# Full Roof Replacement for Laguna Niguel owners Full roof replacement strips everything off the roof, removes the membrane, repairs decking and rafters, bonds and rolls a new sheet, and resets every penetration. The band is $3,500 to $18,000 plus and twenty to eighty hours. Length, rot extent and air conditioner count decide where a coach lands. ## Everything comes off before anything comes apart A roof replacement begins as a disassembly job. Air conditioners come off and get set aside on stands with their gaskets noted, vents and fans come out, the antenna and any satellite dome are removed, solar panels and their mounting feet come off, the ladder mount is unbolted, and both termination bars come down the sidewalls. Everything gets bagged, labelled and photographed as it leaves. The labelling is not fussiness. A long coach can shed thirty or more fasteners of four different lengths from six components, and a fastener returned to the wrong hole is a penetration through decking that was not designed for it. Owners see this stage as slow because the roof looks emptier and nothing seems to have been repaired yet, and it is where a good chunk of the early hours honestly go. ## Decking and rafters, the part nobody budgets for With the membrane peeled, the decking is finally visible instead of inferred. We walk it, probe it, and mark every soft area, then cut back to sound material rather than to the edge of the stain, because wet luan holds moisture well past where it looks discoloured. Replacement decking is scarfed in over rafters rather than floated between them, so the joint lands on structure instead of on air. Rafters get checked at the same time, and this is where a job can change character. A rafter that has sat under a leak for years can be soft at its top edge where the decking fastened to it, which means new decking has nothing solid to fasten into. Sistering or replacing a rafter is not a large materials cost and it is real labour, and it is the most common reason a roof estimate moves after teardown. ## Bonding and rolling the new sheet New membrane goes down onto clean, dry, prepared decking with adhesive applied to specification, and the working time is genuinely limited once that starts. The sheet is positioned, then worked from the centre line outward with a roller so air has a path to escape rather than being trapped in a blister. Blisters that get rolled over instead of out come back as a soft spot underfoot within a year. Openings are cut after the sheet is bonded rather than before, working from underneath so each cut lands exactly on its opening. The membrane is then dressed over the roof edge, and the termination bar goes back with fresh sealant behind it. On a TPO roof, seams are heat welded rather than glued, which is a different skill and a different set of hours. ## Every penetration reset, nothing reused Each component that came off goes back onto a new bed. Air conditioner gaskets are replaced rather than reused, because a compressed foam gasket that has spent a decade under a unit will not seal again no matter how tight the bolts go. Vent flanges get new butyl. Fastener holes that were stripped get repaired properly rather than moved over. Reusing an old gasket or old butyl to save parts cost is the failure mode we see most often on a roof somebody else replaced. The membrane is new, the workmanship on the sheet is fine, and it leaks at the air conditioner within two seasons because the one component nobody replaced was the one that was already at the end of its life. - New air conditioner gaskets on every unit, no exceptions - New butyl bed under every vent, fan and antenna flange - Stripped fastener holes repaired, not relocated - Self levelling lap sealant over flange perimeters and fastener heads - Non levelling sealant on the termination bar and every vertical seam ## The water test, and what finding a leak in the bay saves Once sealant has actually cured, the whole roof gets a sustained hose test with an interior watch. Water runs on one area at a time while somebody inside checks the ceiling, the cabinet tops and the wall cavities with a light and a moisture meter. A roof that passes a five minute rinse and fails a twenty minute soak is common enough that we do the soak. Finding a problem here costs an hour. Finding it after delivery costs the owner a second trip up from Laguna Niguel, costs us the access labour again, and costs everybody the credibility of the first repair. The test set goes into the file with the rest of the photographs, which is the same discipline the shop applies under BAR licence ARD00288521 on any collision file. ## Length, seams, rot and air conditioner count Four variables do most of the work in the estimate. Roof length sets membrane area and therefore both materials and rolling labour. Whether the coach takes a single wide sheet or needs a seam changes the labour meaningfully, since a seam is a prep, bond and detail operation in its own right. Rot extent is the wild card and the reason the range is written as a range. The fourth is the component count, and air conditioners dominate it. Each unit is a removal, a set aside, a new gasket and a careful reinstall with wiring and ducting reconnected. A coach with three roof units is not the same job as a coach with one, even at identical length. A tag axle diesel pusher with three units, a dome and solar sits at the top of the range for reasons that have nothing to do with the membrane. ## Two weeks of calendar for eighty hours of labour Labour hours and calendar days are different numbers on this job and owners deserve both. Adhesive cure, sealant cure and the wait before a meaningful water test are all fixed durations that no amount of staffing shortens. A roof that bills at eighty hours generally occupies a bay for the better part of two weeks even with nothing going wrong. Parts wait sits on top of that. Membrane is a stocked item. A discontinued air conditioner shroud, a specific antenna base or a moulded fiberglass cap section for an older coach may not be available at all, and fabrication then becomes the faster route rather than the last resort. On any job over $10,000 a further deposit is taken when parts arrive, which is worth knowing at authorisation rather than later. ## Questions ### How long is a coach in the shop for a membrane replacement? Two to four weeks in most cases, driven by decking rather than membrane. Bonding a new EPDM or TPO sheet is a day of work. Discovering that a third of the plywood under it is delaminated adds a week, and discovering that water reached the sidewall junction adds two, because that is a structural repair with a roof job on top. Twenty to 80 hours, $3,500 to $18,000 or more, with the spread almost entirely in the substrate. ### Does the air conditioner come off for a membrane replacement? Everything comes off. Air conditioners, vent and fan assemblies, skylights, antennas, solar mounts, the ladder bracket and every clearance light on the upper edge. A membrane terminated around a fitting that stayed in place has a seam at the highest stress point on the roof, which is where the next leak will be. Removal is also the only honest way to inspect decking under a unit that has been sitting on it for fifteen years. ## Related - [class-a-diesel-pusher](https://ocrv.guru/vehicles/) - [class-a-motorhome](https://ocrv.guru/vehicles/) - [standard-fifth-wheel](https://ocrv.guru/vehicles/) - [travel-trailer](https://ocrv.guru/vehicles/) - [bunkhouse-fifth-wheel](https://ocrv.guru/vehicles/) --- Source: https://ocrv.guru/services/roof-slide-awning/full-roof-replacement/ OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Laguna Niguel, California. All work performed in shop. No mobile or roadside service. Licences: California Bureau of Automotive Repair ARD00288521; EPA CAL000367879. Published ranges are ranges, not quotes. Every figure traces to https://ocrv.guru/prices/.