Tearing Out the Dry Rot...Not for the Faint of Heart!

For those who are interested in how we restore rotten wood, I'll be documenting the process in my blog also.  This process is hard, tedious work, so if you're not sure you are up to it, don't do it!  I'm in no way an expert, but my hubby and I have owned and worked on about 8 trailers, so we've got the experience.  This is our 4th Aristocrat trailer, and each had dry rot in the front, rear and corners of the trailer.  This is why it's important to seal your trailer about every 5 years, around the windows, roof and drip rails.  We've learned that silicone is corrosive to aluminum, so all we use is the putty for sealing trailers and roof seal.  Silicone is ok around the glass of your windows.  And it's horrible to get off of the aluminum later.  If your trailer is sturdy enough to use without replacing the rotten wood framing, you may want to forego this process.  BUT, if you soft squishy floors or the wood is soft around your windows, you may want to strengthen your trailer structure, so it doesn't start coming apart on you (I've heard about trailers so rotted that the sides sucked in and out while being towed).  We started with removing the drip rails.  Underneath the rails, you'll see old putty.  Scrape it off, preferably with a plastic putty scraper, to not damage the aluminum.  We then removed the window...removing screws, then running our putty knife under the edges to release the old putty.  Very carefully, pull out window and put it in a safe place.  Then comes the more difficult part...pulling out long staples that hold the skins to the framing.  We use a pointed scraper as a wedge and a pair of needle nose pliers.  You hammer the point of the putty knife to pull up a little bit the staple, then use the pliers to pull it out...often they are rusted and break off.  Holding the putty knife against the staple when you are pulling up seems to help.  This is a long and tedious process.  Once you have all of the staples out, the skins come off.  WEAR HEAVY LEATHER GLOVES or you will cut yourself.  You most likely will need someone to help you to do this.  Often, several sheets of aluminum are fitting together.  For this project, we took two pieces off at once and left them connected.  An important tip is to NOT remove too much of the skins at once, or you may have difficulty buttoning them all up together after you are done replacing the wood.  We will repair the front section first, then will peel back only part way the sides to start repair on wood rot on the sides.  People who completely remove skins on front, sides and back all at once usually get overwhelmed and have difficulty putting it all back together and fitting right unless they are a construction pro.  You have to use the same dimensions of wood as the original, or the skins will not fit back together correctly and you will end up shaving off wood to make it fit.  We use a Dremel electric tool with a cutting blade to cut out the rotted pieces.  WEAR EYE SAFETY GLASSES AND GLOVES...  Here's a few photos of where we started yesterday...

Someone sprayed sealer foam here to fill up a gaping hole...a temporary fix at best

Here Steve uses a Dremel and cutting attachment to cut away rotten wood. 

We'll replace the old insulation with newer which is more efficient at keeping cold weather out.

We cut out the really rotted wood and

pieced in new wood, securing with pieces of aluminum flashing and attached with a staple gun.

This really sturdied the front up.

The front sides will be tackled next, after the front is all repaired and replaced.  This will require

removing the side front windows. 

Dry rot isn't too bad around side windows and top, but there's alot of rot along the bottom sides of the trailer.  The floor is sturdy.