# Roof, Slide-Out and Awning Repair Services

> This category covers the three exterior systems that move or seal: roofs, slide-outs and awnings. Roof membrane replacement runs 20 to 80 hours, slide mechanism service 3 to 35 hours, and awning fabric replacement 2 to 10 hours. All three share a common failure mode, which is a seal that stopped doing its job.

Source: https://ocrv.biz/services/roof-slide-awning/
Business: OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Tustin, California.

## What is the difference between EPDM, TPO and fiberglass roofs?

Three materials, three failure modes, three repair paths. Identifying which one is on the vehicle is the first step in any roof job.

**EPDM** is a rubber membrane, typically 45 to 60 mil, bonded to a plywood or laminated deck. It is flexible, it tolerates movement well, and it chalks. That white residue running down the sidewall after rain is the EPDM sacrificing its surface layer, which is normal and by design. EPDM fails at seams, at penetrations and where a branch or ladder has punctured it. It cannot be painted with most coatings without a primer designed for it.

**TPO** is a thermoplastic membrane, usually with a scrim reinforcement layer. It is more puncture resistant than EPDM, it does not chalk, and it can be heat welded at seams rather than relying on adhesive and tape. TPO fails by getting brittle with age and cracking, particularly along the edges where it has been mechanically fastened.

**Fiberglass** roofs are a molded or laminated structural panel, not a membrane at all. They do not tear or puncture the way membrane does. They fail by crazing in the gelcoat, by delaminating from the deck, and at the sealant beads around every roof penetration. A fiberglass roof also transmits impact damage into the structure rather than absorbing it, so hail on fiberglass produces different damage than hail on EPDM.

Membrane replacement across all three runs $3,500 to $18,000 at 20 to 80 hours. Recoat and reseal, which is the maintenance operation rather than the replacement operation, runs $750 to $4,500 at 4 to 20 hours. Full detail sits on the [price sheet](/prices/) and the operations live under [roof repair and replacement](/services/roof-repair/).

## Schwintek, Lippert In-Wall or Power Gear: which slide do I have?

Look at the mechanism, not the badge. Four systems cover the overwhelming majority of the market and they behave nothing alike.

**Schwintek in-wall**: 
Two vertical gear tracks mounted inside the side walls of the slide room, each driven by its own motor through a worm gear. Common on lighter rooms and on fifth wheel bedroom slides. Its characteristic failure is the two motors losing synchronization, which racks the room in its opening and jams it. Timing the motors back into sync is a specific procedure, not a matter of cycling the switch.

**Lippert through-frame and in-wall**: 
Heavier duty. A through-frame system drives the room on rails passing under the floor, usually with a hydraulic or electric actuator. Failures show up as bent rails, worn bushings and hydraulic leaks rather than sync loss.

**Power Gear rack and pinion**: 
A toothed rack under the room driven by a pinion on a cross shaft, so both sides are mechanically linked and cannot lose sync with each other. Failures are gear wear, shaft coupler shear and motor brush wear.

**BAL Accu-Slide**: 
A cable driven system, common on travel trailers. Cables stretch and fray, and adjustment is a matter of cable tension rather than gear timing.

Mechanism service runs $500 to $8,500 across 3 to 35 hours. A room that has been running out of adjustment for a season usually needs seal work too, and where the floor has flexed it needs [slide room structural repair](/services/slide-out-repair/) at $1,500 to $7,500.

## How do slide seals actually keep water out?

They do not seal by being tight. They seal by being in continuous contact and by directing water outward, and there are three distinct types working together.

The wiper seal is a flexible blade that sweeps the top and sides of the room as it travels, clearing debris and shedding water off the roof of the room. The bulb seal is a hollow rubber tube that compresses when the room is fully in or fully out, forming the actual water barrier at those two positions. The D seal, named for its cross-section, sits at the base and handles the gap between the room floor and the main floor.

Failure is almost always compression set: the rubber loses its memory and stays flattened, so it no longer presses against the mating surface. It looks intact. It is not sealing. The test is a strip of paper pulled through the closed seal; if it slides out with no resistance, the seal is done. Replacement runs $400 to $3,000 across 2 to 14 hours.

The second failure mode is misalignment. A room that is out of adjustment by even a small amount presses hard on one corner and not at all on the opposite corner. Replacing the seal without correcting the alignment consumes the new seal in a season.

## When does an awning need fabric versus hardware?

Fabric, when the vinyl or acrylic has torn, faded, stretched or grown mildew that will not clean out. Hardware, when it will not extend, retract, hold position or sits crooked when deployed.

Fabric replacement runs $400 to $2,500 across 2 to 10 hours and is straightforward on manual units. Power units add a layer, because the fabric tension is what the motor works against and an over-tensioned roller draws excess current and shortens motor life.

Hardware failures split into arms, motors and sensors. Bent arms usually come from wind, from driving away with the awning out, or from water pooling in the fabric and loading one side. Motors fail from age and from being run against a jammed roller. Sensors, on units equipped with wind sensing and auto-retract, fail in ways that look like motor problems, which is why the diagnostic step matters. Arm and motor replacement runs $500 to $3,500 across 3 to 14 hours under [awning repair](/services/awning-repair/).

Slide toppers are a separate item. They are the small awnings mounted over each slide room to keep debris off the roof of the room, and they carry their own fabric replacement at $450 to $1,800.

## Why do these three systems get scoped together?

Because they share the roof line and they share water. A slide topper mounts into the same sidewall band as the roof edge trim. A slide seal rides against the same sidewall the roof membrane terminates on. An awning rail is through-bolted into the sidewall an inch below where the roof membrane wraps.

When one of those penetrations lets go, the water tracks along the framing and shows up somewhere else. An owner who reports a leak above the dinette often has a failed awning rail sealant bead six feet forward, because the water ran down the inside of the wall. Chasing that leak by resealing above the dinette does nothing.

Scoping all three at once during an [inspection](/services/inspection-evaluation/) is cheaper than three separate visits. The systems estimate at $150, applied as a credit against an authorized repair, covers slide, awning and related evaluation. On a unit that has been sitting or has just come out of storage, that inspection is the right first step. Related category work sits under [collision and structural](/services/collision-structural/) when the damage reached the framing.

## Questions

### How often should an RV roof be resealed?

Inspect the sealant beads at every penetration twice a year and after any trip through heavy weather. Most self leveling lap sealant on a membrane roof needs attention every two to three seasons in Southern California sun, sooner if the unit stores outdoors without a cover.

### My slide moves crooked. Is that a motor problem?

On a Schwintek system it is usually a synchronization problem between the two independent motors, corrected by re-timing rather than by replacing parts. On a rack and pinion system both sides are mechanically linked, so crooked travel points at a sheared coupler, a worn gear or a bent rail instead.

### Can a torn awning fabric be patched?

A small tear away from the tension edges can sometimes be repaired to get through a season. Anything at the roller edge, at the arm attachment or across more than a few inches will keep propagating, because the fabric is under constant tension and the tear is a stress riser.

### Do you replace roofs with the same material that was on it?

Not always. The right membrane depends on the deck condition, the age of the unit and how the owner uses it. A vehicle that lives outdoors year round is a different specification from one that stores under cover, and the recommendation is made after the old membrane comes off and the deck is inspected.

## Related

- [Services](https://ocrv.biz/services/)
- [Roof Repair and Replacement](https://ocrv.biz/services/roof-repair/)
- [Slide-Out Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/slide-out-repair/)
- [Awning Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/awning-repair/)
- [Fiberglass Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/fiberglass-repair/)
- [Inspection and Evaluation](https://ocrv.biz/services/inspection-evaluation/)
- [Prices and Posted Rates](https://ocrv.biz/prices/)