I purchased and brought home my first caravan yesterday, a late 70s or early 80s Swift corniche 12/2. It is lovely, and will, by the end of the week, have working electrics and gas appliances... I hope! However, it does have one more serious problem.
At the bottom of the door frame and just inside the door frame on the floor there is rot - the wood is holding together but it is damp and flaky! Now I know usually dodgy floors are fixed with delamination kits, but obviously this isn't simply bits of wood seperating...
The van only cost 250 quid, it is worth more than that for bits... but I would like to try and repair it myself and get some use out of it this year... So how the hell would I start the reapir? Could I dry it out and then seal the wood with resin??? How can I strngthen what IS there to stop myself or my wife putting a foot through?
So how the hell would I start the repair? Could I dry it out and then seal the wood with resin??? How can I strengthen what IS there to stop myself or my wife putting a foot through?
if it was mine i would fix 2' x 2' x 3 off wood supports like beams.these can be bolted at each end by a strong bolt into the good part of the floor.with this in place the rot can be cut out and a new piece of ply added of the same thickness and screwed and glued to the beams.check for gas pipes first.the bolts used should be half round.sounds like its gone beyond delamination liquids.
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
we had that on our old van the ply had started to flake off only found it cos we took the old carpet and vinyl out and fitted new, we had it in two areas the front of the van and by the door, i just used some wood epoxy for rotten wood, soaked it in the stuff and put weights on it and it all stuck back together and became hard again, then glued a thin sheet of ply over the top and glued the vinyl down onto it then carpeted it, the door area had more work as we also installed a waterproof foot mat over the top which could be removed to be washed by undoing the carpet plate thingys.
Hmmnnn... two good sugestions there, I think a combination of both? Beams underneath to hold what is there in, remove the worst loose bits and dry out remains, wood epoxy mix to fill in where rotten wood removed, then 8 mm ply to cover ALL floor area... I have checked that that won't affect the doors opening...
PLUS at the edge of the door I have found a place that does l shaped metal bars, I'll no nails that to the inside of the door so that the edge of the new ply sits on that as well!