Slide Out Room Seals, Keep 'Em Water Tight

GUEST POST FROM OREGON MOTORCOACH CENTER:

Maintaining Your Motorhome Slide Room Seals

 It’s easy to see the benefits that can come from having slide rooms in your coach. They significantly increase the amount of living space. However they do come with additional concerns; proper function and the ability to remain water tight. This article will address the latter.

The room’s ability to remain water tight is of the highest importance. Wiper seals and sealed joints in the room’s structure are items that should be inspected periodically, annually at least. Wiper seals, which are installed to the opening of the sidewall and the room itself, are what most owners are familiar with. The seals that are often over-looked are the type that is applied to the joints and mating surfaces of the slide room structure.

Any leaks in these locations will allow water penetration into the interior of the side wall structure. This can cause water damage to several areas, such as ceiling panels/material, cabinets, interior wall panels, wall paper, flooring and subflooring. In addition, water penetration into the side wall can cause the fiberglass exterior wall panel to delaminate from the wall structure. These can be costly repairs, depending upon the extent of damage. These seals can fail due to the sealant deteriorating over time. What we see most often is a failure of the sealant, due to improper preparation of the surfaces to be sealed prior to application.

Evidence that this is occurring would be, wet ceiling panels/material, wet flooring, wet or delaminating wallpaper. Water, occasionally rusty, can be found dripping out of the bottom of the slide room. You may also see the ends of the slide room side wall pulling, or curling, away from the structure of the slide room itself, often referred to as delaminating.

If you find any of these conditions existing in your coach, you will want to get into a service facility as soon as possible. Water intrusion into the side wall of your coach is going to cause damage. By addressing these issues quickly you will limit the damage to your coach.

To repair these types of seals, all sealant will need to be cut away from the seams. The surfaces are then ground, or sanded clean down to bare metal, or fiberglass, depending on the location. The surfaces are then cleaned using Sika Aktivator 205, which is an adhesion promoter and cleaning solution. After the cleaning solution has dried, Sika Primer 206, a black moisture-curing liquid primer, is applied. Only after the mating surfaces have been prepared in this way, you can seal them with Sika Flex 252, a single compound, high strength moisture-curing polyurethane adhesive.   

Soon, a video of this procedure will be available at www.oregonmotorcoachcenter.com.  

Questions? Email info@oregonmotorcoachcenter.com, Ph. 541.762.1505 or 800.942.6860 M-F, 7:30A-4:00P PST.

Vern Huber, OMC Technical Specialist