Hi,
we are risking returning to caravanning after several years ( a nasty experience getting robbed twice on the same holiday)and find that there is an area of wood rot in the bottom front corner under the plastic surface -not sure how far it goes but it feels a bit soft to the touch. They say that it is dry rot and are quoting over £500 just to get it looked at which is more than the van is worth.I am loathe to start ripping the side of the van apart. Is it possible to inject the area with fungicide then some wood hardener  filler to halt/delay the progress?   It is a Sprite musketeer with no obvious leak area on the outside but I guess that we could apply sealer to all the outside seams.

Has anyone out there tried to do their own treatment and been successful?

url:http://myreader.co.uk/gp/1306-1.aspx

"judith Jones"  wrote in message 
news:87d1426d720b43d3b23c47df825a1118@newspe.com...
Hi,
we are risking returning to caravanning after several years ( a nasty 
experience getting robbed twice on the same holiday)and find that there is 
an area of wood rot in the bottom front corner under the plastic 
surface -not sure how far it goes but it feels a bit soft to the touch. They 
say that it is dry rot and are quoting over £500 just to get it looked at 
which is more than the van is worth.I am loathe to start ripping the side of 
the van apart. Is it possible to inject the area with fungicide then some 
wood hardener + filler to halt/delay the progress?   It is a Sprite 
musketeer with no obvious leak area on the outside but I guess that we could 
apply sealer to all the outside seams.

Has anyone out there tried to do their own treatment and been successful?

url:http://myreader.co.uk/gp/1306-1.aspx

We removed the *inside* walls of our (old) caravans and rebuilt the wooden 
framework which was affected. We also replaced the inner walls with plywood, 
after using pu foam to give strength and insulation. The plywood was 
thinner, lighter and stronger than the original fibreboard.

There's no treatment for dry rot. When you touch it it turns to dust.

If 'they're' making a decision ('it's dry rot') and then charging to 'get it 
looked at' that sounds like a rip-off. Either they know it's dry rot in 
which case it doesn't need any more looking at or they don't know and 
shouldn't say it.

You really could deal with it yourself and it's very satisfying - and gives 
an opportunity to clean, re-design, redecorate and whatever. But you do have 
to have a bit of a practical nature.

You do also need to seal the outside joints, even when they look OK, dry rot 
begins with wet rot.

Mary

judith Jones has brought this to us :
> Hi,
> we are risking returning to caravanning after several years ( a nasty 
> experience getting robbed twice on the same holiday)and find that there is an 
> area of wood rot in the bottom front corner under the plastic surface -not 
> sure how far it goes but it feels a bit soft to the touch. They say that it 
> is dry rot and are quoting over £500 just to get it looked at which is more 
> than the van is worth.I am loathe to start ripping the side of the van apart. 
> Is it possible to inject the area with fungicide then some wood hardener + 
> filler to halt/delay the progress?   It is a Sprite musketeer with no obvious 
> leak area on the outside but I guess that we could apply sealer to all the 
> outside seams.

The only proper fix is to cut out and replace all of the affected 
timber and any damaged or soft internal panels. £500 to look at it is a 
rip off. You can look at it yourself for free or £500 would pay for a 
major area of rebuilding.

I once rebuilt the entire roof and repanelled it on a not very old 
caravan - which I got as a bargain due to the damage. The previous 
owner had removed the skylight and refixed it without any sealant. I 
did it in a weekend - it is all very basic joinery work and fairly easy 
and it lasted us many years after that.

Remove all fixed furniture around the area, remove the the soft part of 
the panel and cut it back to sound timber where a new section of panel 
can be butted. If the timber frame really is rotted, then replace it 
with new all the way back to good timber and reinforce any joints. You 
may need to undo screws in the awning rail for corner woodwork and 
replace them. Rusty screws and pins are a good indication of how far 
the damage has spread.

I read somewhere that anti-freeze (not sure of type) painted onto 
stained but otherwise sound wood can help kill any rot, so I liberally 
painted all of the wood framing around the edges of the roof I 
replaced.

Probably the most difficult part will be matching the decoration on the 
face of the panel. The panels are sold as sheets of 8 x 4 sheets, 
though you may be able to buy a smaller cut off from a caravan 
repairer.

-- 
Regards,
        Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk