Bought an RV with hidden water damage, need advice on drying it & fixing it!

[sledhead5000]

Patch it and flip it in the spring, might even make money on it... just make sure those 4 beautiful words are on the bill of sale.... "As is, Where is"

Yeah, having been the victim of a water damaged camper, I don't think I'll be passing it on to someone else without them knowing about the water damage. I know its buyer beware, but the buyer should be able shoot the seller if he hides the damage and lies repeatedly about there being no water damage like this.

 

[sledhead5000]

On a positive note, I finished drying out the guts and installed new insulation and sealed up the bottom last night. I never did find large desiccant packs though, (Silica gel that comes in shoe packets, but on a larger scale), so I wound up using puppy pads. If there's any moisture left in the wood, when it comes out it will be grabbed and locked away by them I hope.

On the negative side, I finally got a good look at the 2x3's at the front of the RV, one is black, spongy and rotten. This confirms that something's been leaking in there for at least a year. Talking with Woody's RV, getting at it to replace it will likely mean replacing the whole front end fiberglass piece (as they're usually glued and break when you try to pull them off).

I also tried to flush the water pipes with RV antifreeze and found that all the faucet's and valves are wrecked & leak everywhere. This confirms that the motherf*cker let it freeze while full of water, then thawed it out to drain it, then cleaned it up and sold it to me. This wasn't just a case of 'I forgot to drain the water heater', this was malicious.

 

[teeroy]

On a positive note, I finished drying out the guts and installed new insulation and sealed up the bottom last night. I never did find large desiccant packs though, (Silica gel that comes in shoe packets, but on a larger scale), so I wound up using puppy pads. If there's any moisture left in the wood, when it comes out it will be grabbed and locked away by them I hope.

On the negative side, I finally got a good look at the 2x3's at the front of the RV, one is black, spongy and rotten. This confirms that something's been leaking in there for at least a year. Talking with Woody's RV, getting at it to replace it will likely mean replacing the whole front end fiberglass piece (as they're usually glued and break when you try to pull them off).

I also tried to flush the water pipes with RV antifreeze and found that all the faucet's and valves are wrecked & leak everywhere. This confirms that the motherf*cker let it freeze while full of water, then thawed it out to drain it, then cleaned it up and sold it to me. This wasn't just a case of 'I forgot to drain the water heater', this was malicious.

make with the name. it's your civic duty to warn others of shady sellers

 

[sumx54]

make with the name. it's your civic duty to warn others of shady sellers

I agree

 

[rotormech]

Whoever said you can't take the front cap off is dead wrong,we change front caps all the time they are easy to take off.2 guys can have that front cap off in an hour.take your time it's not hard.

 

[higher n you]

I think you have a roof leak or window leak coming down the wall. There is way to much damage to be just a leaky water line. Likely have rot up the wall and on the roof. I have repaired many rotten rvs and it's always worse than it looks.

This customer thought his ladder needed the screws tightened cause it was loose

 

[sledhead5000]

I looked higher up the wall, no damage. All the damage is at the level water would pool on top of the lino floor, or below it.

 

[sledhead5000]

Head service guy at Woody's said that my fiberglass front is glued to the wood frame and typically the fiberglass breaks before the glue does. Since there's no easy way to cut along the glue, I'd likely wreck the fiberglass while trying to pry it off the good wood above the rotten piece.



The rotten piece is horizontal across the front at the bottom of the fiberglass (just above the black metal frame)

 

[rotormech]

didn't realize it was that style,should be able to rip the inside apart to get at it.

 

[sledhead5000]

Can't really, whole front end is built up and houses the water tank. Lots of wood inside would have to be removed at least.

 

[plio7]

I would say it's coming in around your pop out somewhere..... And I would probably pay close attention to what mr "higher n you" says... He knows more about them things than your average joe. He's repaired 1 or 2 I think

 

[blastoff]

New twist. I approached the seller by text message, looking for some sort of remuneration, and got told to **** off (As expected).

So now I'm looking at small claims court. I believe this guy knew about the leak, and intentionally cleaned it up so it wasn't visible. In my mind that constitutes 'misrepresentation by the salesperson' which is against some law according to this website. https://www.transportation.alberta.ca/2818.htm I just can't tell if it applies to private transactions (non-business).

He also lied about having it winterized by an RV dealership, I confirmed this morning with the dealerships manager that the RV was not serviced at the dealership as he claimed it was before the transaction.

Anyways, I don't know enough about civil law to know if I've got claim that will be successful. The fee to file my claim is $100. Anyone else got some experience in this?

Take your losses and move on I know but with lost time and if you win the judgement then you have to sue him? Not 100 percent sure on tht part.

 

[rotormech]

Sounds like you might just have tear the front apart and replace the front wood frame ,that sucks but might as well just fix it .hopefully you have somewhere to do it,you have 3 months...

 

[sledhead5000]

I've had a pop out hybrid type before, and I checked the seals carefully, they're in better shape on this one than my last. And based on the condition of the thin wood that encloses the insulation, there's no leak coming from above. All the damage appears to be capillary action soaking up melted ice from the hot water tank below.

As for explaining the extent of the rot, the hot water heater may have ruptured before, there's another weld on the top of it. It's on the seam so I can't tell if it's a factory weld touch-up or from a rupture though, but it's different from the rest of the closure weld on the tank.