If your slide experiences water damage, rather than sending it to a dealership for thousands of dollars in costs and months in the shop, you may be able to repair the slide in place in just a few days and with a few hundred dollars in materials. Keep in mind that this repair is a moderate level of difficulty and may warrant hiring a professtional RV tech.
To start, you may need to remove furniture, appliances, and floor coverings to gain access to the bare substrate (structural floor).
Once exposed you can assess the extent of the damage to determine what materials you will need to complete the repair.
Recommended tools and materials may include:
- Measuring Tape
- 2 ft. or 4 ft. Level
- Hammer
- Assorted Prybars and Screw Drivers
- Plastic Putty Knives
- Caulk Gun
- Clear Handheld Squeeze Condiment Dispenser
- 2x4’s and shoring
- Aluminum Angle
- ½” Plywood for supporting underside of the slide
- ¾” Plywood (sized or cut to desired fit)
- #10 x 1-1/4” Exterior Wood Screws
- #12 x 3” Self Drilling Metal to Metal countersink Philips Head Screws.
- Spray Paint to match type and color of slide undercoating
Support and/or lift the slide back into the correct position and de-rack the slide as needed. Be sure to put a layer of wax paper (wax side up) in between the support plywood and the bottom of the slide to prevent sticking if the penetrating epoxy seeps through the bottom of the slide.
Some of the structural hardware and or slide arm hardware may need to be adjusted or removed during this process to cause sections to either bind or not based on what kind of force you will apply or how you want to torque the slide to force it back into “square” or desired position during the repair. Additional support structure and/or slide skis and wear bars may be required and installed at this stage of repair.
Once the slide is in position and safely supported make sure that the source of water intrusion is corrected. If at the corners or face of the slide you can remove the corners, seal, retape, and reinstall corner moldings.
Seal any area that appears to have a gap as well as the edges of taped sections with Dicor where it touches tape of roof materials, or elastomeric sealant where it metal or fiberglass joints meet.
Then the interior repairs can proceed.
Clean and sanitize the SubFloor and any other water damaged components to remove and prevent mold, mildew, and stop any progression of damage to the wood. Allow to air dry. Use of a box fan will speed up this process.
Mark drill bit for depth gauge so you only drill ½ way through the sub-floor material.
Drill holes about 4” on center.
Mix 2-part penetrating epoxy in condiment dispenser and apply liberally. Squeeze some directly into each predrilled hole under pressure to ensure that the holes are filled and coat the surface. Allow the epoxy to penetrate the wood and reapply as needed, smoothing the surface with a small squeegee to ensure a level surface and continue to work the epoxy into the predrilled holes until they are full of epoxy. Cover the result with wax paper (wax side down) and press evenly with weight until dry (about 24 hours.) This can usually be accomplished by stacking heavy boxes on top of the wax paper coated subfloor during the curing process.
Once the epoxy is dry you can remove the wax paper and install new subfloor if needed. Use construction adhesive and screws to secure the new board in place (careful that you don’t drill through the bottom of the slide with any hardware.) Coat the new board with 2 part penetrating epoxy if desired.
Reattach and reinstall all exterior hardware and upgrades required prior to lowering and removing the under slide supports.
If there is damage to the underside of the slide, repair it last using 2 part epoxy. Finally coat with matching undercoating for a seamless repair.
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