royally mugged myself off and wasted family savings on a van with a bad rot issue underneath on one corner. Private seller charmed me came round my house, played with my kids etc all the while hiding this. My fault completely did damp tests around various places in van but somehow missed this underneath like a fool, big lesson learned as well as losing £5000. Trying everything to remain positive.
It's an elddis odyssey 505, I'm guessing the awning rail is to blame or a big issue although when raining it didn't appear to be dripping down to this place... Water has come through on the inside in a small patch in the corner, surrounding it seems hard and passes damp test with cheap meter.
I'm not concerned with aesthetics or resale value (good job I guess haha) but I want to at least have a van where I can get some years use out of it with my young family.
suggest you also take a look at your rear grab handles and also the window seals at the back end, although i suspect its got in via the awning channel and the trim not covering the lower screw holes. not a hard job to fix tho so dont panic.
Hi and welcome to the forum. I agree with trog, soft rear floor corners are fairly commen and as long as you have a minimal amount of woodworking skills you can rectify it. The usual culprit is water running down the sides and rear panel then wetting the plywood floor instead of dripping off, it's the constant wetting that starts the rot so try to rectify this.
Caravan construction is pretty basic and no specialist tools are required, only time, that's why it's expensive to have it done for you.
As you nentioned, the wood around it seems sound so cut the rotten stuff out and get a good look because with a private sale you don't have the redress of a dealership sale. Even if some of the wooden battens at the edges are rotten, they too can be replaced cheaply. Good luck.
Dave.
------------- Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you on experience.
Mark Twain.
Yes as pointed out stuff to use is Isopon P40 which is glass reinforced car body filler. Dig out the loose material & allow to dry if wet then working from underneath knock up a small amount of P40 at a time. Once you add the hardener it remains workable for about 15mins.
Once it starts to go off you can add other layers until built up to thickness. You can do all this in one session & it is fully hard next day. Job done.
I did this on a previous caravan & it was still good when I sold it 4yrs later.
thanks a lot for the replies guys, really appreciated and put my mind at ease. A friend of mine is a very competent chippy (loft conversions by trade). Looking around at other restorations I'm guessing my floor is likely 2 sides of ply sandwiching some insulation?
Would it be feasible to cut the complete section out and replace with two sheets of marine ply and use either the existing insulation again in between, If not is there something you would suggest to use?
Or possibly just cut the bottom section out beneath the insulation?
Just thinking of utilising his skills rather than me debuting with isopon haha
Issue here is the way caravans are built. They start with floor on chassis then add the furniture then the walls. So it is difficult to repair in opposite direction. Isopon repair is stronger than original wood & glues everything together. It also much quicker than trying to replace wood.
Had a small soft patch under a rear corner on my Bailey. I did as suggested above. Removed any loose wood and patched it with P40. As mentioned, the herzim is too short so needs replacing. If you use P40, once it's dry it can be sanded with an orbital sander, face mask and eye protection would be needed.
John
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Topic: Been ripped off, under corner rot issue
via mobile 31/8/2021 at 1:44pm
