A roof over our heads….

We have hit a pretty exciting milestone! We have officially completed the installation of the roof on our awesome Toy motor home. The roof installation also included our escape hatch/vent, our fantastic fan vent, and our double wall poly carb skylight above our shower location. We are using 3M VHB tape to attach our roof panels and to attach our vents and skylight. In the photo’s you will notice that there are also screws on the fixtures as well as the roof panels. This is due to the fact that we just don’t feel comfortable with tape doing the job entirely on it’s own. RV manufacturer’s use this method, but we just don’t have the experience with it. A huge benefit of the VHB tape is that it also seals and is waterproof. We are going to subject the roof and walls to rigorous leak testing once completed. If the VHB tape holds true to it’s waterproof claim, we will avoid putting additional sealants on the roof.

We are currently deciding on our wall skin material. Originally we were planning on using aluminum for the entire skin, but we have recently been considering Filon. (Filon is reinforced fiberglass sheeting that is commonly used on mass produced motor homes.) We are considering this option as it would allow us to minimize the seams needed, and it would aid in our concerns about interior condensation. Condensation is a definite concern with a metal skin, and if constructed improperly, it could make short work of ruining the interior of a motor home. As we continue to research our outer skin material, we will be working on fabricating the wheel wells, adding floor fasteners under the frame, sealing and undercoating the belly aluminum, and preparing for our wiring pathways. The insulation and method that we install it will be decided in part by our outer skin choice. If we stay with the aluminum skin, we will use a combination of 2″ rigid poly iso insulation, a vapor barrier, and spray foam to seal cracks and gaps. We also have two thermal barriers by using the VHB tape on the skin, as well as our plan on using it on the interior wood paneling.