Rot

If you have been reading this blog for more than 4 years you might recall that way back in October 2018 some rotted wood was discovered on the floor of one of the large slides in the RV. I dealt with that problem then by installing a metal plate that covered the rotted plywood – about a foot square – on the underside of the slide and that seemed to be sufficient. At least it kept the slide functional for years. Until now.

Last weekend, as I was preparing to bring the slides in so I could hitch up and take the RV out for a spin – mostly to make sure that the brakes got some exercise – I inspected the metal patch and discovered that it was falling off. Worse, the rotted area under the plate had grown. Clearly, the root cause of the rot – water leaking into the plywood from somewhere – had not been corrected and the rot had continued. Some kind of more serious corrective action was needed.

So, with a great deal of trepidation, I pulled up the carpet covering that corner of the slide (after moving the recliner off the carpet). I was horrified to discover that the rotted area had grown to about 3 ft by 1.5 ft. I set to work removing the rotted wood. In a few minutes I had removed great clumps of wet, rotted plywood, opening a hole in the floor so that I could see the pavers below.

I set to work replacing the rotted section of 1″ plywood with 3/4″ plywood and a 1/4″ plywood layer on top, all fastened with metal strapping. It took me days and it wasn’t easy. And there were times when I was not at all certain the outcome would be positive – I worried that I might actually disable the slide, which would be a disaster. It will take some time for me to be confident that the patch will hold. And even longer to convince myself that the water leak has been fixed (I think it was due to a loose strip of trim at the bottom of the slide), but I was able to pull the slide completely in and then back out again without any problem.

Keeping my fingers crossed…