# Mobile Pet Grooming Van Repair in Yorba Linda

> OCRV Center repairs pet grooming vans in shop in Yorba Linda for Tustin groomers. The work covers the stainless tub and its floor drain penetration, water tank mounting, fresh and grey plumbing, hair traps and pumps, humidity damaged wall panels, non slip flooring and the side ramp. Custom van build out runs $5,000 to $80,000.

Source: https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/mobile-business/mobile-pet-grooming-van-repair/
Business: OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Tustin, California.
Ballpark range: $5,000 to $80,000. Posted rates at https://ocrv.biz/prices/

## The van is a wet room bolted into a dry vehicle

Everything that goes wrong with a grooming van goes wrong for the same reason. The build puts a heated, humid, constantly wet room inside a vehicle body that was engineered on the assumption its interior stays dry. Steel ribs, adhesive backed insulation and a painted floor pan are all fine in a cargo van. Put a bathing station and two high velocity dryers in the same space six hours a day and the assumptions stop holding.

By the time an owner calls, the symptom is usually cosmetic: a soft spot beside the tub, a panel that will not stay fastened, a smell that will not wash out, rust bleeding through paint at the lower rocker. The cause is almost always the same, and it is behind the panel rather than on it.

If a grooming van comes in with a body complaint, the first thing we do is pull the panel next to the tub. In nine out of ten of them the insulation behind it is saturated and the rib below the drain has surface corrosion. Quote the panel without opening it and you have quoted the wrong job.

So the estimate on these is written after teardown, not before it. What looks like a two panel repair frequently becomes a wall and floor section once the wet material is out.

## The tub, the floor penetration and the corrosion around it

A stainless bathing tub is the single most consequential thing in the build. It is heavy when empty, much heavier with a large dog and standing water in it, and it drains through a penetration cut straight through the van floor pan.

That penetration is the failure point. The drain flange is bedded in sealant against a painted steel floor. The floor flexes every time the van moves. The sealant joint works, then weeps, and what weeps out is warm soapy water carrying hair, which sits on the underside of the floor pan and in the seam between the pan and the crossmember. Corrosion starts underneath where nobody looks, and by the time it shows on top the crossmember flange is already thin.

The repair is a proper one or it is not worth doing. The tub comes out. The floor is cut back to sound metal, a new section is welded or riveted in and sealed, the underside is coated, and the drain penetration is re bedded with a compression fitting rather than sealant alone. Rust treatment and anti corrosion coating runs $400 to $3,500 across 2 to 14 hours; cargo floor and liner work runs $400 to $4,500.

## Tank weight, plumbing, hair traps and the pump

Grooming vans carry two tanks: fresh, and grey holding everything that came off the animal. Water is heavy, and both tanks are usually mounted low and toward the rear where they change the loaded balance of the vehicle noticeably. Tank straps and mounting brackets are a routine intake inspection here, because a strap that has been cycling between full and empty loads for years and living in a damp bay is a strap that eventually lets go.

The plumbing itself is short but hard working: a fresh feed to the tub and the sprayer, a water heater in line, the tub drain to a hair trap, then a pump lifting the grey water into the holding tank. The hair trap is the item that gets neglected and then causes the flood. A clogged trap backs water up over the tub lip and onto the floor, and the floor is exactly where you do not want it.

- Fresh water plumbing service and repair, $285 to $4,500, 1 to 18 hours
- Black and grey tank repair and replacement, $750 to $8,500, 5 to 35 hours
- Macerator and sewer pump replacement, $400 to $1,800, 2 to 8 hours
- Water heater service, $350 to $4,500, 1 to 18 hours

Posted bands for all of these live on the [prices page](/prices/).

## Power for the dryers, and why the generator works so hard

A high velocity dryer is a big continuous load, and most grooming vans run two of them plus a water heater, lighting and a vacuum. That combination keeps the generator near its rated output for long stretches, which is a much harder duty cycle than the intermittent use most sets are specified for.

The consequences show up as heat. Bay ventilation that was adequate for occasional use is not adequate for six hours at load, so the set runs hot, the exhaust components age fast, and mounting isolators break down under sustained vibration. When a grooming van comes in for body work we look at the generator bay inlet area and the exhaust routing as a matter of course, because the owner has usually stopped noticing a problem that developed slowly.

Generator service and repair runs **$400 to $8,500** across 2 to 35 hours. Inverter and charger replacement runs $750 to $4,500. Mechanical and electrical labor is posted at $260 an hour, and diagnostics at $285 an hour applied as a credit against an authorized repair.

## Wall panels, non slip flooring and the side ramp

Interior surfaces in a grooming van need to be the same thing the wet room demands: non absorbent, cleanable, and joined so water cannot get behind them. Fibreglass reinforced panel or a coated aluminium sheet on the walls, a welded or coved vinyl on the floor with a genuine non slip texture, and continuous sealant at every joint including behind the tub surround.

Where a wall has been opened, the insulation behind it does not go back in as it came out. Wet fibrous insulation is removed and replaced with a closed cell product that does not hold water, because the vapour drive in this vehicle is inward and permanent. Insulation and sound deadening runs $750 to $4,500 across 4 to 20 hours; headliner and wall panel replacement runs $500 to $5,500.

The side ramp is the last item and the one that gets used a hundred times a week. Its hinge line is fastened into the sill, which is exactly where the wet floor problem tends to reach, so a ramp that has begun to sag is often reporting a sill that has corroded. Repair the sill, then re hang the ramp, and check the latch and the safety catch on the way out.

Tell us what you are seeing and when you need the van back. [Request a quote](/contact/) and we will schedule the teardown first so the estimate is written against what is actually behind the panel.

## Questions

### Why does my grooming van smell even after a deep clean?

Because the smell is not on the surface. Saturated insulation and hair trapped in a wall cavity or under the floor pan keep producing odour no matter how well the visible surfaces are cleaned. The fix is opening the wall, removing the wet material and rebuilding with closed cell insulation.

### Can the floor be patched instead of replaced?

If the corrosion is local and the crossmember flanges are sound, a welded section repair with a coated underside is a proper fix. If the pan is perforated in more than one place around the drain, replacing the section end to end costs less than returning for the second and third patch.

### How long will the van be off the road?

A tub reseal and drain re bed is a short job. A wet wall and floor section rebuild is usually one to two weeks, because the structure has to dry and the insulation, panel and flooring go back in sequence with cure time between steps.

### Do you install a new tub if mine is pitted?

Yes. A new stainless tub, its surround and the drain penetration are handled as one assembly, and the surrounding floor is inspected while the old tub is out. That is the only sensible time to deal with the floor, so we quote both together.

### Will you look at the generator while it is in for body work?

We will inspect the bay ventilation, the exhaust routing and the mounting isolators as part of intake and tell you what we find. Service beyond that is quoted separately, and the RV systems evaluation is $150, applied as a credit against an authorized repair.

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- [Prices and Posted Rates](https://ocrv.biz/prices/)