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Hi Fixed it Club.  Our weekend away has been a little spoiled by our discoveries of last weekend, and today. 

Last week we discovered a small damp patch on the inner rear corner of our caravan, (Swift, Continental Model - Speedbird 490 with wrong side door, year 2000 model) in the combined toilet/shower area, in the angle between the toilet and the sloping area of the rear of the van.  (We've never used the shower, so it's not coming from inside the van).  We removed the inner waterproof surface of the wallboard, and there was a discoloured area about 12” x 4” which was not soft, and a damp area about 3” x 2” at the bottom of the discoloured area.  The damp area had dried out by this weekend, in drier weather.  Today we set out to investigate this, and have checked the awning rails outside (which were replaced 18 months ago, following some damage) plus the seals around the cassette toilet door, and the filler compartment door.  These all appear to be fine, with a good seal everywhere, no rusty screws, and sound seals under the rails after we removed the grey fillet.  On further investigation underneath though, we actually have damp in the rear corners of the under surface of the floor, on both sides, which is rotting the ply.  The areas are about 9 inches square, tight into both rear corners.  The problem seems to have been caused by the lack of a ‘drip’ in manufacture, where water runs down the walls and the rear panel, and instead of ‘dripping’ off the plastic rear or metal side rails is in contact with the ply of the floor, especially at the points where the panel is screwed to the floor.  We’ve done a temporary repair today by distancing the plastic panel at the rear from the wood floor by packing out the screws, and water now drips off the rear panel rather than contacts the floor area.  Down both sides we've scraped out along the inside of the side rails, and the water now appears to be dripping off satisfactorily – but there isn’t much of a gap and any debris would probably cause another problem.

We had a look at several other Swifts in the storage area where our van is stored, and several of them (even a newish 2004 van) were affected in the same way.  Bailey caravans (certainly the ones we looked at) have a shaped rear panel, with a built in curve which encourages water away from anywhere near the ply floor.

Mr Val A is thinking about installing a plastic angle, attached to the rear panel to create a drip (making sure the ply dries out, and the plastic is well sealed to the existing rear panel).  Once the floor is dry, we've thought about painting the affected area with wood hardener and then a form of underseal, such as used to be used on car bodies. We're not quite sure how to deal with the run-off of water down the side walls as on Swifts there is no ‘skirt’ – the bottom outside of the van is actually level with the under-side of the external ply floor.

I’ve taken some photographs of the inside and the outside of the worst corner, and would really appreciate some advice and the opinion of you experienced damp repairers.  We're away in France in a short while, and hopefully will be able to do some of this in better weather than we've had recently.  Many thanks.

Hi Val A , could you email me the pictures so i can take a look .

atb

Wizard

Thank you very much indeed for your fast response, Wizard.  I've emailed some photographs, and did try to download them on here as 'images' but failed miserably.  Not quite sure where I am going wrong - but anyway they are currently winging their way towards you!

I'm very grateful indeed to the lovely members of this forum, who are so helpful.

not sure if is what you need,FIAMMA do a stick on drip channel,75cm wide for doors/300cm wide for walls/600cm/2500cm.no.s 108009 / 051 653 /03922B01/03922C01.

www.agentfiamma.co.uk

Thanks very much Michael - that's a very useful tip.  We're off around the caravan shop and DIY palaces this morning to see if they have anything similar that we can buy today and install today (it's dry here this morning after the torrential rain yesterday).  We want to get at least something done before we go away, even if it's only a temporary repair until we have time to do major stripping out. 

Thanks also to Wizard for taking the time to look at the photos.

I'll take some more photographs today, weather permitting as it's just started pouring down again!!!  Just what you need when you've got a wet caravan and not very much time.

Hi val we had the same thing with our 1994 swift in the same place. bad design i found it when we got our van so i did what you said. took the screws out and put a peace of angle corner plastic from b&q and put it under the back panel water drips off fine dose not run under to the floor any more also stuck a new bit off ply 5in -8in in both corners under the van fixed

 best regards paul