Hi I am new to this forum and hope to get a bit of sound advice from people who know what they are talking about. I am looking to buy a used caravan to replace our much used Abbey 415 gt 1983 which has been in the family for about 20 years. I have found a 1997 Abbey Spectrum 520 on sale for £4650 which is in overall good condition inside it is in superb condition with no dents or scratches to any of the units, everything works as it should. My only worry is that there are small areas of damp in 3 of the top corners which spread about 500mm from each corner. I have a good damp metre (I am a joiner by trade) and got readings of 40% at the source of the damp going down to about 20% at 500mm out. The wall board has not gone spongy yet apart from one tiny area in the back corner abut 25mm across. The damp is obviously caused from leaky awing rails the seller has offered to reseal all rails but to be honest that is a job I would rather do myself as then I know it would be done right. My question is should I steer clear of any caravan with damp issues and try to find a dry van bearing in mind my budget or if the rails are sealed properly the damp will dry out and this should no put me off buying this van?? As I have said apart from these small areas of damp the van is in good condition and is an extremely well appointed and comfortable caravan with the benefit of a full Isabella awing. Any advice gratefully received.
To me it seems over priced for a 12 year old caravan ( not ment to put you off , but maybe worth trying to knock some money off )
Damp wise i would say if your getting readings 500mm away then you probably need to remove the wall board in that area and then throughly dry the area before replacing with new wall board ( but i need to know the area your on about , 500mm x 500mm ? or 500mm x 25mm ? , 500mm x 100mm ?, etc ).
You should cover the area where water is getting in , then strip the wallboard out , next dry the area , then reseal the awning rails , only then rebuild the inside .
I would not let the seller reseal the rails , do it yourself so you know you have a proper job .
It's always better to steer clear of damp caravans and buy a dry one , only you can decide if you want to buy and repair it yourself . Being a joiner it shouldn't really be too much of a problem for you to repair . What i would say is give the body ( outside skin ) a really good check over , look for paint bubbles or signs of corrosion ( check the roof too ) , if you find any i would look at other caravans instead . There is a great many things you should check when buying a caravan , if you can take someone with you who really knows about caravans and what to look for .
I Bought a Abbey Piper 1995 For £2500 from a dealer, in excerlent con with Isabella awning and only one owner( see gallery). I am new to caravaning but it seems a little bit on the high side to me.
Seems a bit expensive to me too, for that sort of money you should be looking at a 2000-2001 model, I spent months looking round at vans for about £5k and they was all 2000+ models,
Hi William, Joiner by trade, well you should be able to intemperate the meter readings correctly and realise the implications, so that's a good start, if you decide to buy the van it would be prudent to remove the awning rails completely, clean of all the old sealant of the rails and the van, apply a propriety sealant and refit rails with new stainless screws, if the area's are within the overhead cupboards i would remove a small area of the wall board with an hole saw and fit a penny vent to allow any damp to dry out, saves removing the wall board completely. As a pro. I'm sure you will be carry out this job successfully, and will appreciate that fact that you will need to monitor the repair over a period of time to ensure the repair has been successful.
Thanks for the advice everybody i have now purchaced the caravan i got the price down to £4200. The damp is not extencive and my first job will be to reseal the awing rails as the wall boards are not even discoloured i dont tink i will replace them. Putting a small vent at the top of the wall board sounds like a good idea. My only worry is once water tight again will the damp area dry out through the wall covering or will i just be sealing it in?
Hi William , there is a chance the wall board will dry out if it hasn't been damp for long , maybe put 2 vents in , although you probably understand this bit just thought i'd mention that the vent doesn't go thro the caravan wall to the outside , just on the wallboard side . If it's been damp for some time the wall board will be soft to a firm finger press , if this is the case the wall board needs to be replaced .
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Topic: Abbey Damp!
