Things I've Learned the Last 2 days [message #204587] |
Sat, 13 April 2013 20:26 |
Galen
Messages: 146 Registered: November 2011 Location: New Virginia, IA
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I started by pulling all the carpet out earlier in the week to lay down some laminate flooring. Out of sight, out of mind....kind of like picking a scab as I went about finding things. Here's few things I've learned that, and based on previous posts I've read on here many of you knew already.
1. Even if you don't think you have a water problem, you still may have leaks. I've never seen any water and we've been out in some real downpours. Once I pulled my carpet, it was obvious there was some water intrusion, running down those aluminum ribs from who knows where; we had a nice 2" rain while I was doing this. Not a ton of water, but enough dampness to feel, and enough to cause a couple soft spots in the floor.
2. It takes no time to pull the rear furniture out. Maybe 20 minutes to get both couches, and the end and side panels out. I did this because I wanted to remove the little ramp up in between the couches, and found problems. Underneath the platform was mold and a soft spot in the floor. Following the stains, it looked like it was coming from the shower area. Filled the water tank. When clear full (water coming out the fill outside)I had water coming from the panel behind the shower. Found an old thread about the vent. My vent hose was laying down. Who knows how many times I've flooded a quart or two of water under that wedge and didn't know.
In the process of running a new hose and putting the vent outside the coach in the fill area, I noticed the fill hose had a small hole about an inch down the spout. This had been leaking a little bit for years. The particle board is soft in the headboard, but not too bad.
I don't know how the factory had that vent hose strung up, but mine was down.
3. Even if you haven't had mice in the coach, someone else may have. I had 15 years (or more) of mouse turds that I found, as well as a mouse urine odor coming from the shower area. I pulled the toilet paper shelf out (while looking for the leak) and the mouse urine smell in there was unreal. We've noticed the smell, in the bath on really hot days, but I thought it was just the head.
4. Every project will come in way over budget for time and materials.
In the end, things got cleaned really well, and everything (yeah right) fixed, thanks to the forum archives.
Galen
Galen Briggs
New Virginia, Iowa
1978 Palm Beach
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