Rising Damp

I have just got the caravan back after a winter spent in two different workshops. I knew it would be away for a while getting the accident damage repaired but I hadn't bargained for finding damp in the shower room on my last trip of 2015. The caravan is quite well ventilated (ie draughty) and so has never suffered from damp, even over the winter months. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to me, water had started getting in along a seam at the back of the caravan and became noticeable when the shower room wallpaper started bubbling. The plywood underneath felt spongy and when I stuck my damp meter into the spot, it read 45%! I booked the van into Wallace's at Kirkcaldy as soon as I got home from holiday and left it with them a week later. When the panel in the shower room had been removed we could see that the damp had travelled from the back corner along two wooden battens. Fortunately we had caught it before the wood rotted but it still cost over £500 to get the leak sealed, everything dried out and a new panel fitted inside. The moral of the story is to check for damp regularly and act on any reading over 20%. I had decided to save money on servicing by getting a mobile engineer to service the caravan in 2014 and 2015 but it turns out to have been a false economy as he didn't pick up the damp problem. That back corner had been reading 20% when I last had a proper damp check done in 2013 so the early indications were there. Next time I will act on them sooner.

PS. Glencairn Coachworks in Leslie, Fife have done an excellent job on the accident damage. The only difference is that I don't have a nearside fog light now because they couldn't get exactly the same tail light fitting for my old Bailey. The more modern version has a reversing light in its place.