Leaking under the top deck

Thank goodness that I’ve been able to park the coach undercover for this job as there has been raining on and off. The Showgrounds have let us use one of the sheds for three weeks, thank you.

Now the fun begins

After trying to get the decking up and failing to do so, as I’d done a too good of a job gluing it down. Great! I had to come up with another solution.

Going over the top of the deck and sealing it instead, this way I can lay down some tiles to finish it off.

Time to seal it up

For some reason the Sikaflex didn’t stick between the decking boards. So after scraping it all out I troweled in some bitumen putty to take its place. The next step was three coats of bitumen paint to go over the decking boards. After the bitumen paint had dried the next day I got the fire hose out and flooded the area for one hour with no water leaking any more.

Now the tile underlay goes down, after cutting it to size. A box of nails later it’s all in place ready for the wet area under tile waterproofing.

The deck painted with bitumen waterproofing paint.

Next will be cutting the reinforcing bandage with bond-breaker for the edges. This will stop any damage to the waterproofing membrane if there is any movement.

Reinforcing bandage just to make it boom proof.

Now to start wet area tile waterproofing.

The under-tile waterproof membrane just paint on nice and easy thank goodness, so after going over the bandage and nail first. Then it was time for the first coat of three.

Next blog will be about the tile set out and the gluing of them in place, with all the other fiddle bits to finish it off.

Everyone loves a nice deck

Why waste the space from the old air conditioning? We have decided to turn it into our roof top deck. There was some eco decking on special at Bunnings so we couldn’t pass it up. We had to come up with some idea because when it rains it was filling up with water, not that it was leaking but the sound of it dripping when in bed made it sound like it was, so you would keep waking up looking for leaks. We only found this out when we were camping on the floor of the bus on our trip down the East coast to Brisbane.

The first job was to fill in under the fiberglass area where we cut out for the walk way and then seal it up.

Time for some sheetmetal work to start with.

The areas I have to fill in on either side of the walkway.

Cut to size just need to bend it to shape.

Now for the decking

Apart from climbing up and down the ladder what felt like hundreds of times, this job was pretty straight forward. My legs and lower back are feeling it now. I had to first set out for the deck supports then pop revetting them in place, it was just a matter of cutting the decking to size, screwing and lastly gluing them into place. It was important to prevent any water getting under the decking so I sealed every joint with sikaflex. I also decided to use expanding foam under the deck for insulation.

Aluminium glue and pop riveted into place for the walk way to the deck.

The walkway from the hatch to the decking almost there.

Starting from the back screwing and gluing as we go.

The white silicon is where the pop rivets from the ceiling come through.

Got to love the expanding foam, great insulation.

Now the fiddly bits….. the air is sucked out from inside through this boxed off area.

Job Done

The slates down the back are for the air flow and to let the water out when it rains. We will be putting the sola panels back up over the deck temporarily till the budget allows us to cover from the front of the coach to the back hatch. Now it’s time to get back inside and do some more work on the bedroom.

Old Air-Conditioning, Part 1, Part 2