Roof Sealant

[glennco]

Due to some bad circumstances I need to remove the ladder from my 2022 Imagine. When on the room I noticed a thick sealant they applied at the factory. I noticed silicone is underneath this sealant but I can’t figure out what it is. This thick rubber sealant is everywhere on the roof. I looked in the reference material and couldn’t find it. Anyone have any idea what this is?

I’m attaching two photos, one of the sealant intact and the other of the ladder mount with some of it removed.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Paul & Maja,

The method of sealing around things on your roof is normal for the RV industry. On a horizontal surface (like a roof) they use self levelling sealant. The roof and sealing products used on current Grand Design products is "Alpha Systems". https://store.lci1.com/1021-low-voc-...be-862149.html

Rob

[Country Campers]

Be careful when removing the old sealant so you do not damage the roof material. Clean the area well before applying the new sealant.

Brian

[howson]

glennco -- if you do a google search for "removing alpha sealant from RV roof" you'll find many, many links with articles on the topic. It essentially comes down to the application of gentle heat (hair dryer, or heat gun if you're really careful) then scraping off with an old credit card or plastic scraper.

Are you permanently removing the ladder, just temporarily removing it for other maintenance, or replacing it? My question is what you're going to do about the open holes if the ladder will be left off for any length of time. Water is the #1 enemy of RVs...you don't want any leaks.

[glennco]

Within 2hrs of owning our new grand design I backed it into the garage and cracked/bent the ladder. I’m going to try and straighten it and use some of that aluminum weld material to get it back together. So hopefully it won’t be off too long.

I initially thought this was LAP sealant, but it was on there so thick I thought it had to be something else.

Another piece of bad news is that the roof material is now loose around the damaged area. Hopefully it’s not torn anywhere but that’ll need to wait until I get the ladder off

[howson]

Another piece of bad news is that the roof material is now loose around the damaged area. Hopefully it’s not torn anywhere but that’ll need to wait until I get the ladder off

Not unusual for the roof to not be 100% secured to the plywood underneath. The roof is most likely fine.

Don't beat yourself up too much over the "oopsie". The vast majority of us have "been there, done that" in one way or another.