# Individual RV Owners: What to Expect > Most individual RV owners have never authorized a repair this large. A motorhome estimate can run five figures for damage that looks minor from ten feet away, and the reason is that the wall, the roof and the floor are one bonded structure. This page explains what the number is made of and how the decision gets made. Source: https://ocrv.biz/who-we-help/personal-use/individual-rv-owners/ Business: OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Tustin, California. ## Why is the number so much bigger than you expected? Because a motorhome sidewall is not a panel. On a [Class A gas coach](/vehicles/rvs-motorhomes/class-a-gas-motorhome-repair/) or a [Class C](/vehicles/rvs-motorhomes/class-c-motorhome-repair/), the exterior skin, the insulation, the framing and the interior wall are laminated into a single sandwich. Hit it and you have not dented a fender, you have compromised a structural assembly that also happens to be weatherproof. That is why a scrape that would be a $900 job on a pickup becomes a laminated panel section, a resealed seam, an interior wall repair and a paint blend across two bays. It is also why the visible damage is a poor predictor. Delamination repair on a sidewall, roof or slide face runs $1,500 to $20,000, and the spread inside that band is decided by how far the bond let go, which nobody knows until it is opened. The second multiplier is paint. Motorhome finishes are multi stage with graphics over them, and matching a fifteen year old gel coat next to fresh clear is genuinely difficult. Color match blending runs $500 to $5,000, and a full refinish runs $5,000 to $35,000. Those figures are on [the posted rate card](/prices/) alongside the $210 per hour body and paint rate they are built from. ## What happens between the estimate and the first hour of work? More than owners expect, and this is where most of the frustration lives. The estimate is written on visible damage. It is not the repair plan. The repair plan exists after teardown, and on a coach the two numbers are rarely the same. If a carrier is paying, the sequence is estimate, assignment, teardown, supplement, approval, then work. A supplement is the second estimate covering what was behind the panel, and it has to be submitted with photographs, part numbers and labor justification, then reviewed, then approved, before a technician is allowed to continue. If we keep cutting without that approval the carrier can decline the portion and you eat it. So the correct behaviour looks like a pause. If you are paying, the same pause happens but the phone call comes to you instead. We photograph the concealed area, price the additional operations against the same rate card and ask before proceeding. Nobody at this shop has authority to spend your money silently. ## What should you bring to the counter? Four things make the first visit twice as useful. - **The declarations page**, not the insurance card. It lists coverage types, limits, deductibles and whether you carry Agreed Value or actual cash value. - **Photographs of the scene** if there was one, including the other vehicle, the position of both and anything the other party said. - **Any prior repair paperwork** on the same area. A panel that has been repaired before behaves differently and an adjuster will find out eventually. - **Your real deadline**. Not the comfortable one. If there is a reserved site in six weeks, that changes the parts ordering sequence today. What you do not need to bring is a diagnosis. Owners often arrive having read forums for a week and having already decided the problem is the slide motor. Sometimes it is. Frequently the motor is fine and the room is out of square, which is a $1,500 to $7,500 slide room rebuild rather than a motor swap. Describe the symptom and let the evaluation find the cause. ## How do you know the repair was done properly? Ask for the documentation and read it. Every job here produces a line entry per operation with the hours attached, and every concealed area gets photographed before it is closed up. If a shop cannot show you what the wall looked like with the skin off, you have no way of knowing what happened inside it. At pickup, walk the vehicle in daylight with the person who wrote the file, not at dusk with whoever is at the counter. Look down the side at a shallow angle for waviness in the panel, check that the seam sealant is continuous rather than dabbed, run the slide in and out twice, and open and close every compartment door that was near the impact. Final balance is due at pickup and nothing leaves the property until it is paid. Deposits of 50 percent apply above $2,000, an additional 25 percent above $10,000, and card payments over $1,000 carry a 3.5 percent surcharge. We stand behind our work, and the way we do that is by writing down exactly what we did. ## How this job runs 1. **Describe it on the phone**: Length, height, whether it drives, what happened and when you need it back. That determines the bay, the date and whether a tow is required. 2. **Documented estimate**: Written against visible damage with hours and part numbers, at no charge for collision work. Systems evaluation is $150, applied as a credit. 3. **Teardown and photographs**: The panel comes off, the concealed area is photographed and measured, and moisture readings are taken wherever intrusion is suspected. 4. **Approval on the real number**: Either a carrier supplement or a phone call to you, with the additional operations priced against the posted rate card before anything else is cut. 5. **Repair, refinish and reassembly**: Structure first, then skin, then paint, then systems verification. Slides cycled, seals checked and compartment doors aligned before the vehicle is called done. 6. **Walkthrough and pickup**: Daylight inspection with the estimator who wrote the file, documentation handed over, balance settled and the vehicle released. ## Questions ### Is it worth repairing an older motorhome? Often yes, because the alternative is buying somebody else's deferred maintenance. The test is whether the structure and the roof are sound. Cosmetic and mechanical items are money. Rotted framing across multiple bays on a coach with high mileage is the point where the arithmetic usually stops working. ### Can I supply my own parts? Sometimes, and it needs to be discussed before the order goes in rather than after. Owner supplied parts change who is responsible when the part is wrong, back ordered or damaged in the box, and they can complicate an insurance file. We will tell you honestly when it saves you real money. ### Why does my adjuster keep asking for more photographs? Because the estimating databases the industry runs on were built for cars and have almost nothing for laminated sidewalls, hydraulic slide rooms or one piece front caps. Your adjuster is frequently working without a reference. Good photo documentation from the shop is what closes that gap fastest. ### Do you store the vehicle while we wait on parts? Yes, it stays secured on the property through the repair, including while a special order part is in transit. Special order parts require a deposit at order because they are not returnable, and that is disclosed on the estimate before you authorize anything. ## Related - [Class A Motorhomes (Gas)](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/rvs-motorhomes/class-a-gas-motorhome-repair/) - [Class C Motorhomes](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/rvs-motorhomes/class-c-motorhome-repair/) - [Collision Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/collision-repair/) - [Delamination Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/fiberglass-repair/delamination-repair/) - [How Insurance Claims Work](https://ocrv.biz/insurance/how-claims-work/) - [Consumer and Personal Use](https://ocrv.biz/who-we-help/personal-use/) - [Prices and Posted Rates](https://ocrv.biz/prices/)