Front window damp problem and cure
Discussion
Hope this will be of some interest and help .
This applies to caravans with top hung bubble type D/G front windows
Using our caravan just after Christmas we noticed a high level of condensation in the lower corner of the offside front window .
This persisted for our Easter break , and finally the trip a few weekends ago .
The caravan was serviced about 3-4 weeks ago and I asked for particular attention to be paid to damp , and sure enough that damp was all up the side of the offending window .
The guy doing the service showed me the problem , which was the screws were loose on the window head rail and water was leaking in the screw holes also the mastic in the top of the offside window was useless .water was bypassing the head rail and leaking in through top seal of window
Don’t worry he said simple fix .
Remove head rail clean rail and caravan , new mastic and should solve problem .Below a few pictures of the process
First off all choose a guaranteed dry day .
Remove windows by releasing stays and lifting window with an assistant to just over horizontal and they will unhook from head rail
Remove the stainless steel screws holding the head rail in place and discard .
The screws on my caravan were stainless steel 25mm x no 6 , these are replaced with 30mm x no6 S/S.(Screwfix )
Next is to clean all redundant mastic from caravan and head rail with a stiff , not metal , scraper , and finally I used “sticky stuff remover “ to clean the last of the old mastic
Caravan and head rail cleaned up , a strip of mastic which is 19mm wide was applied to the head rail leaving the backing tape in place (19mm mastic tape Ebay )
, the with the help of an assistant the backing tape was removed and the rail was offered up with only 1 screw holding the end in place but not pushing back the whole rail , then one by one the screws were inserted and tightened so as to pull the rail back evenly .
Small sausage of mastic was eased behind the rubber seal at the top of the window and the rubber pushed back with a smooth ended tool .
Then with assistance the windows were hooked back in place and as can be seen in the last photo nothing to show that anything has been done
The area of damp
Head rail removed and caravan cleaned
Head rail with mastic strip applied
Roll of mastic used
The next 2 show the head rail back on caravan
Finally , the completed job
This applies to caravans with top hung bubble type D/G front windows
Using our caravan just after Christmas we noticed a high level of condensation in the lower corner of the offside front window .
This persisted for our Easter break , and finally the trip a few weekends ago .
The caravan was serviced about 3-4 weeks ago and I asked for particular attention to be paid to damp , and sure enough that damp was all up the side of the offending window .
The guy doing the service showed me the problem , which was the screws were loose on the window head rail and water was leaking in the screw holes also the mastic in the top of the offside window was useless .water was bypassing the head rail and leaking in through top seal of window
Don’t worry he said simple fix .
Remove head rail clean rail and caravan , new mastic and should solve problem .Below a few pictures of the process
First off all choose a guaranteed dry day .
Remove windows by releasing stays and lifting window with an assistant to just over horizontal and they will unhook from head rail
Remove the stainless steel screws holding the head rail in place and discard .
The screws on my caravan were stainless steel 25mm x no 6 , these are replaced with 30mm x no6 S/S.(Screwfix )
Next is to clean all redundant mastic from caravan and head rail with a stiff , not metal , scraper , and finally I used “sticky stuff remover “ to clean the last of the old mastic
Caravan and head rail cleaned up , a strip of mastic which is 19mm wide was applied to the head rail leaving the backing tape in place (19mm mastic tape Ebay )
, the with the help of an assistant the backing tape was removed and the rail was offered up with only 1 screw holding the end in place but not pushing back the whole rail , then one by one the screws were inserted and tightened so as to pull the rail back evenly .
Small sausage of mastic was eased behind the rubber seal at the top of the window and the rubber pushed back with a smooth ended tool .
Then with assistance the windows were hooked back in place and as can be seen in the last photo nothing to show that anything has been done
The area of damp
Head rail removed and caravan cleaned
Head rail with mastic strip applied
Roll of mastic used
The next 2 show the head rail back on caravan
Finally , the completed job
surveyor said:
Helpful post. I managed to crack our one piece front window this weekend when negotiating an overly vicious speed bump...
Google eeco-Ltd They make replacement Windows to match OEM used them and they are good http://www.eeco-ltd.co.uk/
Edited by MX51ROD on Sunday 7th June 21:12
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