The difference between Water Ingress and damp.

 In this blog I will explain you how to check for water ingress without having to buy an expensive damp meter, and what the difference between water ingress and damp is. And why, contrary to popular belief, you can’t smell “Damp”

 So lets say that again, You can not smell water ingress, notice I didn’t say damp this time, but I’ll get to that in a bit. 

 Practically every person I talk to about either part exchanging their caravan or if I’m buying one will say it hasn’t got damp because they can’t smell any.

Whats the difference between water ingress and damp?

 A caravan may be damp due to the fact that the environment is damp around it. Living in Cornwall we are well versed in damp conditions. A damp environment may cause the upholstery to smell, mould to appear on the curtains and in some situations a film of a dusty green mould to cover the wooden surfaces.

 These things are often confused with what a customer assumes would be present if the caravan has got water ingress, so the absence of them often leads to the assumption that the caravan is dry and has no water ingress.

  Issues caused by damp can be solved with a good clean and moving the caravan away from the damp environment, sometimes this can be as easy as moving it from storage under trees or away from a hedge, to a more open place where air can move around the caravan freely. Or if you have the caravan on your drive, leaving the heating on low.

 So what is water ingress? 

Water ingress is when a seal on the outside of the caravan has failed and let water into the construction of the caravan walls, roof or floor, or in some cases, all three.

The caravan can look and smell completely dry and be riddled with water ingress.  The reason you can’t detect it by smell is because the water is trapped in the walls, and is soaked up by the wood that the walls are made of and the smell is sealed in by the glue that bonds the paper to the wood, kind of like what you would do when sealing a wall or a floor with PVA glue.  

But with a bit of knowledge which I will go into in a bit, you will be able to spot the tell tail signs of water ingress without the need to buy an expensive damp meter which cost around £450. Its called a damp meter, but after what I just went through perhaps we should re name it a water ingress detector.. 

 The one we use has a less invasive detection system then the cheaper versions that leave vampire  marks all over your pride and joy. It scans the walls and depending on the resistance, or lack of it when water is present, it gives us a reading.

 A reading of 0 to 20 is fine, 20 to 25 needs to be kept an eye on and anything higher needs further investigation.

But these types of meters have to be used with a certain level of knowledge. I had one instance when a customer was presented with a 3000 pound estimate for a repair which I didn’t think sounded right, only to discover that Elddis used a metallic wall paper in the kitchen area that year. 

 So how are you supposed to know if you have water ingress without an expensive meter.  Well we are talking about finding it as it is first accruing so we can stop it, and you just can’t do that without a good meter and a few years’ experience, the cheap meters aren’t great, so I wouldn’t recommend relying on one, and they also leave those marks everywhere.

It makes no difference if it is raining, foggy or a hot sunny day water ingress is water ingress and nothing to do with environment, so it will either there or not. finding the source of ingress and stopping it is practically impossible and very hit and miss at best, unless we strip out the damage from the inside so we can see where it is coming in.

 So unfortunately, but the time you have found the things I will go into next, the damage may well have been done, but at least then you can do something about it, because it will only get worse.

   

Or if you are looking at a caravan you are thinking of buying you can make an informed decision.

   How to spot water ingress.

 There are three main things you can look for that will indicate if you have water ingress.

• Discolouration, or a staining of the wall or ceiling board. In more modern caravans the glue used to bond the board to the insulation in normally blue in colour, and sometimes this will be washed through the wall board and be visible, Fleetwood caravan are especially prone to this for some reason. Or you may just see a dark stain.

• Softness. In worse cases if the ingress has been there for a while, it will have damaged the integrity of the panel itself and it will be soft to touch and spongy when pressed.

• Pimpling, this is where fungus spores that were present in the wood at the time of manufacturing get access to water and start to grow. I could never work out what these pimples were until I saw and extreme case where the caravan had been left for 5 years and the pimples had grown, I cut away the paper to revel a large white mushroom, puzzle solved.

 A good place to check to find water ingress is under the window rubbers, the rubbers have a bead of sealant between the inside of the rubber and the exterior panel. This can break down, or in some cases not bond to the panel surface and let water past. This results is the wood that surrounds the window frame becomes wet, and depending on how long the water has been getting in will discolour then begin to rot.

 This is an instance where the water has been getting in for a while….

 And this is what it should look like… you can clearly see the difference.

 But it won’t always be that bad, in this instance the water had damaged the panel below so the wood around the window and the panel below will have to be replaced, if caught early enough, replacing the window rubber will stop the problem, and the wood can be dried out.

 You can also do the tap test, if you tap the wall board with your fingernails, a damp panel will sound different to a dry one.  

 The damp panel has a deep thuddy sound, whereas the dry part of the panel has a nice ting too it.

All these things are proof that water ingress is present but unfortunately the damage has already been done.

This is why it is important to have an annual service that includes a water ingress test, so we can catch any issue before it gets that bad. (although we do call it a damp test, which doesn’t help.)

It is especially important if the caravan is under warranty, because if you miss one service then the manufacture does not have to honour any warranty that was in place, although they are pretty good and normally do, but I have seen cases where a customer has not had an annual test for a number of years and ended up with a four thousand pound bill, the manufacture quite rightly drew the line at that.

 what to do if you find water ingress?

 Water ingress is largely cosmetic. In bad cases I have seen it effect the integrity of the caravan, but that is extreme.  It then depends on the situation. 

If the caravan is twenty years old and there is a bit of a damp panel then I would advise trying to stop the problem, although as I have said, this is very hit and miss, and then don’t worry too much about it, its not worth spending hundreds of pounds on a repair if the caravan is not worth that much in the first place.

 If the caravan is under warranty then no problem, get it sorted. But it’s the times when the caravan is worth a significant amount is out of warranty and water ingress is found that the problems arise.

The main issue with water ingress is the effect it has on the value of the caravan. We obviously can’t sell a caravan that has water ingress, unless the caravan is cheap enough and the customer has been made aware of it,  and I can’t say that mistakes haven’t be made,  but when we value a part exchange that has water ingress the price we can offer has to reflect any repairs we will have to do,  we normally come to some arrangement with the customer because it doesn’t cost us as much to repair as it would for the customer to have it done, and I have only had one occasion when the caravan was so bad that I didn’t want to carry on with the deal.

 This is the main issue we have when pricing up a part exchange and one I referred to in my Tips for buying at the caravan show blog.

 When a caravan is part exchanged then we then take on the issue so the customer doesn’t have to worry about it, that’s one way around it but there is still an obvious cost to this, the other is to have it repaired.  

Insurance companies generally won’t cover water ingress problems but check your policy on that, so what will it cost to fix? 

 A general guide is a smallish repair with a new panel will be from £500 to £1000, then it can go up from there.

 It is often quite hard to give an estimate because we don’t really know the extent of the damage until we strip everything out and have a good look, and in some cases just the stripping out can be a major job it most of the kitchen has to be removed.

 Just a quick note here, caravans are prone to water ingress but in my experience older motorhomes seem to have a bigger problem with it, an older motorhome is still worth a lot of money, where as a caravan is not, and due to their construction it can cost rather a lot more to fix, so if you are looking to buy one, but especially an older motor home, buy from a dealer so you have a warranty, or get a professional Water ingress report, (trying not to say damp report..)

 The key to avoiding these issues is to have a regular water ingress check, if a problem is picked up quickly then you can act on it accordingly.

 The caravan I used in the photos came in as a part exchange, it has soft wall boards, pimpling, discolouration, and damage around the windows, the customer was unaware that he had any water ingress, and said, “ But I couldn’t smell anything” I can’t stress enough that this is not a good way to asses if you have a problem or not, And hopefully after reading this you will be able to save time and money and catch water ingress early.

Solving the problem.

 So what are the manufactures doing about this problem? It deos after all  make up a large chunk of their warranty bill.

 They do work very hard to produce a product that doesn’t leak as it is the Holy grail of caravan production.  

 As you visit the dealerships and maybe the show you will see mention of different manufacturing techniques, we have Solid, Alu Tec, Smart, bonding, Timberless this and that all with the same claims that they reduce the likelihood of water ingress.

 I do have my own views on all the different construction methods and how effective they are because I have seen the results first-hand and I  speak to other dealers to get their feedback, because I want to sell something that doesn’t leak.

 Unfortunately, there is no such thing, even in the European market, although on this front they do seam to have a bit of an edge.

 But they have been making caravans for 80 years, how come we have this issue in this day and age, and I hate saying day and age, but it’s a valid question..

 I think it’s because our expectations in what a caravan should be have changed, its not a glorified tent anymore, we want all the home comforts, the length of time we use it per year has gone up so it has to be a caravan for all weather conditions, we want it light enough to tow, and cheap enough to buy. 

The manufactures have a constant battle to achieve all these things and struggle to produce a product with these modern standards in mind.

 If we said we don’t mind caravans weighing 3500 Kg, and costing 60 thousand pounds, I’m sure they could produce something that didn’t leak, but we can’t.

As you can probably tell this is a subject that I have had a great deal to do with over the years and it is one of the biggest issues our market has. I have lost count the amount of times I have had this conversation with a customer.

 Just one thing to say about the caravans that now have composite walls, water can still get in and can do damage, I haven’t spoken about the floors too much but it is still important to have a caravan that has GRP side walls tested because the floors can get damaged. Mainly around the toilet, so just becasud you have plastic walls, don't think the water ingress problem has gone away.

 So to summarise.

•  I might have said it already, but you can’t smell water ingress.
• Check for the signs of water ingress we have mentioned here on a regular basis.
• Get a professional test on an annual basis.
• A caravan with composite walls can still have water ingress.
• If you have an old van don’t worry about it too much.

 So this my rundown on water ingress if you have found this entertaining or at least informative, please subscribe , and share it on your social media platforms.

 Thanks for reading, And be sure to check out the other topics in the right hand panel.