Caravan Rebuild - Part 5 1/2

Mothers day - and I was up watching the F1 Australian Grand Prix before heading out to the caravan.


I started by collecting all the tools up and storing them in my new tool cabinet (otherwise known as the drinks cabinet).

Then I started bagging all the rubbish and sweeping the floor.  I stacked all the ply and timber toward the front of the van and moved two seat frames outside and covered them in tarpaulin to protect them.  This helped make some valuable space ready for my next task after the tidy up....

The floor looks bad here I know, but it's completely dry, there is another patch toward the back quarter.  I think in the past there has been a water leak from the skylight above, both at the front here and at the back. as there has been a ceiling repair with new joists fitted.  There is a fair bit of delamination here, but I have the kit to do it and will give it a nice sand down and prime with PVA before laying the sticky back vinyl tiles that cost me £16 from B&M Stores.  That will probably be in Part 20 if you're still reading by then! lol

Wow, feel so much better now it's clean!  Time to dirty it again...


I had been worried for a few weeks about the damp in the cupboards above the fire, in particular where the heater vent went up through the roof....

When I pulled away the ceiling and the wall panels the wood...what wood.....black dust fell!  It had rotted away and all that was left was the screws you can see.

Well at least it wasn't damp, it was dry rot.  How far did it spread?  I could see to the right of the vent and that there were new timbers there, from a previous damp repair, probably when the ceiling joists were replaced (you can see one next to the foam insulation above), they had obviously seen this part but just covered it up!  The ply ceiling and wall took no time at all to remove, so I started working my way to the left to above the door.  I marked out a straight line in pencil on the ceiling and cut into it with the stanley knife to get a clean edge and then started to strip back

You can see that there is down strut missing on the right hand side, this was completely rotten and just flaked away, fortunately the damp hasn't travelled right across into the back quarter, good news.  And around the door doesn't look too bad.

If I can get a dry day, I will get out and remove the awning rail so the screws are removed and get rid of the struts that still seem to be there!

Now that I knew the extent of the rot I felt a lot better (don't laugh), and moved on to the front left hand side of the van.  A previous panel replacement had been bothering me from day one and needed to come off!

This section is hidden behind the seat cushions, you can see the down batons that the seat backing screws to, however you can also see that the ply isn't sitting correctly and isn't glued down fully in parts, don't think it was braced correctly.  It also doesn't extend far enough above the window to meet the down cupboard and just looks untidy.

Nothing for it, marked out with pencil and cut carefully with stanley knife and it just peels away!  You will notice above the window one wooden timber, this doesn't extend to the front and yet the side rail screws in there, so may insert a wooden strut like we did at the other side.

At this point I decided to venture out to the DIY store to get some more timber and feeling upbeat decided to even purchase some paint in preparation for when I've lined the ply and am ready to paint!

A neutral colour that should go well with the terracotta fabric I have for the curtains and cushion covers (yet to make).

Now awaiting the safe arrival of my Hobby Multi tool to be able to cut the timbers above the door and be able to make a good join.  Hoping for a good dry weekend when I can get the awning rails off, cleaned down with White Spirit and then Methylated Spirit ready for doing a good job resealing.  (This was another top tip from the Wizards site, if you don't clean down with methylated spirit the mastic won't stick).


I had initially covered the van with black tarpaulin that was very unsightly but did the job at the time for keeping the rain off and letting me get it dried out inside.  It's now been replaced with a nice green caravan cover that I managed to buy off a lovely couple for a decent price.  It had been used once and was in great condition.  Only thing is, it now looks like there is something worth having under there and it's not quite at that stage yet!