Wet insulation blanket from fresh water flood

[Montana_6313]

New to RVing and had a small fresh water flooding disaster. I was able to clean up and dry out the small interior area of mostly wet carpet. However, I now have water trapped above the insulation blanket underneath my Mountaineer. I tipped the front of the trailer down and drained out most of the water. The yellow fiberglass insulation is saturated, and the plastic barrier material is acting like a bathtub holding in the remaining water. The insulation blanket is not easy to remove or replace. Should I be worried about mold? Is there anything I can do to dry out or pretreat to prevent mold? Will the soaking reduce the effectiveness of the insulation? I'm thankful for any recommendations on what measures I should take.

Thanks, Rejected Jody (The flood was a dumb mistake.)

[Ozz]

Sorry for your troubles, Jody
Just an idea, remove 3 or 4 screws from the paneling, tilt the trailer so the water runs out there, or at lease gets air to dry. Mold? Depends on where you live, but I wouldn't think so.
Also, you can run the furnace to dry it out, I'm sure the duct runs under there, but I don't know your rig.
Good luck!! (I don't know if I would list your E-mail address, this Forum has a great way of getting you E-mail without listing your personal E-mail. Kind of a filter.)
Ozz

[JH Sechelt]

Hi Jody,

Well, No easy fix here, How warm is it where you are? you'll have to try to open the Bottom of the trailer up
the best you can and get some air moving in there. Maybe a couple of fans ? Try to dry out the water as soon as you can.
You are right, that insulation holds water like a sponge. Maybe some professional help might be in order.
Good luck, keep us posted.



J&D

[Driftwoodgal]

Jody,

How much water are we talking about and how large of an area underneath?

J&D is giving you great advice about getting fans on the area.

We have a son that does Mold remediation and he helped us with a rent house that had an AC drain that backed up and we had water traveling under the pier and beam of the house. It finally showed up in the living room. We had to tear out parts of the flooring and we used a product called Fosters and also good ole Clorox to get rid of the mold. Clorox killed the mold and the Foster was used as preventive to keep it from coming back.

Had four inches of water in my bedroom from flood run off and we pulled up carpet and did the same thing in that area. I still have the same carpet in my bedroom. You just need to be very carefull that you get everything DRY before you seal anything back up. Getting to that point might take you several days. If I felt that I couldn't dry the area out I would replace the insulation.

You can rent some duckbill fans from carpet companies.

Colleen

[Montana_6313]

Colleen,

The front half of the insulation is saturated ~ 16 ft. The water was trapped underneath the trailer an inch or two inside the structural frame above the insulation blanket. I didn't see anyway to lower or remove the blanket and the only holes in the blanket are for hoses. I pulled the spray insulation away from the drain hoses protruding through the blanket in the front of the trailer and tipped the trailer to drain the water. So there isn't a place to put the fans into, as it sealed for 4-season use. A 4-inch hose could fit into the space around the hoses. I will look for a ventilation fan.

Thanks, Jody