Windows & leaks
It’s been a busy end to the week with more progress over Friday & Saturday. We’ve managed to fix some older issues and make progress on the window side of things.
We’ve sprung a leak!
We didn’t managed to get out to the van for most of this week, as we’ve still been recovering and I have spent a lot of time online trying to find a suitable solution to the lingering problem we have connecting the solar panels to the roof rails.
Finally, on Friday we made it out for a few hours and tidied up some miscellaneous bits. This included fixing back up some insulation that had come loose, adding a small support beam to the floor where it was a bit slack, and finally cutting out the step. Ben did a fantastic job with the jigsaw! He’s got it down to a fine art and we have a nice cutout with rounded edges (ohhh).
It has rained quite a lot recently and we discovered that we have a leak from the roof fan. As we have to park at a slant on the hill rainwater tends to pool behind the fan, we assumed that maybe we hadn’t quite used enough sealant and so up onto the roof I went to add more Sikaflex so we could see if it held before we have to take the whole fan off and start again. I peeled back the sealant tape that we had used and found a couple of gaps in the sikaflex, I squidged a lot more in and reset the tape pushing it down firmly. It’s never great news to find a leak, but we are sure pleased to discover this now before the ceiling went up. So far the repair seems to be holding!
More windows
We decided to start Saturday off with the installation of the remaining two windows. Our previous attempt had been successful and thankfully we’ve had no leaks from the window. Ben made quick work of the marking out and after a quick double check by John, the cutting began.
Soon after it was all hands on deck to get the windows in place. The weather has been on and off with rain so we tried to time it right to get the windows in during the breaks. Just after we’d cut the first window hole the heavens opened, which resulted in us all making a mad dash to cover the hole with plastic sheeting and get inside as it chucked it down.
The weather eased up a bit, stopping just long enough for us to actually get the window in and screwed into place. As weather does, it decided once again to pelt it down, this time with hailstones whilst we were cleaning off the excess sealant. It must have been such a funny sight, the four of us huddled around the window of the van frantically cleaning off the sealant with a couple of umbrellas for protection!
The remaining window thankfully went in without too many antics from the weather and we finished up the day’s work. We are super pleased with the final look and feel that dear old Gandalf is starting to look like more of a campervan now.
Wow lovely!