Interior roof repair

[Darrell T]

I have a 1982 Coleman Sequoia. I purchased it about 2 weeks ago and then promptly left on a 1 1/2 week camping trip to the mountains here in Colorado.
Needles to say I have a few things that I want/need to fix/do/modify on the trailer.
The main repair item is that the roof leaks. It isn't a real bad leak but a leak non the less. Today I started tearing into the roof to start with replacing the damaged inside ceiling. It seems this roof system has no structural support members what so ever that I can find. It has a thin tin/aluminum outer roof of about 10-12 thousandths thick bonded to a polystyrene insulation of about 3/4" thick and that is bonded to a Luann (sp) plywood ceiling and a whit cloth/ ceiling liner bonded to the plywood. Well this explains the sag in the roof.
Any way my question is what product do I need to use to bond/glue the new Luann plywood to the insulation?
Thanks
Darrell

[austinado16]

Welcome Darrell!

Just did this exact job to my 1987 Starcraft Nova who's roof is built the same way, albiet a bit thicker at 1" or better skin to skin.

Use the search feature and look up Starcraft ceiling repair and you should find my long thread, full of photos.

I left my Luan in place and peeled off the vinyl "wallpaper" that was glued to it to make the white ceiling.  Any peeling areas of Luan, I peeled completely off.

Then I found a product called "Abitibi" which is 1/8" 4x8 sheets, gloss white on one side, and sort of a brown composite material on the other.  It's what you'd use to make walls in a public restroom.  3 sheets was all I needed.  There is a white plastic runner strip that's designed to go edge-to-edge if you are putting sheets side-by-side, and it hides the seam.  I found this would work if I took my box cutter knife and sliced the channel off the back side leaving it a "T" shape, rather than an "H" shape.  

So, I measured and cut one Abitibi panel at a time.  Then I used a construction adhesive, PL400 or something, and with a caulking gun put that up all over the Luan where my Abitibi was going.  I bought a finish air stapler for $89 from Home Deep Hole, and a box of staples that wouldn't be too long.  With the glue wet, I slapped up the Abitibi, slide it into position and stapled every 6" right down the middle where just up above in the roof, my camper has a 1"x1" stringer.  Then stapling from the center outward, I did the edges, very close to the edge (so my plastic "T" strips would hide my staples later) and shot a staple up into the Luan and styrofoam about every 1/2" or so.  I did all the edges this way.

Then, to get the "field" of the Abitibi to glue up to the Luan, I lowered the roof down onto a step ladder that had a 2x4 laying across the top, and I had another verticle board with another 2x4 at the top.  I let the roof sit pressed down onto these 2x4's over night (the longer the better) to let the glue dry.

The next day, I moved on to the next section.  Took me 3 days to do all 3 sections.

Finally, I put up the "T" strips using white latex based caulk as glue, and masking tape to hold the strips up until the caulk dried.  In most areas, the vertical leg of the "T" was enough to fit snug between the 2 sheet edges of Abitibi, so it stayed there on it's own.

Last thing I did was to find some cool plastic fake wood grained white inside cove moulding.  I finished nailed this (borrowed a friend's nailer) to the corners all the way around to trim out where the Abitibi meets the side walls of the roof.

When all done, it looks factory new and I have no regrets.  To really dial it in, you can go back with the white caulk on your finger and fill in the staples that you put every 6" down the middle of the roof, and then you'll never see them.

By the way, you'll find more 1x1 around your roof vent and along the outer edges of the ceiling, so you can get some good solid structural stapling in, in these locations as well.