Carpeting is wet and brown stuff underneath floor

[milkandrelish]

Hey guys,

I was pulling up the carpet flooring in the van in front of the fridge/stove area. It is really wet under there, and there's a bunch of brunch stuff underneath where the 2nd row of seats would normally go.

Does anyone have any suggestions here? Where might this be coming from? What is the brown stuff? I just bought the van and am not sure how long this might have been there.

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[DenverB]

Your van has a leak. it could either be from the fresh water system (likely there at the drain point in your cupboard if so) or from a leak in the roof (probably your most likely scenario).

if it is the roof, its likely from the rubber chalks that fit in the roof gap between the front of your tent and the back side of the luggage rack. Lift your tent, look down in those grooves and see where the rubber piece has been epoxied/siliconed in place. the epoxy/silicone looks cracked, clean it out with water and compressed air then re-seal it with standard silicone you can buy at home depot.

as for the brown stuff? that's the rotten wood coming apart.
I'd also bet your floor feels 'soft' in places -- that's your hardwood rotting out. You'll have to eventually pull out the entire van contents and re-lay the wood flooring underneath to truly fix that issue.
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[pinetreeporsche]

DenverB: Can you be more specific about the "drain point in your cupboard"? I just bought a '97 mini-Winnie, and the seller had pulled out (most of- except under the rear seat-bed) the crumbling particle board. I assume that with a fleet of rental vans including EVs, you've seen this several times. So what do you lay down to return the floor level to original height? I'm considering a 1/4 or 3/8 plywood laid over some stiff foam (after some heavy wire brushing of rust and a Por-15 treatment). Do you see any disadvantage to hard foam?
Also, if it's a roof leak, any tricks to tracking it down? (others can chip in, too)

[Abscate]

When you have kids, wet carpets with brown stuff under them is always fun..
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[pinetreeporsche]

DenverB- (clearly, as a fleet owner, has seen damp floors): Thanks. I've been at my floor's rust spots with a spinning wire brush; will use Por 15 next. But while the floor back near the r seat/bed is still fine, as is the area near the slider door, there's a mushy chip texture going up under the front of the Kitchen unit. How do I get that unit off the wall and out of the way to see if rotten floor material needs to come out all the way to the wall? (And no, haven't done the research with a garden hose to see where the leak is, or if it's 2 leaks. There were drips coming down just toward the center of the van in front of the kitchen and the flooring under the table storage is punky too. Do I have to get the kitchen out of the way and do a full leak test to avoid missing an entry point?

[pinetreeporsche]

After a light-medium snow, I ended up w/water dripping from somewhere above onto the floor. I couldn't identify the actual entry point, but decided it was from melt of the snow in the gap between and the poptop and the luggage rack. SOLUTION: I got a 2 dollar section of hollow tubular foam insulation for warm-water pipes in the basement or crawl space, and pushed it down into that gap, sloping to a deeper insert closer to the outer edge of the van roof. So snow, or the recent drenching rain, never gets to the roof itself, but runs downward/ outwards and sheds off the sides. Firmer tube foam, like swim noodles are way too sturdy; the very flexy pipe insulation is just right. It even makes the zig and the zag just before getting out to the edge of the roof. Having a step-stool to do the install (takes 30 sec from each side) is almost essential, although a second person to keep you against the van if you do it standing on the floor at the edge of the seat (protected) could work-- or even one foot up on the front seat.
Who knows, may even quiet air-flow noise from the gap.

[pinetreeporsche]

An update of my post above, filling the gap between the luggage rack unit and the top itself. I was getting work done by Chris Dale of AutoWerks in the Raleigh area, and he suggested getting a tighter fit: take an inner tube from a fat-tire boonie bike, cut it near the valve, double fold and clamp the cut ends w/patch glue (allow to dry in a clamp). Use a hand-pump to get a good fill in the opening. I'd add a detail, to make the water flow downward as it moves toward the edges: use an 18-inch long piece of the pipe-insulation centered on the middle of the roof pressed down into the gap, under the inner tube, so the tube is highest at the middle, to avoid ponding there.