I have spent a lot of time discussing RV roofs. The reason for this is all of the misinformation about repair them. I would like to warn all RV owners that when you repair a EPDM RV roof that you use a product that is compatable and meets warranty requirements. Most of the repair products on the market are not what the manufacture sugguest and could void the roofing warranty. So be sure to check and make sure. It could save you a lot of money in the future.

I have recently been looking on the inter net for information about patch kits that are used for the repair of rubber and metal roofs. I have looked at over ten different kits from different suppliers and none of them have any primer tape activator in them. I can assure you that if you don't use a primer that your repair will only be tempery. I use to work in a research and development lab working with epdm and other single ply rubbers. I have conducted many test on using tape with primer and without primer. In every case the non primed tape failed over time. If you don't believe me go out and pull on the edge of a repair done without primer you will see that it peels up easily. The reason that most suppliers don't use primer is because primer is flammable and can't be shipped normal channels. So they simply say clean thoroughly and apply patch. There are only two companies that have solved this problem and have primer in their patch kits. One is Firestone Building Products that has a pond patch kit with primer, tape, roller, gloves and scrubber pad. The other is Rooftop which is a trade marked division of flatroofsolutions.com who has a multi surface patch kit with white rubber tape, primer , roller, gloves and scrubber pad.

RV ROOF INSTALLATION.

A friend of mine purchased a used RV unit in an auction. This rv's roof was leaking and had caused a lot of damage inside. It also appeared that the decking was water damaged. He decided that he would have to take off the old roof and put a new one on. So he contacted an rv dealer to see what it would cost to put a new roof on his rv. The rv is 9' x35' and does not have any slide outs. The dealer quoted $3,500 to take off the old and install a new one. Since I had some experance with rubber roofing my friend asked me if I would help install a new roof on his rv unit. I told him I had never done this before and was a little apprensive about tackling this project. He talked me into doing it and he purchased a complete rv installation kit for under $ 500 from flatroofsolutions.com. So the two of us started one morning and removed the old roof using the instructional dvd as a guide. It only took a half day to remove the air-conditionar unit and vents and remove the old roof. We then had to replace some of the rotten deck with new. This process was much easier than I thought it would be. We then installed the new rubber membrane on the roof that same day. The second day we finished the roof by attaching the air-unit and vents back onto the rv. It actually took only a day and half for the two of us to complete this project. The whole process was much easier than anticipated. As you can see , my friend saved about $3,000. This price could vary according to your local rv dealer. But if you are some what handy and can follow instructions you should be able to do this installation yourself. As you can see your could save thousands of dollars.