Collision and Structural
RV Water Damage Restoration and Subfloor Replacement
Typical range
$750 to $15,000+
Shop hours
4 to 60+
Labor rate
$210/hr
The short answer
Water damage restoration covers soft floors, rotted subfloor, failed wall substrate, and the seal failure that caused it. Work runs $750 to $15,000 and up, or 4 to 60 plus hours at $210 per hour. Every job includes finding and correcting the entry point.
01
What this work actually involves
Water damage in an RV is almost never where the water came in. It enters at a roof penetration, a window corner, a slide seal, or a compartment door, then travels laterally along the floor or between the wall layers until it finds a low point. By the time an owner notices a soft spot near the dinette, the entry point is frequently on the other side of the coach.
That is why the first phase of every water job here is finding the source, not tearing out the floor. We meter the whole unit, we trace the moisture path, and we identify the actual entry. Rebuilding a floor without correcting the entry point is money spent on a repair that will fail again in one rainy season.
Subfloor work means pulling flooring, frequently pulling cabinetry and sometimes pulling a slide, cutting out the compromised decking, and replacing it with matching thickness material bonded and fastened to the frame correctly. On units with a sealed underbelly, that underbelly has to come down and go back up right or the new floor takes on road spray.
Decking material is not interchangeable, and this is where a lot of well-meaning repairs go wrong. Most towables use a bonded lauan and foam laminate floor panel or a tongue and groove deck, while motorhomes commonly run plywood over steel or aluminum joists. Dropping treated exterior plywood into a laminated panel because it resists rot changes the panel thickness, the stiffness, and the way it bonds, and it leaves a hard spot in a floor engineered to flex uniformly across its span. We match the original construction, and where the original panel is no longer produced we build the replacement to the same thickness and stiffness rather than to whatever is easiest to buy.
Location: All work is performed at our Yorba Linda facility. We do not offer mobile, roadside, or fleet route service.
02
What the job includes
- Full moisture survey of floor, walls, ceiling, and slide openings
- Entry point identification and documented source correction
- Flooring and cabinetry removal for access
- Rotted subfloor cut-out and replacement in matching thickness
- Frame and crossmember corrosion treatment where the floor was wet against steel
- Wall substrate replacement where moisture traveled up the wall
- Underbelly removal, insulation replacement, and correct reinstall
- Mold remediation and treatment of affected structure
- Flooring reinstall or replacement
- Slide room removal where the decking under the opening has to be replaced
- Steel joist and floor truss corrosion cut-out and section replacement beneath a wet deck
- Post-repair moisture verification and water test
03
When you need this service
- A soft or spongy spot in the floor, most often near a slide, a door, or the rear corner
- A musty smell that is strongest when the unit has been closed up
- Staining on a wall or ceiling panel, especially at a corner or a seam
- A wavy or lifting floor covering
- Delamination appearing on the outside wall in the same area
- Visible mold at a baseboard, in a compartment, or behind a cabinet toe kick
- A floor that gives underfoot beside a slide opening but feels solid ten inches away
- A plumbing or tank bay holding standing water days after the coach was parked level
04
How we do it, step by step
- 01
Full moisture survey
Meter readings across the entire unit, not just the area you noticed. Mapping where the moisture is tells us where it came from.
- 02
Source identification
We trace the path back to the actual entry point and photograph it. This is the finding that determines both the repair and, on an insurance claim, the coverage.
- 03
Documented scope and authorization
Photographed findings priced and submitted to you or your carrier. Water jobs almost always grow once the floor is open, so we build the supplement path in from the start.
- 04
Teardown and drying
Flooring and cabinetry out, underbelly down where required, structure dried and treated before anything new goes in.
- 05
Drying to a measured target
Structure is dried with air movement and monitored on a meter until readings match unaffected areas of the same coach, not until it merely looks dry. Closing a floor over damp framing seals the moisture against brand new material.
- 06
Structural replacement
Compromised decking cut out to sound material and replaced in matching thickness, bonded and fastened to the frame the way the factory did it.
- 07
Source correction
The failed seal, penetration, or slide seal that caused it gets repaired as part of the job, not quoted separately later.
- 08
Reinstall and verify
Flooring and cabinetry back, moisture re-metered, and the unit water tested before delivery.
05
Pricing and posted rates
| Item | Rate or range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Typical job range | $750 to $15,000+ | Varies with extent of damage and parts availability |
| Shop hours | 4 to 60+ | Quoted after teardown, not before |
| Body and paint labor | $210 per hour | 2026 posted rate |
| Paint supplies | $55 per paint hour | Calculated automatically on every estimate |
| Body supplies | $5 per body hour | Calculated automatically on every estimate |
| Parts | 100% markup under $100, 35% over | Special order parts require a non refundable deposit at order |
| Deposit | 50% at authorization over $2,000 | Additional 25% when parts arrive on jobs over $10,000 |
| Sales tax | 7.75% on parts and materials | Labor is not taxed |
Insurance billed jobs may be billed at carrier negotiated labor rates that differ from the posted retail rates above. See all posted rates.
06
On the insurance side
Sudden versus gradual is the coverage question on every water claim. Our moisture survey and photographed source finding is the evidence that determines it.
07
Vehicles we do this work on
Vehicle
Class A Gas Motorhomes
A Class A gas motorhome is a flat-front coach built on a Ford F53 or Workhorse front-engine chassis, typically 28 to 38 feet. Rear
Vehicle
Class C Motorhomes
A Class C is a coach body built onto a cutaway van chassis with a sleeping or storage cabover extending above the factory cab. Tha
Vehicle
Standard Fifth Wheels
A fifth wheel couples to a hitch in the truck bed through a kingpin and pin box, with a raised forward bedroom over the truck. The
Vehicle
Travel Trailers
A travel trailer tows from a ball hitch behind the tow vehicle rear axle on an A-frame tongue, which makes it the most sway-prone
Vehicle
Toy Hauler Fifth Wheels
A toy hauler fifth wheel carries a cargo garage behind the axles with a full-height rear ramp door. Load behind the axle centerlin
Vehicle
Pop-Up Campers, Tent Trailers
A pop-up camper is a low box trailer with a lifting hard roof, canvas walls, and fold-out bunk end decks. The lift system, the bun
Vehicle
Truck Campers, Slide-In
A slide-in truck camper sits in a pickup bed and is clamped down at four points, so it absorbs the truck frame twist directly. Jac
08
Questions about water damage and subfloor replacement
Frequently asked questions
How do I find where water is getting into my RV?
You usually cannot from the inside, because water travels before it shows. We meter the whole unit and map the moisture, which reveals the path back to the entry. The most common sources are roof penetrations, window and slide corners, and compartment door seals, in that order.
How much does RV water damage repair cost?
$750 to $15,000 and up, or 4 to 60 plus hours at $210 per hour plus materials. A contained soft spot near a door is at the low end. A full subfloor with cabinetry removal, slide removal, and wall substrate replacement is at the high end.
Will insurance cover water damage in my RV?
It depends on cause. Sudden intrusion from a covered event such as storm damage or an impact is generally claimable. Long-term seepage from a maintenance seal that failed gradually generally is not. Our moisture survey and source documentation is what the coverage determination gets made on, which is why we do it first.
My camper has mold after water damage. Can you handle that?
Yes. Affected material is removed rather than treated in place, remaining structure is treated, and the source is corrected. Mold that keeps returning after a remediation almost always means the entry point was never found.
Can you find hidden water damage before I buy a used RV?
Yes, that is a large part of what our in-shop pre-purchase inspection is for. Moisture metering routinely finds five figures of deferred damage on units that look clean. It runs $250 to $1,200 depending on the unit, which is the cheapest money anyone spends on a used coach.
How long does a subfloor replacement take?
Two to ten weeks covers most of them. A contained soft area beside an entry door with no cabinetry over it can be done in roughly a week. A full width deck with cabinetry out, a slide room pulled, underbelly down, and joist repair underneath sits at the long end. Drying to a measured target adds days that cannot be compressed no matter how the schedule looks, and on a claim the supplement approval after the floor is open regularly adds another week or two.
Can I keep using the RV while I wait for the repair?
With a soft floor, generally not, and the reason is structural rather than cosmetic. Decking that has gone spongy has lost the fastener grip holding the floor down to the frame, so dinette pedestals, seat bases, and slide mechanisms bolted through it are no longer anchored to anything solid. Loading it further enlarges the failed area and can carry moisture into framing that is still dry today. If the coach must be moved, move it empty and keep it out of rain.
09
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More collision and structural work
Ready to move on water damage and subfloor replacement? Bring it to Yorba Linda.