RV Rubber Roof Info

 I came to Quartzsite to learn how to take care of my RV. As my new friends agree, the more we can do for ourselves, the better off we are. Mostly its an economical thing, but also it involves our deepest independence. Should we find ourselves out in the boonies, alone, we'll have some skills, enabling us to inprovise until we reach help.

In the last two weeks, I've been redoing my roof. The following three photos show the before pictures. Now, I know it was totally white when I first bought it, two years ago.

What happened?
By using my cell phone and taking photos to various local dealers, I learned my roof was in a state of swift decline.
While the owner's manual says I only need to wash it periodically, it doesn't warn about vast areas of inky black showing up.

 Everyone agreed, the first step was to wash the rood with mild detergent and rinse like a mad woman. Buckets and buckets of water had to be hauled up via ladder. I worked on this alone, not wanting to claim any one's free time.
As I rinsed, black streaks striped my fiberglass exterior like a zebra
Whoa, more scrubbing and rubbing.
A neighbor lent me his folding ladder, enabling me to rip off the deteriorating caulk.
This job turned out to be harder than I thought!

Once all was cleaned, rinced and allowed to dry for days, I applied the first coat of liquid rubber with a brush.

Several videos are now posted on  My You Tube Channel, including product and tools used.

After four days of curing, I summitted my roof again, in socks, and rolled out a second coat. Now the streaks from my brushed work did not show.

Thankfully, the weather held until last night, thus allowing my second coat to cure for five days.

I'm told to use Dicor caulking along the horizontal, rolled roof seams Once the rain dries and the sun returns, I'll get on that project.

Warning. If you do have to deal with this, wear gloves. It seemed the black would never leave my hands. After tons of scrubbing, removing perhaps every once of wax from the fiberglass in an attempt to remove every last visage of zebra stripes, I used Mop and Glo  with a damp rag to restore some shine. Hopefully the brutal sun will do its magic and bleach out the rest.

Stay tuned!