An RV sidewall is a laminated sandwich, not a solid panel. Outside to inside it runs a gel-coated fiberglass skin, typically 0.030 to 0.090 inch thick, bonded to a sheet of 1/8 inch luan plywood, bonded to a block foam core around 1-1/2 inches thick with aluminum framing let into it, then an inner backer and the interior wall panel. The whole stack is glued at the factory with a polyurethane laminating adhesive and pressed flat, either in a vacuum bag or through a pinch roller. Almost nothing in that wall is mechanically fastened, so it holds its shape because those glue lines hold. Delamination is the adhesive bond releasing, and it usually fails at the fiberglass-to-luan line first. Luan swells as it takes on water, the swelling shears the glue, and the freed skin lifts into a bubble or a long ripple you notice in reflections along the side of the coach.
Owners ask us where the leak is, and the honest answer is almost never at the bubble. Water tracks down and sideways between laminate layers, so the visible void usually sits well below and off to one side of the actual entry point. Our technicians work the wall from the top down. The repeat offenders, roughly in the order we find them: butyl tape behind a window frame that has gone hard and pulled from the flange, clearance and marker light gaskets with screws backed out, the corner molding screw line, the awning rail, the entry door frame, the refrigerator vent flange, and the roof edge trim where the membrane wraps down onto the sidewall. Repairing the bubble without closing that entry guarantees it comes back, wider than before. If moisture readings keep climbing as we track down toward the floor line rather than stopping in the wall, we say so, because that is a separate subfloor scope.
Assessment is three readings in one order, and none require opening the wall. First, the tap test. Our technicians work a plastic-tipped tap hammer across the panel on a rough grid and listen for the change, because sound laminate returns a sharp dead tick while a delaminated void answers with a hollow drum note. Every point where the note changes gets a strip of blue painter's tape, and that tape line becomes the boundary map we quote against. Second, moisture. A pin meter such as a Delmhorst BD-2100 read through an existing screw hole, backed by pinless sweeps across the skin, tells us what the luan is actually holding. Dry luan sits around 6 to 12 percent moisture content, roughly 16 to 20 percent means the adhesive is already compromised, and above 20 percent that luan is finished. Third, a press test at the center of the void. If it crackles under a thumb, the luan has broken up rather than simply unglued.
Injection repair is real, and it is also the most oversold fix in RV bodywork. The method is straightforward: drill 1/8 inch ports through the outer skin on a four to six inch grid inside the taped boundary, push a low-viscosity epoxy through a 60cc syringe until it weeps from the neighboring port, then clamp the panel flat with plywood caul boards and ratchet straps for a full 24 to 48 hour cure. West System 105 resin with 206 slow hardener buys back the working time Florida heat steals. Injection holds when the void is small, the substrate reads dry, the luan is still stiff, the outer skin is uncracked, and the leak is already closed. It fails when the luan is dark, soft or fibrous, when the meter reads over 20 percent, or when the void runs into a window corner. Epoxy will not bond to wet wood, and gluing soft luan to soft luan buys one season.
Heat is what turns a hand-sized delam into a whole wall. A dark or full-body-paint sidewall parked in direct sun reads in the 140 to 160 degree range on an infrared thermometer, and moisture trapped in the void turns to vapor and pushes outward against the skin. Every afternoon peels the bond a little wider, and every evening the cooling void draws a slight vacuum that pulls more water in through the same failed seal. That is why the same bubble looks different in August than it did in April, and why a west-facing wall degrades faster than the shaded side of the same coach. Left long enough, moisture reaches the framing and floor line, at which point it is no longer skin work but stud rot, subfloor repair or a mold finding.
We are fully mobile and come to you anywhere in Florida - campgrounds, storage lots, driveways and RV parks.
Call 888-759-1438Almost never from the bubble itself. Water enters at a fastener or a seal above it, then runs down between the fiberglass and the luan until something stops it. That is why our technicians moisture-map upward from the void to the nearest window frame, clearance light, awning rail or roof edge trim before proposing any repair. Sealing the entry point is the actual fix, and the laminate work is the second half of the job.
The meter answers that. Our technicians take readings in a vertical line from the void down to the floor line and along the bottom trim, and where the numbers stop climbing tells us where the water stopped. If readings drop off inside the wall, this is a sidewall job. If they stay high at the floor line and the floor flexes underfoot, subfloor is involved and we scope that separately rather than folding it into a laminate quote.
Diagnosis is fully mobile anywhere in Florida, and so is most small injection work. Our technicians need level ground, access to the affected side, and shade or an early start, because epoxy working time collapses on a hot panel. Full skin removal and panel replacement is shop work, so if the mapping shows that scope we tell you on the first visit instead of injecting resin into a wall that needs opening.
Only if the luan behind it is still sound and dry. Pressing a bubble flat without adhesive does nothing lasting, because the skin springs back as soon as the panel heats again. Clamping is only the second half of an injection repair, holding the layers together while resin cures. If the panel crackles when pressed, the substrate has already broken up and clamping just hides the damage until the next hot afternoon.
The visit is a service call: the trip out to wherever the coach sits, plus the first hour on it, at the rate in the pricing table on this page. Anything past that hour is quoted after diagnosis and approved by you first. What you get for it is a taped boundary map, moisture readings at named points, an identified water entry source, and an honest call on whether injection is appropriate. We do not quote a repair number on a wall we have not read, because the same size bubble can be two very different jobs.
Both, usually, and the inside is the last place it shows. A laminated wall can hold water in the glue line for a long time before anything stains the interior panel, which is why an exterior ripple often appears months ahead of a visible drip. By the time you see a wet spot inside, the luan is generally well past 20 percent and the scope has already grown from injection to panel work.
Every figure on this page comes from a manufacturer document or a standards body, not from another repair site. Here is where each one comes from.
| Item | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Service call | $299 | Includes the trip out to your RV and the first hour on site |
| Work past the first hour | Quoted after diagnosis | We tell you what it will take before we carry on |
| Parts | Quoted per job | Special-order parts may need a deposit before we order them |
| Written estimate | No charge | You approve the estimate before any work starts |
The service call covers the trip out to your RV and the first hour on site. Anything beyond that depends on what we find, and we quote it and get your approval before carrying on.
The price ranges on this page come from our own recent jobs across Florida, not from an industry average. What you pay depends on the rig, the parts it needs and what we find on site, so we give you a written estimate before any work begins and you approve it first.