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Thanks for all the tea and sympathy.

Took the bull by the horns last night and started taking out the panelling in the front.  There is good news and bad news.

The good new is that the damage is nowhere near as extensive as my worst fears.

The front window has been leaking in both bottom corners although the right hand corner (as you look at it from the front) has only been a small leak, but is the left side that’s very bad.

However the window most of the window frame is salvageable with only the left hand side support needing replacement.

There are some other wood bits between the window frame and the main supports which it seems is used as a panel anchors due to the curve shape of the front.  Right side is very good looks like its been replaced in the past, left bottom is just black dust.

The main cross beam that the window hangs from is ok- the outside seal/rail has leaked in the past but although the wood is black, its not wet and solid, needs treatment with the Cuprinol stuff.  Will take off and clean and seal the outside rail also though.

Both of the main up right (right side and left) are OK, Right side is good, The left side is wet but the wood is solid, just need drying out and then the Cuprinol stuff.

The bad news is that all of the water from the window leak(s) has run done (obviously) and most of the wood work that supports the shelve unit (that looks a bit like the one in Als van) and half of the top of the unit is very bad, so I have to pull this shelve unit out so I can remove all the bad wood and replace it with good.  Which also means that I have to take out the two bench seat units. And I have to remove the metal sides of the battery and gas storage bay as well.

Still I think my basic DIY stills are up to the job, and in a perverse way I am kind of looking forward to it.

I am not going to rush into things I will strip out all the bad stuff and then let the van dry out for a couple of weeks.  Then I shall have a week of work and get the job done.

Can do any thing this Easter weekend has I have to move the chicken house (just got an extra bit of land) and put fences up and other stuff.

Will keep you all updated on my progress.

Hi Steve we are just in the process of removing all the rotten damp wood from our bargain £200 van, its not nearly as hard as you think once you get started, the sooner you can start the sooner you can get away in what will be your little palace, best of luck.

                                                       Yvonne.

Sounds like some DIY project Steve!

Good luck with it, keep us posted on the progress.

well it sounds like you have you hands full steve, any advice I can give or any questions you have please send me an e-mail.

yvonne

your OH is doing a great job well done and welcome to the I fixed it club to all of you.

Hi Everyone this is our first post we found your site by typing caeavan damp into google. as you can probably guess we have a damp problem. we found alsparker's website very useful and it made us feel a lot better. after being quoted £600 for repairs we decided to try and tackle the job ourselves. first problem we encountered was actually getting the old board off the polystyrene any tips? cheers frank & ann