Newbie Needs Help With Saggy Roof....Ahhhhh

[Keeley_ATX]

Hi Everyone! I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a 2000 17 foot, wide body Burro......and it's kind of a mess. This is my first ever RV and the hubs and I plan on restoring it, but want to do most of the work ourselves (we've renovated a house, built a pond, dock, poured cement, etc. so we're relatively handy).

Here's the rub....the roof is well, collapsing. It appears that something may have fallen (like a tree) and the previous owners repaired it, but it's sagging quite badly. I've read through a lot of very good posts on here about repairing and improving the fiberglass body. But I have no clue where to even begin. Is this something that we could try to repair ourselves? If not, what is the ballpark cost to repair something like this?

I've included pictures, feel free to forehead slap and tell me I'm an idiot for spending actual money on this. We (mostly me) fell in love with the look and community of FGRVs and at this point I'm trying not to cry.

Thanks in advance!

Yours Truly,

What Did I Get Myself Into?

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[VABurro]

You sound like you have lots of experience fixing stuff! No need to cry You can do it! And, in this hot market, I'm betting you can resell the camper if you decide it's more work than you want to do

I don't have experience fixing a sagging roof. Your pictures look like there has been some fiberglass repair work that could have been better .... but a boat repair shop should be able to help out. What I love about fiberglass campers is that they are always fixable!!

Have you joined the Burro Facebook group? A few people have posted about repair their sagging ceilings in that group. One woman posted about her Burro being in a hit-and-run. The group said that it's repairable...even though the damage looked pretty significant.

[John in Michigan]

I agree with VABurro that you might get more help from the Burro Facebook group. Fixing a Burro sagging roof probably involves first checking whether interior supports such as posts and cabinets can be re-positioned or modified to fix the problem. If that doesn't do it, then you may need to jack up the roof from inside to get it into the desired position (or probably a bit higher), then grind the gel coat off of the roof in that area, add more layers of fiberglass, then a fresh layer of gel coat.

[tua]

Well I do not know about fixing a saggy roof. I saw several people renovating their Bolers at the 50th Boler rally a few years ago. I heard them say that because it is only single wall fiberglass, they were putting in supports where there are no cabinets, since the cabinets act as a wall support. I know that doesn't help you though

Look through the forum. There is someone who is currently restoring a smashed roof. Quite remarkable.

[Bob Durrstein]

Pkease post photos of the inside. My Scamp had the interior cabinetry and its supporting role removed. Yours may need some interior supports replaced. Fellow Burro owners may then be able to compare your interiot with theirs.

[Keeley_ATX]

Thanks everyone for the responses! I spent the latter part of last week and all weekend completely gutting the old girl. I also noticed there were repairs done to the roof. I left facebook many a year ago, couldn’t deal with the drama. We think it was either death by tree or road accident and the former owners did a patch job on the roof and just.....tried to force the interior hull to the interior structural wood. If that makes sense at all.

We ripped out the skylight and it may be wishful thinking but the fiberglass seems to be popping back out to it’s (almost) former self. The bolts we think were pulling the roof down, if that’s possible. Anyway, we are going to take it to a fiberglass guy this week for estimates. Sorry that last picture won’t participate in turning the right way. First two are after, second two are before. I’ll get more tomorrow, it’s been 106+ here in Texas. And to think I was laughing at the window a/c unit, saved me from heat stroke this weekend!

And if I can locate whomever put silicone on every square inch of this thing, I’m going to make a voodoo doll and stick pins in it’s eyes.

[tua]

Looks great Keeley_ATX!

[Keeley_ATX]

Upon further investigation, the roof has to be completely replaced. The PO used a combination of plywood, expanding spray foam and some sort of hard resin BETWEEN the inner and outer hulls, then did a very bad FG patch job on the roof. I think the roof FG shattered and the support wood either broke or cracked, hence the sag. The inner FG hull is in decent shape, so fingers crossed once the roof is fixed and braced, the inside ceiling will lift with it.

The third pic down is of the hard cement like resin, it’s got to be heavy. Fingers crossed it comes away with the outer hull, otherwise we’re looking at a complete inner/outer roof replacement. Sigh. In case you’re wondering, their voodoo doll now has pins in it’s butt.