How to Build a Travel Trailer - Rubber Roof Installation

My original plan was to build a flat roof and cover it with aluminum sheeting. After researching that idea, I found one common issue was that no matter how well the seams were sealed, they would eventually fail due to the trailer bouncing around on rough roads. I still wanted a flat roof because I plan to install solar panels on top and want to keep the lowest profile possible. So more research led me to what seems now like an obvious solution, a rubber roof membrane that is used on most RVs. So as an extra precaution, what I did was elevate the three sections of the roof that would eventually have to be cut through. Two areas are for fans and one area is for a stovepipe for my wood stove. So doing this would ensure that the water would drain away from the seams where these openings would be located. I felt that eventually, because the structure is made of wood, it may start to sag slightly over time and I wanted to ensure that it didn't sag in the locations where the holes would be in the roof. And since I was using 3-8 plywood for the roof, I felt it was pliable enough to bend and conform to the slight bends that I would be creating in the roof. So the max air fans that I plan to install are 14 inches square and they'll be framed into this location, one in this location, one further up at the front of the trailer. So after putting the plywood down on the 2x4 beam, I sanded it down to get it as round as possible. I felt it didn't have to be perfect, it just had to support the plywood as it gradually rounded down to the edge of the other piece of plywood. And as you can see, it's not perfect but it does the job. So at the edge of the door is where my wood stove will be located. So I'm propping up the area around there so that again the water will drain away from where the opening is for the stove pipe eventually. So in all the gaps between the plywood and the 2x4, I filled in with spray foam insulation to give the plywood a little more support and eventually I will be bracing this with more framing as time goes on. But I am still not sure exactly where some things are going in the roof so the framing is pretty sparse. So I felt I should prep the roof as best I could and what seemed obvious was rounding down the corners of the plywood. So I took my belt sander and kind of sanded those and smoothed those out. I thought it wouldn't hurt to give a little protection for the rubber roof membrane around the corners so I took some Gorilla tape and simply taped the corners and edges of the roof where it met the sheet metal. And at the front of the trailer, the rubber roof membrane will come down off the plywood and be sealed underneath this piece of aluminum. So I'm taking it off to eventually put it back on and sandwich the rubber roof membrane between that. My rubber roof kit came with self-leveling caulking so I thought I would use it to fill in some of the seams between the plywood and also where the screw holes were on the roof. I was a little disappointed by the self-leveling caulking because after a couple days it really didn't flatten out at all but I wasn't too concerned about the cosmetic look that would have on the roof. So before I would put the rubber roof membrane on I wanted to seal the corners of the trailer. I used four inch Eternabond tape to seal the edges and corners of the trailer. This tape is extremely durable and once it's on it really holds onto the surface and eventually I will be putting a metal 90 degree bend aluminum flashing over this to cover it up. Because I'm building my own trailer I was able to kind of over build it so the corners have a layer of Eternabond tape underneath the aluminum and then over top of the aluminum which will then be clad in another corner piece of aluminum. So I believe that the corners will be as waterproof as possible. I gave the plywood a quick sanding just to ensure any splinters were removed from the surface. The self-leveling caulking turned out to be a bit of a mistake but I couldn't exactly sand over it so I had to live with the bubbles that it would create in the roof. So my roof kit included the adhesive which is like a Elmer's glue sort of texture to it, came with some butyl tape, the self-leveling caulking that I'll eventually use around the fans and stove and this is the rubber roof liner. So I carefully unfolded it onto the roof and let it sit out in the sun for most of the day. How are you doing? Looking good, wow. It's getting there. You're really moving on it. We see the progress. Thank you, thanks. I went to the back of the trailer and rolled back the liner to start to apply the adhesive in sections. The self-leveling caulking stuck to the liner but it wouldn't be a problem as it would peel off easily once I unrolled the liner back onto the roof. So I simply used a paint roller to apply the adhesive. It went on fairly easily. I wasn't exactly sure how the cover would be so I was a little sparse on the first section but it turned out I would have plenty of adhesive to do the 12 by 7 foot area of my trailer. Once the adhesive was applied to the plywood I rolled back the liner carefully. Once I had that section done I rolled back the liner from the front to the back and repeated the process. This time around I switched the broom to a towel and smoothed it out by hand and still used the roller. The towel worked much better than the broom did and I found the roller worked well to get the air bubbles out. Unfortunately some of the self-leveling caulking showed up and may look like air bubbles in the video but again that's a cosmetic thing and I really have no problem with that. It's not going to affect the way the roof handles and holds up. So that's how I installed my rubber roof liner on my trailer. It hangs down about six inches around the edges and in the next video I'll show you how I trim the edges and cap them with more aluminum trim. So thanks for watching. Subscribe if you haven't already for more videos and you'll see how the process continues. Cheers!