Protect your Caravan or Motorhome from damp this Winter! ‘Water Ingress’ or damp to you and me is the greatest threat to a Caravan or Motorhome owner, high levels of damp will:

• Reduce the vehicle residual value
• Make the vehicle colder and more expensive to heat
• Allow mould to grow and damage the interior finishes
• Cause corrosion in metals and more importantly electrical systems
• Create smells in the vehicle

Here is some advice from our friends at CaSSOA and Birch Chemicals

Winter is Coming: How Do You Protect Your Caravan from Damp?

During the winter months, you may be concerned about protecting your caravan or motorhome from cold and wet weather. Winterisation is a multi-step process with a variety of different things to consider – but the prevention of damp is usually one of the first things owners think about.

For caravans, damp is more than a small annoyance. Causing mould, mildew, rust to metal parts and rot to wooden parts, damp is one of the biggest worries when it comes to the colder months.

Repair costs for damp can be extremely expensive – so prevention is a far better strategy.

Identifying Damp

How do you tell if your caravan or motorhome is suffering a damp problem?

There are some surefire indicators of damp – mildew-like smells, surfaces that are wet or clammy to the touch, and of course, visible mould on the ceilings or in corners. However, the absence of these signs does not guarantee that your caravan is safe from damp.

A surefire way to tell if you’re facing a damp problem or not is with a damp-meter, which will give a reading of the moisture levels in your caravan or motorhome. These meters come in different forms, with the most common being a pin type. These meters are affordable, but vary in accuracy – plan for a result which varies around the realm of 2% from the actual moisture percentage.

If your meter returns a reading of above 25%, it’s time to begin thinking about preparing your caravan to protect against moisture – and if the reading is above 30%, immediate action is necessary.

Engineer Aftercare Says: Protecting your leisure vehicle from water ingress into the walls in particular is vital. Some simple and easy ways to help keep your Caravan or Motorhome free of damp is to regularly ventilate your van, especially when cooking. Most vehicles have a roof window above the cooker, this is because cooking creates by far the most internal moisture, so it’s important to always open windows when cooking. Pets and wet clothes also have to be aired as they dry out. Remember whatever you use to reduce damp in your vehicle, failure to do so will result in its reduced value when you come to sell it.