Resealing a 1984 Winnebago Chieftains Roof

[Duane0428]

Howdy y’all,

I’ve consumed a plethora of RV roof sealing content recently but have not been able to come to a consensus as to how to seal my 1984 Winnebago Chieftains roof. Any help as to how I should go about would be highly appreciated.

Thanks y’all,
Duane Quade Jr

 

[Morich]

Always a good idea and alway s lots of different methods and ways to do it!
You have quite a project but first, maybe some ideas of what sealing means to yu and what it is you want when finished. Considering age and condition of the RV, some will want to seal to prevent water damage and not worry the appearance issues.
Being South, you may also want to renew the white color to help deflect some heat?

But I can tell you what I would do as the whole project looks like too massive to do int one go! I want to prevent water getting in to rot other things or go into the interior walls and ceiling. But I would not consider redo of the whole for appearance. Just more invested for small return? But that is a personal choice type thing.
But then other details may also change the methods. Any current leaks that you know about would prompt me to work those first. Next I would look carefully at the lights and other points where there are holes where poorly sealed edges can cause lots of damage if left for even a short time.
I would expect there to have been multiple types of sealer used and that makes me favor working to remove the old before trying to lay on new. Not a fan of brushed or rolled on types as much of it is sealing areas where there are no holes to leak!
Unless you know of active leaks, I would start with the lights as the most likely to hurt you when they leak.
Once you get them sealed you will have a great deal more experience with the job and can make a better decision on the rest? Not many things worse than starting a job that is so huge that you don't get done!
Inspection and forming a plan would be my first suggestion and you do seem to be doing that!

 

[Duane0428]

Always a good idea and alway s lots of different methods and ways to do it!
You have quite a project but first, maybe some ideas of what sealing means to yu and what it is you want when finished. Considering age and condition of the RV, some will want to seal to prevent water damage and not worry the appearance issues.
Being South, you may also want to renew the white color to help deflect some heat?

But I can tell you what I would do as the whole project looks like too massive to do int one go! I want to prevent water getting in to rot other things or go into the interior walls and ceiling. But I would not consider redo of the whole for appearance. Just more invested for small return? But that is a personal choice type thing.
But then other details may also change the methods. Any current leaks that you know about would prompt me to work those first. Next I would look carefully at the lights and other points where there are holes where poorly sealed edges can cause lots of damage if left for even a short time.
I would expect there to have been multiple types of sealer used and that makes me favor working to remove the old before trying to lay on new. Not a fan of brushed or rolled on types as much of it is sealing areas where there are no holes to leak!
Unless you know of active leaks, I would start with the lights as the most likely to hurt you when they leak.
Once you get them sealed you will have a great deal more experience with the job and can make a better decision on the rest? Not many things worse than starting a job that is so huge that you don't get done!
Inspection and forming a plan would be my first suggestion and you do seem to be doing that!

Thank you for the advice! I don’t know of any active leaks but I’d like to do this more as a preventative action to not find any down the road. How should I go about checking and sealing the lights?

Also, the two vent pipes I have on the roof, should they have some sort of breather cap or is the exposed top ok?

Thanks!

 

[RV_Lee]

Hengs makes a lot of product for roof coating, it'll come in a paint can and you roll it on. It looks like the roof has been coated in the past, make sure the new stuff is compatible with the old

 

[Morich]

Since this is not a crisis and you want to avoid damage not yet happening, I would start with what I fidn to be the most likely one missed by other owners and that is the lights. We tend to think of roof leaks but forget the side leakers!

A close look may be the best start and untrainedeyes canstill spot clues! We may get better with time but looking for some form of seal and if it looks good is a starter. I find there are often two seams to look at. Where the body of the light meets the surface and where any lens that snaps on the body meets it
Wht makes this a two step idea is that we want to keep water from getting under the light body and also to keep water from getting into the lens, filling it and THEN following the wires into the RV. So we have two points to ook at before doing anything there!
If you fidn both have signs of sealing, does it look like it is getting gaps, cracks of edges peeling up? Good and solid, I may leave it alone for now. If it has signs of going bad, I take the cover off, unscrew the body off the RV and clean the old junk off. Before screwing the body back to the RV, I add a circle of sealer around the hole where the wires go in. This circle is what I think of as my last line of defense if water DOES get through the seals I finsh with at the bady to RV and cover to body joiints!
Those outer sealing points get lots of abuse from weather and go bad quicker, but if I slip and don't get it done soon enought the inner, second defense can still save me because it doesn't get near the abuse of the outer.
I don't wear belt and suspenders but if my pants fall off I consider that better than my RV rotting out!!
When ready to move to other points like the roof. I look it over carefull for cracking or signs the edges are beginning to peel up. Any of it loose so you can get a fingernail under the edge. There are times when the roof was not cleaning well before the sealer or caulk was added and thatstuff can just pull the dirt off, rather than actually stick to the roof!
One of my big issues with the roof coatings is how difficult it makes thing once they begin to peel. To get a good seeal all over, we really need to get all the old sealer off. UGH! When I ran into that, the RV was pretty well past prime and I just scraped and cleans a space arouind the full roof to get good seal where it would leak and did not worrry the appearance. When I sold that one, it was going to be used for a chicken coop, so you can imagine what a prize it was after a group of ice fishing guys!

I tend to like a cap on the vent pipes but no big issues either way. Unless you park under trees or where somebody might drop something in to stop up the vent? When asking which Iwould rather do, put a cap on or clean out something stuck, I go for the caps? If you might have friends that go to races, shows, etc. to set on top of the RV and might drop something down, caps are required!
I've changed my friends since those days!