Roof Caulking

[Toby]

I have a Jayco 12' pop up with a two piece roof, in the owners manual they say to remove metal strip and re-apply the tape putty every year.  Would this be the best way?  It seems like it would be just as good to use a silicone with a caulking gun, less work less time on the roof, less chance of causing dammage while trying to take off and cleaning up all the joints from the metal strip plus from experience removing and then re-applying wood screws tends to wear out the wood and I dont want to cause any more problems.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.





Toby

[flyfisherman]

I have a Jayco 12' pop up with a two piece roof, in the owners manual they say to remove metal strip and re-apply the tape putty every year.  Would this be the best way?  It seems like it would be just as good to use a silicone with a caulking gun, less work less time on the roof, less chance of causing dammage while trying to take off and cleaning up all the joints from the metal strip plus from experience removing and then re-applying wood screws tends to wear out the wood and I dont want to cause any more problems.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Toby

Know nothing about Jayco roofs as I have a Starcraft.  However, I've re-caulked the two piece aluminum roof and used the silicone sealer recommended by Starcraft ... Dow Silicone Sealant #999A.  So far so good with the roof and the sealant has held up well.


Fly

[austinado16]

Right...wrong...or indifferent, I'm with you.  The less time on an RV roof, and the less "taking stuff apart" the better.  My local RV place just turned me on to some self leveling roof caulk that's pretty nice.  

If you haven't seen my thread below detailing my recent Starcraft roof repair, you can see what these middle seams with caulk tape do after years of neglect.  What a disaster waiting to happen.

[mike4947]

Well I caulked for at least 20 years before I got religion. First it was Urathane caulk which outperforms silicon in every respect and then in the last 5 years we've gone to using http://www.eternabond.com/
 
 
It's a polymer tape that sticks to any clean surface, doesn't get dirty, and has a 15 year lifespan according to the company.
With the number of roof leaks and the accompanying damage from unnoticed cracking caulk the extra cost of the Eternabond (not to mention the labor in not having to recaulk) is a well spent investment.
As for the $$&%^E% butyl tape the manufacturers love to use for caulking; they love it for several reasons, it's cheap, easy to work with, and usually last as long as the warranty, and it's cheap...LOL

[Toby]

Thanks for the replys, I'll be tackling my caulking after this weekends trip.  That new tape looks good I never heard of it, I just might try it on my side rails for now and use a caulking gun for the center I just dont want to have to lay across my pop-up for a long time working on it and risking causing dammage.  



Toby