RV Roofing

RVs are enjoyed by millions of people annually. RVing is a great way to spend time with your family and friends. It provides a way for you to get away from your day to day problems and relax. However, like everything else, you have to do maintenance from time to time. The majority of RVs use White-on-Black EPDM membrane to protect roofs. This membrane has a proven track record in the roofing industry. One problem no one likes is roof leaks. Leaks may be caused by limbs falling on your roof or around penetrations like pipes or vents and air conditioning. When this happens your leak needs immediate attention.Now that you have a leak you will have to find a material to patch or replace your roof. What better material can you use other than the original to do repairs. Roof-Top® membrane and accessories are top quality and are permanent solutions to your roofing repair, unlike coatings and caulks, which you have to redo every few years.
We recently have been dealing with problems that RV owners seem to be having all over the country. One being sun rooms or extra rooms that are built and attached to stationary RVs. The major problem is the use of the wrong roof material to join the two together. Today most of the RVs have a white EPDM rubber membrane roof on them. RV dealers and repairers are still using an old technology which uses an asphaltic base material to join two roofs together. This type of material, being an asphalt product, does not work with EPDM rubber roofs. This material will usually stop leaks for a short time but will breakdown EPDM rubber membrane and cause it to fail.
The correct way to join two EPDM rubber roofs together would be by using EPDM rubber cover tape which is a 6” or 12” wide “peel and stick” tape. Remember to thoroughly clean the area of membrane prior to applying tape primer and tape. The white RV roof is very hard to clean, we recommend cleaning the rubber surface with warm water and a rag repeating to make sure the surface is clean. Apply the tape primer (activator) to the area to be taped, let the primer dry and applying a second coat. This will cost a little extra but will help to insure adhesion. If asphalt products have already been used, it will have to be removed. If the 12 inch tape is not enough to cover, with 3 inches on each side of the old repair, a wider piece of EPDM rubber would have to be fully glued down.
The other problem area is at the end of the trailer where the rubber roofing and metal meet. This transition leaves a small gap by which the manufacturer usually applies caulk, very heavy at times. Over a period of time this caulk will crack and fail causing a leak to occur. To repair this joint you will need clean and prime the area, then use our 6 inch wide cover tape to make it watertight.