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Picked up my van last night in the wind and pouring rain to bring home to be fixed from damp at the front end.

We've taken the paper off at the front and can see that it has been reboarded, however the one half is visably damp again but the other bone dry with no tell tale signs of spongyness, differnce in colour ect.

We think the problem could be a leekey window at the front and are planning to reseal the window and reboard the wall-does this sound like the obvious answer to you?

How else can we seal the van to try and stop this happening again

Hi there,

Yes, it sounds about right, window seals often let in water and do need re-sealing every now and again, basically the main places where water can get into a caravan are the rails or the window seals, so if the damp is confined to beneath the window frame and nowhere near the front window rail then it does sound like the leak is indeed from the window seal.

Fixing the problem is quite straight forward, you simply need to remove the window from it's rail, remove the white strip and black rubber, check/replace any rotten wood, then apply mastic, re-fit the rubber and white insert, then re-fit the window. I have summed it up quite quickly but an indepth description can be found on Wizards site by clicking Here

If you need any advice then there's always someone around to lend a hand.

(is it possible to take some photo's of the damp and post them here? if you are not sure how to do this then you could e-mail them to me using the e-mail link below and i will add them for you?)

all the best.

Hi Nichalford

as grub says its quite an easy fix  you could also look at mywebsite for window resealing 

Hi Nichalford , it does sound like your window seal , but also check the front grab handles , and the window hangers ( hinge ) , if the sealant looks in poor condition then reseal it . How far does the damp go , ie is it at the top of the window , or to one side and into the corner , or just at the bottom of the window .

atb

Wizard

Hi,

The board which is different in colour was directy underneath the 1st window-we have 3 windows are the front.

OH rubbed the board wuth sandpaper and the colour has disappeared-not spongy or any smell, infact OH reckons the front boards are relatively new.Went to Mendips to see how much the new rubber will be £8 mtr. We also bought wood sealer to try and prevent damp from the rest of the van-on taking the paper off we discovered in actual fact where we thought there was no damp there was!!

At the left hand side of the van at the back,in the corner the board is completely rotten and black-we lost heart yesterday after seeing itand havent fixed it yet-I did try and take photos but the camera was dead and was so p****d off that that was the end of that!

OH seems to think that the back of the van will have to come off to replace the board-is this true? I will try and get some pic's tonight.

Thanks

Hi nichalford

dont loose heart , its not rocket science , you can do this.i know just how you feel as we felt the same way until we realised that we have nothing to loose and all to gain if we just take our time and work the problem. if you have seen my website you will see that we have dam near rebuilt our van as have many others on here. all the fix it club are here to help you. 

Thank you alsparker, it will get done evenually I'm sure, its just hard work thinking 'are we doing this right?'. Ive printed the sheets about how to take the back of the van but are still very scared! OH is an electriacian if the problem was an electrical problem it would have been fixed there an then-although most people wouldn't I wish it was todo with the electrics!But by no means is he any good at things like this-he will have a go but he's not very confident. Hopefully we will attempt the damp this weekend as the windows will be resealed and the rest of the van coated in the wood adehsive.

Thanks your help is much appreciated.

Hi Nichalford,

As Al says, don't lose heart, the job is a easier to fix than it first appears, when you first remove the damp boarding and see the dark, nasty, wet patches underneath you naturally think the worst and that it will be impossible to fix, but when it's all dried out and the rotten bits replaced you'll see that it looked a lot worse than it actually was!

One thing i will suggest is to check all the rails around the outside of your van (awning rails, window rails etc) to see if any are loose or if there's any 'play' in them when you pull on them, even the slightest gap between the rail and the caravan shell means that the screws and mastic underneath the rail are no longer doing their job and stopping the rain from getting in so need to be replaced. You say that you will be applying wood adhesive to the van... where will you be applying this to? 

Hi

We bought our first caravan early September and discovered damp in rear offside corner that when uncovered was a horror to behold, the floor was rotten and the whole back section just fell away when we removed the rear of the caravan, i felt like scrapping it so i understand how you must feel.

I had no knowledge of repairs to caravan but followed all the fixit club guides and armed with a jigsaw after a trip to the local timber merchant set about the task, it's now ready for the October half term and is probally better at the back than when new.

Main tool a good electric staple gun

Good luck if i can do it anyone can

Marc

now I know this may sound daft but I am missing working on my caravan so much I am now thinking of looking for a project to do,

now is that scary or what

Hi there

I've been in a similar spot, and it is evident others here have as well. The only advice I can give is to try to take it section by section, that way you see progress. If you try to work on all fronts at once it can be very disheartening.

All the best

Simon

Yes we are there doing it to!  Don't loose heart we did to start with, I cried for a whole night and hubby sat with his head in his hands.  Thanks to the fix it club members we are well on our way to having the back end fixed.  Well that is the start of the problem we have damp in the bathroom and the front end is looking even a bigger job.  We feel confident enough now that we are gonna get this done so I'm gonna book our first trip for Easter this weekend.  Hubby has done a lot of diy round the house but has never touched a caravan, if we can do it then anyone can!! (well at least we are attempting it)