Karen & Ron,

Hate to say it but you have come upon the mother of all problems to try and solve. In fact, I believe the water between the interior and exterior walls is the biggest destroyer of all RVs, particularly SOBs with wood frames. With that said, let me explain my experience with this same problem and my sort-of-solution measures.

When I pulled the carpet out of my trailer in 1993 I too noticed big time floor damage in the exact same spot as you mention...that is to the right of the door where the inside wall meets the floor area. Being naive and inexperienced at the time I just figured that I would build the area back up using multiple fiberglass mats and filler. Well it took me more than a dozen applications before I could
level out the floor. After each matting dried, I would take my belt sander to it and grind it out to smooth it every evening. Then I would put the next coat down. Eventually things did level out.

Well after I repaired that section of the floor, as well as a couple of other parts in the hall way, I put my hardwood floors in. That is another story which I previously wrote about.

Now at the same time I knew that the front part of my floor, behind the couch and where the floor met the front of the interior wall, was a little soft and splintered. However since this area did not get any foot traffic, just the batteries and converter box were placed there, I didn't do anything about
it.

However the story does not end there. After a 1997 cross-country trip, I noticed that the batteries and electronics were now "sinking" into the subfloor in the front. I finally faced facts and decided to attack it last winter. I removed the couch, water tank, all electronics, vinyl flooring, etc. What I found
was wood so badly ruined that there were areas where I could virtually push my hand through to the belly pan! I came to the realization that I had to cut most of this flooring out using a sawz-all. I cut almost the complete area out until I found solid sub-flooring along the sides. The area was about 4' by 6' which now exposed the frame and belly pan. I then found the belly pan full of water and old insulation blankets.

Since I had everything out now, I decided this was a good opportunity to finish installing some new wiring by running it under the floor instead of along the floor in an exposed manner as I had  reviously done during a rewiring project. Because all this was taking time, I would towel out the belly pan when I was working and then notice that the next time it rained, the belly pan was full of water again. I tried very hard to isolate where this water was coming in by spraying many different areas with a hose and trying to note whether water came in. When I found an area that I thought might be responsible, I applied caulking. At first I used silicon caulk but this didn't seem to work and second,
made things look terrible. I later was told to use a butyl sealant caulk made especially for aluminum. What I found was that spreading that stuff was like spreading chewing gum. Again I was not successful and was just making things look worse.

At the same time it was now March (I had been messing around with this since December!) and we had a planned family campout at Disney World in early April. So I just decided to put drains into my belly pan in order to eliminate standing water (sort of like a soffit vent for the belly pan), and put 5/8" marine plywood in as the subfloor. I also coated this marine plywood with about a half dozen coats of marine polyurethane. I filled the dead space between the bellypan and marine plywood sub-flooring with a spray in foam insulation that is water proof. Overall the job came out pretty good but I knew that I had not solved the problem of repairing the leaks.

After our return from Disney, I read an article in the Blue Beret that said that Airstreams should be "waterproofed" by recaulking every 5 years! Now my trailer is a 1953 and I am sure that this had never been done. So for the first time I called the factory, made an appointment and brought my trailer to them in May to leave for one week (a one day trip from DC to Jax Ctr to DC). They "sealed up" every window, every panel and everything in between with something that looks very similar to the butyl rubber. They also told me that they see water in the bellypan of nearly ALL trailers, including new ones, and that this is more the norm than not.

So now think that I have temporarily "fixed" my water problem, actually bought more time, I just have to accept the fact that things just are not perfect, something I do not like to accept. I also have since found a rather soft spot near my bathroom/kitchen wall where I think the hardwood floor is acting as the main support at this point. I am sure that within the next five years I will have to pull my floor up and repair more areas of the subfloor and then put another hardwood floor down. But I will wait until I have to make the move.

I realize that this is not the happy story that you are looking for but again, the trailer has been outside for 46 years! Even the best of homes show signs of some water damage over that period of time. And, the area I built up with the fiberglass mats is still in pretty good shape. It might be a pretty good
patching method, it sure works for boats.

Good Luck,

Tom H.

Mitten64@aol.com wrote:
 

I am resending this message because I haven't recieved one reply. Very unlike this list that is full of knowledge. If its repeated I apologize. It just seems like no one received it.

Hello everyone:

Re: 1975 31' Sovereign - Center Bath

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Thanks to mother nature dumping as  much snow as she possibly could in the month of January on us (even surpassed the Blizzard of '77 amount) and then giving us unseasonably warm temperatures last weekend (50's), there is a lot of water around here.  Ron started to rip up the vinyl flooring to replace and discovered we have a leak in the living quarters (to the right as soon as you enter the door -where the floor meets wall it is wet.) We don't see anything on the wall as far as moisture. He tried sealing the external lower trim where the side meets the bottom but it is still leaking. Any ideas where he should check for the leak?

Windows? We do have Vista Vues. They don't appear to be leaking. Is it possible to be coming in the window and going behind the wall? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. (Didn't notice this problem because previous owners always had it stored in a heated garage. The floor doesn't appear to be rotted. It's wet and a little spongy but not damaged enough to replace). Any suggestions on what kind of calking to use to seal leak on the outside? Will Silicone RTV work?

Also we went floor shopping Saturday. Found a "hardwood floor" look made by
Mannington which is supposed to be the best look of wood for vinyl flooring. They had a big piece in their showroom that was actually part of their floor and it looked just like hardwood flooring. I really liked the look, so we bought it. Price was very reasonable. Bought a 8'x12' piece with a gallon of adhesive for $199. Anybody else familiar with this product? Pros and Cons? Suggestions for installation?

Karen Jankowski