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repairs & improvements
Reseal Your Caravan
Special Winter Offer to Reseal Your Caravan It may have been a dry season in many parts of Australia, however we continue to repair leaking and water-damaged caravans.
It is a distressing sight for the owner to see their van with aluminium and rot revealed beneath. Often just small symptoms can be clues to significant damage behind the cladding. Dark stains in corners, around windows and hatches or moisture sitting on window sills and ledges should be a catalyst for investigation. Sometimes water entry points may be obvious: cracked or missing sealant under moulds, flaking silicon on the roof or missing screws or rivets. But leaks are usually not specific and more likely result from the sealant being at the end of its life and no longer effective.
Prevention is better (and cheaper) than a cure!
By ten years of age every caravan must be inspected for sealant deterioration. Unfortunately some material becomes vulnerable as early as 6 to 8 years. Sealants used in the last 5 years are proving generally more durable; nevertheless inspect that stored or unused van regularly.
About the reseal process:
To perform a full reseal we remove every window, all vertical corner moulds, all surface sealant on the roof, body top or pop top the caravan door and all fittings and access door, etc. All these items need to be cleaned up and replaced with new sealant between them and the body. Sometimes we need to scour the old sealant off and then repaint portions of the caravan. It is a laborious, time consuming and costly process but one absolutely critical to its future!
What sealant is used?
A silicone made by Rhodia, called V4 or 5CL< Neutral cure with a high joint movement capacity. If you would like to purchase the material from us to do the job yourself if sells for $15.00 per tube.
How much does it cost?
The cost will vary according to the size and
configuration of your caravan. However, expect a full reseal on a
16' van to be at least $2500.
Hardings will prioritise the work for you to give you the option of
staging the job. For example if the windows and roof are most urgent
do them now and leave the corners to next year.
In fact we have many customers who "chip away" at the reseal process
by having some work done each time the van comes in for an
undercarriage service.
