Resealing roof and slides

crstrm · January 20

Greetings,

I own a 2007 29-5E Arctic Fox fifth wheel and will be having the roof resealed.
The question I have is whether or not I should have the slides resealed or leave them as is? My concern is that the slides may not go in or out as smoothly if there is a coating of sealant on them. Comments?

Art

Kirk W · January 20

By resealed, do you mean some type of coating applied to the entire roof?

Wrknrvr · January 20

There two types of resealing a roof could mean, at least to me.

One is to remove the existing sealant around the vents, edge lines of roof materials and other such protruding objects. Clean with appropriate cleaner. Fix any problems that are found. Then applying appropriate new sealer, as needed.

This is on the roof.

Next is inspection of all other seals on the rv. Do as it needs done on the roof.

Spraying the roof is a separate subject in its self. Is it needed? That is not my call.

But I have work on Rv’s for a living since 2008. I have resealed a number of roofs in that time. I have only seen a few roofs that I would say really needed to be sprayed with a total covering.

What I really see is that people do not have there roofs inspected once every year. I do recommend that if you get a roof inspected. Try and get it done once a year.

Years ago I had a remote camera that the customer could see what I was talking about. In real time.

I still do some work. Last fall I was called to winterize a Rv. He also said the the roof vent is broken. Can you fix it. I installed a new vent lid.

While I was first on the roof to look at what vent cover I needed, I noticed his roof had several problems on the seal areas. One place I seen a gap a pencil eraser would fit in.

I texted him pictures of his problems? Suggest they need fixed. He agreed and I did the work.

Wrknrvr · January 20

Spraying sealing materials on the slideout side walls could cause seal problems. I never heard of anyone doing that.

That needs some thoughts about doing that

rpsinc · January 20

Spraying roof coating is typically done by a company going by FlexArmor which has locations operated by franchisees.

There are a couple of other types of applications done with similar materials but NOT spray applied. I know of a company that has taken a coating and made it very good in RV service by adding Kevlar strands to the product which adds significant strength to the maximally elastic product showing good results in RV services. Comes with a great warranty and is installed remotely(no moving out of the coach). see rvroofingpros.com

As to the slides question, it is my experience that slide coating is not offered by many of the companies but I have done them using Liquid Roof, which is not as thick a product but does and has worked well on RVs. Note that most aftermarket coatings for RVs will be applied to a thickness of up to 50 mils then when cured reduce to 35 mils. Not alot of thickness but enough to add to a roof for the duration of its life. Monolithic application would be my preference and removing most of the existing caulking is a minimum requirement. Many companies use fabric to cover over and replace the caulking at vents, skylights and end caps. This coupled with the monolithic coating leaves a 1 piece roof coating that should not require yearly maintenance but should still be inspected yearly. I would NEVER use any silicone based coating as it becomes slippery and doesnt lend itself to repairs in the future PLUS they are are intended for RV use.

crstrm · January 21

Thanks for your replies. Kirk and others, hope this additional post clarifies my original post

I am thinking about having our roof resealed and not replace. The process that would be done would be to clean the roof, caulk as needed, apply a primer followed by two or three coats of EPDM roof coating. Our roof is the original. What we want to do is to extend the roof life of our 17 year old roof for maybe two years before our next RV purchase.

The question is whether we should also have the slideouts done with the primer and coating. Although our slideouts are not as bad as our roof, we were just wondering if we should have the slideouts done. We have heard stories that after the slideout was coated, there were seal problems with the slideouts. We also understand that slide coating is not offered by many companies so there must be a reason for that, besides cost.

Randyretired · January 21

I redid our roof with Liquid Roof and I also did the slides and it has worked fine. Our slides were showing a lot of wear so I just did everything. Our Teton is 25 years old. If the slides are still good I probably wouldn't do them. It could be done at a later time if needed but the slides are relatively easy to do with no roof penetrations to work around.

Kirk W · January 21

With a 2016 Leisure Travel Van Serenity S24CB, I am wondering why you need the roof coated?

crstrm · January 21

Kirk,

We own two rigs. It is the Arctic Fox 29-53 by Northwood Mfg that I mentioned in my initial post that I was asking about roof reseal. Ooops...I forgot that my signature line shows Leisure Travel Van. Sorry for the confusion