roof has sprung a very slight leak

tea spoon · Senior Member

roof has sprung a very slight leak

Possum3 · Guru

Cliff, if the hatch has a flange around it , use Butyle tape to seal it www.ebay.com.au/itm/384266036766

tea spoon · Senior Member

ok will look at that after i clean of the goop i put on round the hatch on top of the roof..........its going to be a while till the tarp comes of ......

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

What is roof made of ? Dont use silicone. Use Sikoflex .put on like you cant see it . Then paint roof real thick solar guard etc . With roller or brush .

tea spoon · Senior Member

all fixed with paint on black rubber solution from bunning underneath round the hatch ....i had to redo part of the ceiling round the hatch ......its not professional but looks ok .......if sometime down the track it gets sold the next person can redo the whole ceiling .......till then it will do me

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

The MIAN part is it doesnt leak ! Which is the big part of damage in most things !! Dont worry asthetics !

tea spoon · Senior Member

well the weather has not helped its leaking again .........can the four season hatch be removed all together and a sheet of aluminium put there with no hatch ....and i have done the j rails and the hatch seems to be leaking in one corner only .......im getting annoyed with it because as soon as i think ive solved it it leaks again .........

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Most or best is to stop leaks from the outside . Rather than adding another panel ? Can some stick on rubber seal be stuck to matting surface ? Or strong tight vinyl cover over the area ? I guess it leaks when driving ?

Spin · Member

We had an onsite van with two leaking four season hatches. I tried everything I could think of to seal them but nothing would work.
In the end I removed and disassembled the hatch and resealed all of the joins in it as well as resealing the hatch to van join. That is when they stopped leaking.

They had copious amounts of silicon on the outsides from previous owners trying to stop them leaking. When I'd finished no sealant could be seen from the outside apart from a small line where the hatch met the van.

peatop · Senior Member

Spin wrote:
We had an onsite van with two leaking four season hatches. I tried everything I could think of to seal them but nothing would work.
In the end I removed and disassembled the hatch and resealed all of the joins in it as well as resealing the hatch to van join. That is when they stopped leaking.

They had copious amounts of silicon on the outsides from previous owners trying to stop them leaking. When I'd finished no sealant could be seen from the outside apart from a small line where the hatch met the van.

When I was called to a job with a leak the biggest issues I used to find causing leaks in external fittings was silicon sealant upon silicon sealant upon silicon sealant, people would find a leak and just run another bead of silicon and think job done, when in fact the correct way to seal a leak is as described above and clean the 2 surfaces with a non oily solvent before applying I used to mainly use acetone but this would depend on the material that's being bonded, also being secondhand give some thought to paint, is there flaking paint or sign of water ingress in the paint? a clean surface is the first place to start when making a good water tight seal.

tea spoon · Senior Member

have taken the hatch off cleaned all surfaces ........with a wire wheel on the drill i cleaned the hatch bottom then the caravan area where the hatch was to sit .......after putting a good amount of silicone on the roof area i have put the hatch back on and screwed it down ......have also used a bit of ormonoid black tar and painted round the hatch bottom area ........ive done it by the book ......so am hoping when in a couple of days it rains the thing wont leak .......but we shall see ....

PeterInSa · Guru

Re ( i have put the hatch back on and screwed it down)

I screw the screw down/in, remove it, silicon down the screw hole and re screw in again.

tea spoon · Senior Member

the van is now sealed against the weather ......after many trial and errors it now does not leak .......so im a happy bloke .......to all who posted with ideas thank you ......cheers

Mike196 · Senior Member

We had the front hatch leak in our previous Van. I asked for both the hatches to be resealed (4 yrs old) while another job was being done, and the leaking hatch lifted straight out of the roof and left the factory silicone behind! The silicone then peeled off the roof as though it had never been there!

-- Edited by Mike196 on Wednesday 11th of August 2021 10:59:26 AM