Since it's the boring winter months, and we are not travelling yet, I thought I would do some repeats of my most-read blog posts on RV repairs. This one had over 6,500 views when I first posted it. We coated our roof on October 7, 2009
Coating our Fiberglass Roof on the Motorhome
On our 1996 Safari Serengeti, our filon fiberglass roof can be known to get tiny microscopic cracks and fissures after 10 years of age.... resulting in potential leaks! Although we don’t have any leaks yet, we decided it was a good idea to Git Er Dun!
These are common places for leaks to start, so we did the preventative thing and had sealed those too the first year owned the rig.
So, keeping in mind that we want this rig to last a looonggg time, we decided to take the advice of the guys on the Safari list with rigs the same vintage of ours. They are all coating their roofs with a special elastomeric coating made for fiberglass roofs.... (similar to Kool-Seal, but we had to get the formula made for fiberglass roofs like on our rig)
But not being sealed down allows for any little leak around vents, AC units, or skylights to let in water and create horrible damages.
Thus the preventative care is very important.
We checked the weather forecast and found three days in a row of nice 70-80 degree days and warm nights, without any rain in sight. We hoped.
The next day after work at 3pm, we both got up there and got busy!
Whew, I sure don't like heights, but with adrenaline rushing and heart pounding, I joined him up there to work fast as a team effort to get it done!
I sure was clutching that ladder!!!! I HATE heights.. but Steveio needed my help, so I bit the bullet and squeezed my eyes shut and did it. The worst part is when you reach the top of the ladder and have to swing your leg around to get ON the roof.
Even with Steveio holding the ladder firmly down on the ground, I was still a scared silly mouse. Tee heeeee
Using blue painter’s tape, we taped off the sides where the white roof meets the blue colored sidewalls.
I crawled around on my hands and knees, hand brushing liberal amounts around all the vents, air conditioners, skylight and antennas.
Steveio rolled the remaining parts with a thick napped roller on a long handle.
He got to stand, I was too scared to stand!
There are a lot of different brands of elastomeric coatings out there.
You have to find one that works for your type of roof. (ours was fiberglass in this case)
Read the cans and find something with a long warranty life.
Ours said 7 years if you do two coats.
Here is the brand we bought, called SealBest at Menards, a mid-west home improvement chain.
(DON'T use that fibered roof coating stuff that is used for mobile homes, it's very thick black tarry stuff that dries silver-- I did that on my old motorhome in the 90's ... not good, and not the right product for a flexing moving structure)
We used almost a full gallon with the first coat.
This is a wide body motorhome almost 40 feet long.
We used the second gallon and rolled it on as thick as we could.
Whewww!
It was a job well done.
Wonder what the next project is going to be???
*added note: it is now 2016 -
8 and a half years later,
and it still looks great!
Posts
Well done to you! I have been on the roof of our 1996 Ivory Edition, and I feel like you do about it... kind of scary! And, I agree that the worst part is swinging your leg over to get ON to the top of the Coach, and vice versa. Husband Tony has been up there as well... I can't say he loves it either. But, when things have to be done, it's best to work as a team whenever possible.
ReplyDeleteKaren, the side edges are a blue coating of some type. Did you come down to the blue or all the way and cover the blue to the trim? Thanks John
ReplyDeleteHi John... the bright blue you see in most of the pics is the painters tape. But on the pic of Steve on the ladder finishing up, you can see the regular blue paint on our rig goes up beyond the metal trim strip. So we only painted as far as the blue paint started. But when we did Mel's coach a few years later, he had us spread the elastomeric down over the side to the edge of the trim. Matter of preference I suppose. But good question!
DeleteKaren, the side edges are a blue coating of some type. Did you come down to the blue or all the way and cover the blue to the trim? Thanks John
ReplyDeleteHi John... the bright blue you see in most of the pics is the painters tape. But on the pic of Steve on the ladder finishing up, you can see the regular blue paint on our rig goes up beyond the metal trim strip. So we only painted as far as the blue paint started. But when we did Mel's coach a few years later, he had us spread the elastomeric down over the side to the edge of the trim. Matter of preference I suppose. But good question!
Delete