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After being so excited at buying our first caravan and having our first break away, we have ended up a litte dissapointed.

We brought our 1992 Abbey Piper 14-4L EX earlier this year.  In very good condition for her age.  No obvious signs of damp, no musty smells.  She had been serviced in 2009 and all ok.  We had her serviced last month, in preparation for our trip and again all ok and damp test was fine.  We also brought a second hand NR Libra awning.  Seller confirm never had any problems with leaks - assumed all ok, although hubby did use fabsil on it to be sure.

Unfortunately we've experienced some rain on our trip and had some problems highlighted.  We've had rain dripping in from the awning roof.  Although frustrating we took the opinion we could sort this upon our return home (we hope anyway!!).  For some reason the drips only happened in light rain not the heavy rain we had during the early hours of one morning :-s.

The morning after the heavy rain I went to convert the rear dinette from a single bed back to the seating and when removing the cushions discovered that we had a damp patch in the left rear corner - just above the seat storage.  It seems the rain water had seaped in! 

If there was exisiting damp, should this have shown on a damp reading when it was serviced or have we just been unlucky in having this happen?

Any advice on resolving our problems would be appreciated.  Is it going to be costly for us to get the leak sorted?

Thanks

Hi Claire1805, Is the damp area wet or just a little damp, if wet you could have leak, if just damp it could be the condensation from your nights sleep, (hot cushions against cold walls), check window seals, have a look at seals between awning rail and van (no gaps however small), clean any lose sealer from rail and re seal, this should do as a temporary repair. Full repair requires awning rail to be taken off, cleaned with white spirits, same with van sides, then clean off the white spirit residue with Meths, it is a messy job, can cost £60 depending on the amount and make of sealer, Caravan repair shop will charge around £1000, I know I have asked, I have just finished re sealing my one van, on my own took me two weeks in between rainy days.