Well, many weeks on we are still van hunting. This weekend we went to see a secondhand van and went fully prepared as we thought with damp meter.
My looked around van and all was looking well with damp meter until it was put under rubber seals of front windows. Blimey it shot up with high reading, despite all feeling solid and firm. Immediately below windows was fine.
We continued our search at a couple of dealers and the same happened around front window seals.
We are now wondering if we are using the meter correctly. Surely not all these vans are damp?
is it possible to get false readings under seals, we have just been reading that we may have been touching the rubber of seals and this causing high reading.
Please advise as now dont even know how realiable our inital viewing was as really liked van apart from this.
Regards
They should be dry .i have a seasonal caravan and got it surveyed.the caravan bloke put the protimeter just below. the seal and it wasn,t a high reading.i,ve been told weather and conditions can affect readings
If you touch the rubber seals you will get 100% damp reading
On a Protimeter anything under 25 is normal above that there may be a problem also it is possible to put the probes on a staple near the edge of the wallboard also will give off a false 100% reading.
Check the colour of the wood under the rubber seal it should be very pale dark colour can be an indication of water ingress .
Checking for damp is fairly straight forward; the best way is to use a damp meter.
Another way (though it will not show the early signs of damp) is to use your fingertips and press hard against the wall board surface , if you feel any softness then there is (or has been) damp underneath.
Wall board softness means that there has been water ingress for some time.
Other indications of damp are staining on wall boards.
You should check the entire caravan, under cupboards, behind seats, around windows, in corners, the ceiling - everywhere.
Damp Meters.
You can buy cheap meters from places like B&Q, Screw Fix, eBay etc.
Cheap meters do give an indication of how bad the damp is by the amount of noise they make.
A ticking sound means slight moisture, where as a high pitched scream means excessive damp.
When using damp meters the probes need to penetrate the surface of the wall board to get a proper reading. I sharpened the probes on my B&Q meter using a file. The probes are now needle sharp.
Some meters are called Protimeters, these meters are far better at detecting how much damp is there, i have bought the yellow one shown in the picture below, well worth the money ( bought from Ebay for £50 ) .
These types of meter show how much damp is present with either a digital read-out or a colour scale.
Readings between (0-15%): no cause for concern.
Readings between (15-20%): dealer to make a note of these readings and re-check at next service.
Readings between (20-24%): possible early signs of ingress. Look for tangible evidence or ask for a re-check.
Readings between (25-30%): moisture evident, remedial work required; may not need strip-down unless surface damage (staining, pimpling, and softness) is apparent. (There is a risk of wallboard deterioration due to retained moisture in the structure if resealed only.)
Reading (31 % and above): structural damage is occurring, deterioration inevitable. A full strip-down of the affected area is required.
i am now paranoid about damp in my caravan so have a digital damp meter. the guy who recently repaired my caravan for me had a 'protimeter' with only coloured lights that worked in a bar graph fashion and suggested that this was the type to use because it was recognized by the NCC. anyway the results his meter gave were similar to mine. to get a true reading though i assume you must push the probes through the vinyl covering of the wall board wich leaves pin holes. next time i veiw a caravan i will do this but wonder if the vendors dont object?
i cant see why rubber would show damp unless it has conductive fillers in it and why would they do that?
however i cold see that condensation could find its way onto the rubber because the rubber being in contact with the window will be colder than the wall boards that are insulated. water condenses on the coldest surfaces like windows in the house.
i was testing my caravan and placed the meter probes into a pillow, this gave a reading of 28%. however, the cushion on which the pillow was resting was 14% and the nearby wall boards less than that. weird the pillow absorbs so much ambient moisture.
Well I wouldn't let 5 or 6 buyers rock up all with their pinned damp meters(and most not knowing how or where to use them)The van would look like a pin cushion So its non invasive only for me
It won't have the guaranteed accuracy of a protimeter but I check the readings against the service engineers readings at the annual service and they are very close. It would certainly show up any problems.
underneath the window seal rubbers should not give a high reading unless as already stated the seal comes in contact with the meter probes then it will show a high reading.
i have one of these....http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Pin-PRO-Digital-Damp-Moisture-Meter-Detector-Tester-Timber-Plaster-Wood-Sensor-/171252315588?hash=item27df6ef5c4:g:X1kAAOSwfcVULpNi...and it works fine , even tho' its the cheapest i could fine
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Topic: Damp Meter help.
