Commercial Roofing Products

Manufactures of RV's are concerned about weight, space, final cost, and sales price. With that being said, it stands to reason that these manufacturers will think of alternative ways to cut weight and costs to achieve the space and the sales price.
Almost all of the wood used in an RV is engineered. Engineered wood is a manmade product, not real-wood. Engineered wood is the byproducts of wood glued together. It could chip as you may see on a piece of OSB, or sawdust-like you may find on particleboard. This material is cheaper than real wood.
The concern as an owner is that the engineered wood, as a rule, will absorb far more moisture and water than real wood. We say as a rule because there are a few other products that far exceed the rule. None of which you will find in an RV.

The confusing language that seems to float around is Industry standard. When you hear those words, you are assuming that the industry is roofing, but that is not what they mean.

These standards are much less than what would be required on a commercial application, even though the inferior roofing is intended to do the same work and probably more. Commercial buildings do not travel 70 mph nor do they have to undergo all the humps bumps and jarring the RV does while traveling. Despite all the extra stress, these RV manufacturers still do a shoddy job on the RV roofs.

Basic construction procedures are that the roof trusses are screwed to an aluminum or metal wall frame. The sheathing, like we said above, are glued and stapled down to the trusses, and then the roofing is glued down to the roof decking. The normal roofing material is rubber, RV rubber, aka EPDM. There are a few manufacturers that will use TPO, but this will be an RV grade TPO not a commercial grade for flat roofs.

RV roofs are constructed by a truss system. A truss system is several pieces of wood that are glued, stapled, and gusseted together with metal brackets to make a rafter and ceiling member in one.

Engineered wood products are cheaper than real wood and also lighter. Remember, weight is a major factor in the RV world. These engineered systems will rot quickly and lose their strength if they get wet. They will absorb water and hold it, should they encounter a leak.
The summer heat raises humidity causing the resins and glues to fail and promote mold and mildew. That's why it is important to inspect your roof for leaks. Depending on how the leak travels, the moisture can cause delamination to the siding. We can fix this too.

The normal installation of rubber is to be glued to the roof deck. Protrusions are things that come through the roof like plumbing tubing, and refrigerator vents, cooking exhaust, roof vents, AC units, anything that comes through the roof is considered a protrusion.

The manufacturer simply applies a strip of butyl tape to these vents, screws these items to the roof, and then applies caulking around the screws and edges. They're counting on the caulking to keep you watertight. Caulking alone will fail. Probably sooner rather than later.

If you can't walk on it, then you cannot inspect it, can you? These manufacturers use 1/4-inch-thick roof deck sheathing. That is not nearly thick enough to walk on. To make workmanship even shoddier, they use 1-inch staples to fasten down the ¼-inch sheathing. If there is a need to walk on the roof, the manufacturer recommends one should place plywood on the roof so they can walk along the plywood.
That is extremely dangerous. We would not want a loose piece of plywood under our feet while on a roof. That's an accident waiting to happen. Staples work great and prevent splitting. We use a construction grade staple specifically designed for decking. Plus, we glue our decking down as well.

Many folks ask us about roof coatings. RV Roof Install LLC does not offer any coatings at all for a few reasons.

The first one being that coatings are not designed for RV roofs. 

Manufacturers simply glue the roofing down, as we have already explained. Along the edges, the roofing is folded down over the sides, and there is a termination bar that is screwed over the roofing and into the top of the wall to terminate the roofing system.

However, what you do not see underneath is that the roofing is folded down over the wood deck. The wood deck is abruptly rough and will cause irritation in the roofing material. Over time, the edges will fail and allow moisture to enter the wall cavity on the inside of the outer portion of the wall.

This will cause mold, mildew and rot. The roofing needs to be protected from the edges. There should be a buffer piece to prevent the roofing from snagging or irritation. This is more detailed and more work for the RV manufacturers, and since it will fail after the warranty period is past, they don't worry about it.

RV Roof Install LLC worries about it and corrects this problem by gluing in buffer pieces on the edges to protect the roofing material.
RV Roof Install LLC offers pre-buy inspections, preventative maintenance inspections, and repairs to stave off roof replacement. We are experienced in recognizing vulnerable and common leak spots on roofs.

The caulking will work for a while, but this is not a proper long-term installation. Remember, though, the manufacturer only gives a couple of years on the warranty, so if it makes it past that, then the manufacturers are happy and you foot the bill for a new roof and unnecessary rot repairs.

In fact, these caulking procedures are not done on commercial buildings because it is doomed to fail. Then why is it acceptable to use on a moving vehicle? We don't believe it is.