from anything. I havent removed the panels yet as I don't want to start getting the interior messed up, besides we're away for Christmas with the caravan, and when we're not away with the van, she's in storage. This leads to other issues, I can only do repair jobs at the storage yard at weekends what with work and all.

 The ceiling panels have small white headed nails or tacks I think they are holding them in place at the timbers, and there's a long white rigid plastic centre trim plus smaller ones jutting of at right angles along the joins. How difficult will it be to remove these so I can gain access to the roof voids? Does anybody have a plan of action for me that they could suggest? I am not scared of doing DIY jobs or getting my hands dirty.

Hi Christopher , welcome to UKCS , on my website you'll find links to other Fixed it Club members websites , you may find ceiling info on one of their webpages. I can't really suggest away of tackling the ceiling as i haven't done one myself , i would say though if the ceiling panels have a center join i'd be looking to start there to gain access . If you can post some pictures of the ceiling area it may help .

The Fixed it Club members are always around on here so do ask as many questions as you like and we'll try and advise you .
Good luck with the repair . Let us know how you get on .

atb

Wizard

i dropped the roof panels on my daughters coachman as the 2 front sections were sagging. i removed the plastic capped pins they are buggers and need to be replaced.then i removed the center cap revealing another plastic channel stapled to center timber there were dozens of them and they to were hard to remove.once this was off i could lower panels to reveal timbers and fibre glass that looked like new.there were no signs of there ever having been a leak. i put it down to the fact there arent many pins in each section and the age of the caravan, being stored used then stored again.just like me saging with old age.

neil