Roof Work

I once again find myself climbing up the lofty ladder at the rear of the RV.  I've made these steps MANY times over the past year.  Sometimes the trip is just to wash the roof or check on some various parts making sure everything is in order.

However, this trip to the roof was to do a little preventative maintenance.  You see, the roof is a VERY important part of the RV.  AND the owner needs to ensure it keeps working correctly OR I could find myself with some expensive water damage.  

This is a followup work to some previous work I did on the roof about 9 months ago.  In fact, I'm not too happy I have to REDO my work, but again...keeping the water out of the RV is a TOP priority for me and it should be for any owner.

Today's RV Mx is to reseal where the roof meets the sidewalls of the RV.  When I did this work last year, I was in LA and Bayou Outdoor (Jeff in the Parts Store) was very helpful in determining the RIGHT caulk to use.  While MOST RV centers use the standard DiCor Lap Sealant, Jeff recommended Silaprene.  

So...being a new RV owner, I went with his vast years of experience and bought a few tubes of the caulk.  NOTE:  Please look over the product to ensure you get the SAME caulk as the one you have.  I picked up a few tubes of CLEAR caulk this time and only found out when I was beginning the job.  The last tubes I had purchased were of the WHITE variety...clear and white are NOT the same :)

First, you have to CLEAN the area that the caulk is going to be used on.  Some call for Denatured Alcohol, but you can only purchase this in larger than needed quantities from the Big Box Stores, so I chose to use  Isopropyl alcohol.    I had this "on hand" and figured that if it's good enough to clean the skin when you get a shot, then it should be good enough for the RV skin.  It worked fine and really cleaned up the area to be caulked to get a good contact.  

However, since I didn't have enough clear caulk to do the entire roof seams, I did one side of the RV and will have to wait until I get some more Silaprene.

However, I only had 2 tubes to do both sides of the RV so I began looking around and couldn't find a local distributor in Central Florida.  I've been in contact with the Silaprene District Rep, but it's been a week since I've last heard from him via email (we have been playing a dance of short quick emails about what my needs are).  I think that since I only need a few tubes (6 - 2 clear and 4 white...to have on had after the job is complete).  I'll wait a little while longer before I give Jeff at Bayou Outdoor a call and see if he can send me a few tubes.