As I restore my 28 foot Barth I have been taking a ton of pictures and was looking through them this evening and found a couple that were particularly interesting. The first picture is of the corner of the bedroom before i touched it which looks fairly benign . The second picture is of what was going on below the wallpaper.

the same wall after removing the wallpaper.

YUCK!
I've seen that in homes a number of times. People often tried to make an insurance claim for it -- sorry, no can do. not an "accident" (fortuitous event).

An ounce of prevention...

In another life, I did mold investigation, testing, remediation. That stuff can be very tough on some people. Nothing to ignore.
Jim

Hi all, I'm looking for my first Barth. I've run across a number of posts about mold hiding behind walls or under ceiling, other than stripping off a piece of the covering, are there any tell tale signs that I can look for when I inspect a Barth motorhome ?
Thanks,
Rafael

quote:

Originally posted by Rafael:
Hi all, I'm looking for my first Barth. I've run across a number of posts about mold hiding behind walls or under ceiling, other than stripping off a piece of the covering, are there any tell tale signs that I can look for when I inspect a Barth motorhome ?
Thanks,
Rafael

SMELL!SMELL!SMELL!

Look for evidence of water leaks around all opening in the roof and sidewall. Don't forget those pesky little things like the tv/phone jack outlet.

I just finished redoing the interior of my barth from bow to stern. I was thinking that all the rot was in the back bedroom but was surprised when I started pulling the wallpaper off the living room to find rot under one of the living room windows where the wallpaper looked perfect. Actually the luan didn't look bad from the front just a couple of small discolorations but felt delaminated to touch and when I drilled some holes in it to check what was behind I found wet insulation ,delaminated luan and black mold again. I will post a picture of that later. It was really surprising how wet the insulation was since the coach has been out of the weather in my pole barn for almost 2 months. It is just an illustration how a small leak can accumulate moisture that never goes away in the walls. I think a lot of the leaks where caused by the windows and the awning fixtures. The awning fixtures were just screwed into the side with big lag bolts with no visible caulking left. Again there was really no visible sign of exterior damage and since I had redone the back bedroom all the mold smell in the coach was gone until I opened up this wall. What I started to do after I pulled the wall paper off was to drill some 1 1/4 inch holes in the bottom of the walls in various places to check the condition of the luan and the insulation. If you use a hole drill you can look at the back of the plug that comes out to see if there is any mold. You can tape over these holes with aluminum tape and then replace the wallpaper. I of course took all my wallpaper off but I suppose you could lift the wallpaper from the bottom carefully so it doesn't rip to drill some holes and then glue it back down later.

Looking forward to the pictures. This makes one wonder about the condition of their Barth. I have two that show no signs of leaks but, 'Who Knows'?
I suppose it would be fun (in a masochistic sort of way) to completely gut a Barth, even a relatively new one, upgrade all the mechanicals and wiring, and redo the whole interior. What a project that would be.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim and Tere:
Looking forward to the pictures. This makes one wonder about the condition of their Barth. I have two that show no signs of leaks but, 'Who Knows'?
I suppose it would be fun (in a masochistic sort of way) to completely gut a Barth, even a relatively new one, upgrade all the mechanicals and wiring, and redo the whole interior. What a project that would be.

You would be amazed at how a job like this will nickel and dime you to death and the mountains of material for the dump that you create. It is definitely not worth the effort unless you have no other choice like me.

Thanks all, really good advice. I'll be in California later this year I hope to look around for some hidden Barth jewel (looking for a smaller unit 21 or 22 feet) I'm sure that I'll be posting all sort of Qs
Rafael

Hoping I'm not hyjacking this thrd. but after reading about the wood rot in this Barth. I was wondering if because of all there aluminum outter skin & framework if there more susceptible to "sweating" in cooler climates when being used with the heat on? I don't know how they would compare to say a fiberglass coach? After seeing this I am a little "gunshy" of buying an older coach? I have owned & restored a old wooden boat before (a 42ft'er) so I am very leary of dry rot. They can't all be like this could they?

quote:

I'm sure that I'll be posting all sort of Qs

Use the "Advanced Search" to check our archives. There is already a lot of great information here. It is like a Barth owner's manual with an index.

Thanks Kevin.
Rafael