The roof of your motorhome, travel trailer, or caravan is leaking? You must have used a waterproof travel trailer cover for protection. It is better to use a waterproof travel trailer cover to avoid leakage issues and to protect your travel trailer. Now it has a leakage issue so you need to go for a maintenance process:
The problem of waterproofing roofs of travel trailers, motorhomes or caravans are numerous
- Porosity
- cracking
- Defective seals
Over time, the coatings become porous and micro-holes are formed (micro-perforations).
Cracks appear, window seals and skylights degrade.
All these problems cause in the long run inflows of water inside the cabin and degradations follow (stained ceilings, swelling of wood, mold, rotting).
Solutions: liquid waterproofing membrane for caravan roof, travel trailer or motorhome
Which resin to choose?
you must use the correct sealing resin for your configuration.
The choice of this resin is to ask the question: is there or no stagnation of water when it rains? Is my roof flat or slightly sloping?
- If there is water stagnation (flat roof or if the roof is sagging and forming a bowl), you must use ARCATHAN polyurethane resin that will resist water stagnation
- If there is no water present you can apply ARCAFILM acrylic resin which is slightly less expensive.
Implementation of the waterproofness of the motorhome roof, travel trailer, and caravan:
Before anything else, you will need to prepare and clean the roof of your caravan, travel trailer and choose the right type of waterproofing resin to apply.
1 – Surface Preparation:
The roof or the part to be treated must be:
- Healthy, have good cohesion: all non-adherent parts will be removed by brushing, scraping or washing. In the case of ferrous metals, a neutralization of rust is, beforehand, essential.
- Disinfected: in the case of materials covered with microorganisms (foams, algae, molds …), eliminate the maximum by brushing and scraping. Then apply a coat of ANTI-FOAM on all parts to be sanitized. Wait 24 to 48 hours before continuing treatment.
- Dry or, at worst, very slightly damp;
- Clean: free of all traces of dirt.
2 – Treatment of cracks:
We will name singular point any connection or discontinuity of the support resulting in the rupture of the sealing plane.
Example: heterogeneous supports, cracks, defective seal.
How to treat heterogeneous substrates and cracks: the heterogeneous substrates are likely to deform in a different way with the variations of temperature and thus to create gaps or the water will be able to rush. we will treat these bonds as we treat cracks ie:
- joint sealing with polyurethane sealant 410,
- Depending on the chosen sealing resin
- Primer: Dilute the sealing resin with water to maximize grip and allow it to dry.
- 24 hours later, application of a pure layer of sealing
resin In the fresh resin, application, gluing and marouflage of the nonwoven polyester reinforcement - 24 hours after application of a final layer of sealing resin.
How to redo a faulty seal:
- In some cases it is necessary to completely dismantle the problematic bay with the greatest care, the bay is fixed to the support only by two things: the original sealant, and screws that will have to be removed first. If the original putty resists, you must carefully pass a knife to coat between the support and the bay.
- Clean thoroughly until the support is exposed,
- Apply a new caravan silicone sealant CC as originally
- Present the bay that will be screwed carefully on to original location, by reviewing the bay, the new putty will be crushed again the new sealant and thus recreate the seal.
3 – Application of the waterproofing membrane:
- Apply a diluted underlay of the CC sealing resin or caravan, and allow to dry for 6 hours.
- Apply a pure first coat of sealing resin, and allow to dry for 24 hours.
- Apply a second pure layer of sealing resin.
In case of pedestrian traffic, general microcracking phenomena or micro-holes, it is essential to proceed to a generalized interlining with Arcatissu non-woven polyester fabric
Check: it is better to check the tightness regularly either by a visual check inside and outside the cockpit or possibly with a humidity tester inside the cockpit.
There are many brands of caravans, trailers, and motorhomes and the general solution proposed at the level of the seal will be adapted according to the specificity of each brand.
Sealing caravan, travel trailer or motorhome awning roof
The waterproofing of a caravan or motorhome awning or a tent awning will be made with another type of product: it will be necessary to apply a special heavy fabric waterproofing agent that will be saturated with the support.
We have already discussed how to make a damaged travel trailer waterproof, it is a quite hectic task so it is better to secure your travel trailer with the waterproof travel trailer cover. Prevention is better than maintenance after damage, using covers for trailer and motorhomes is the perfect option. If you are looking for a waterproof travel trailer cover you can buy one from carcover.com and secure your travel trailer.
