Completely rotten roof

Hello. This is my first post in this forum. I came across it scouring the internet during a pretty sleepless night. We bought a 21 year old motorhome, our first one. We knew it had a bit of a damp problem when we bought it but we never realised how bad it was. We have had it 4 months, and during that time it was kept in a barn, until the night before last when we had it sitting outside. Up until then it had all been fine and after lockdown we had a couple of nice trips in it. Then we went into it yesterday morning, when it had been sitting out and there had been heavy rain overnight. By then water was pouring out through a light fitting in the ceiling. My husband decided to expose the wood in the ceiling above and we have had a shock and feel pretty sick now! The water was mainly coming in through the roof vent, and possibly around a rail on the roof. The wood in the habitation area needs completely removed and replaced in the ceiling but it doesn’t seem to go down the walls. He checked all that. I’ve tried to attach images but I’m not sure they’ve worked on here.

We took it to one guy today for a quote and he said it would be 5k for him to do the job. First question is 5k about right, as that seems to be more for time than materials (but I also realise it is going to be a time consuming job), and second question is does anyone know of anyone else who could fix this, or recommend anywhere! Any help appreciated. It’s been a bad day!

P.s we have no real diy skills to do this ourselves, this is way out of our depth.

We are in Co. Down.

http://www.leisuretechnicalsolutions.co.uk/

Thank you for the replies. No it was a private sale but I don’t think much comeback so we will have to sort it out ourselves. We will ring the Lisburn technical solutions, I’d been googling all night and that’s one that didn’t come up in my google search, or else I overlooked it. We need to get a few quotes as 5k is an awful lot and an expense I didn’t see coming in at that figure. We are pretty gutted but at the same time we know it is fixable and not the absolute end of the world. Thanks for the replies. Yes sorry I didn’t find forum first.

Agree with all of the above we’re here to help keep asking looking forward to seeing you at a future craic meet pity you can’t get more photos ,keep it indoors as long as possible try and get it really dried out makes things easier,by the way where about Down are you I’m in crossgar

Thanks for all the replies. We are near Banbridge. With working I haven’t got anything more sorted, but we are off on Monday and Tuesday so will hopefully get some progress made then. In the meantime it’s back in the barn, which is keeping any further water from getting in.

Hi all,

Just wanted to write an update to my initial post a few months back, regarding the discovery of a roof that was leaking pretty badly. I only took a few phone pictures at the start and probably I should have taken more in hindsight to show how bad it was, but I think we were skundered looking at it at the time! The ceiling wood was full of mould and decay, and the decay and water ingress was coming down one of the side walls a bit too, once everything had been uncovered. It wasn’t a project we had the skills, time nor energy to take on ourselves and we figured that it was far better to get someone who knows what they are doing to do it. It's better to have a job done right from the start, and save any further hassle down the line.

So, this forum turned out to be the best thing I found as it helped us come across Jon from the camper medic www.campermedic.co.uk . When he & his helper Robin looked at it, we knew that they were the men for the job, as they knew what they were talking about, keen to take it on & went on to quote a fair price. Once we left our motorhome with Jon updates came across once a week on its progress, although we had every confidence in them so were happy leaving them to it. It was started and finished within a month.

Jon and Robin had obviously been over inch over the motor home with a fine tooth comb. They had also painted the bathroom and added attractive coverings behind the cooker. Electrics also had been checked over. On the outside they had cleaned and painted wheels and the tow bar. Every seal nut and bolt checked and made water tight. The more we look around the motorhome we are finding little jobs completed to a high standard we would never have considered doing. Jon serviced the fridge while he was at it and one of the cupboards had been missing a pull (which had always been missing since we owned it) and he made one on the lathe for it and fitted some LED lights which are far better than the old ones that was there. It was a job done above and beyond what we expected.

We now have a motorhome which looks as great. It's got plenty of life and adventures now left in it, lots of road-trips planned!

Hopefully the photos will attach here which show the work done better than I can explain.


Damage we discovered:








Jon's photos:





The finished job, which pictures don't do justice!







He even made a new pull for a cupboard which he didn't have to do, but is much appreciated!

Fabulous job , you'll have many happy years in that now

Looks superb now and ready to enjoy! .... well done Camper Medic

Thumbs up to Jon and Robin (campermedic)
Now go and have a trouble free holiday to enjoy your upgrades

Thats brilliant, delighted you got sorted. It must have been such a horrible feeling. We have our motorhome just 4 weeks now and have a little bit of work to do with wiring and a few small fails on the doe, enough to cause a little bit of anxiety. I'm planning on a habitation check in Nov, all seems fine but I'll be dead nervous until that get the all clear.