I have sticky ceiling

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When I got The AS about 4 years ago the ceiling was sticky and I had to use some really extreme goof off to remove it...now its back...we havent cooked in the trailer but its back and it seems worse than before...I have noticed this in some other AS trailers and I'm wondering what causes this and how do I prevent it from coming back?

Confused in Texas

[Stefrobrts]

My advice is to quit touching the ceiling

I think it has to do with the plastic covering slowly deteriorating. There has been a great deal of discussion on this topic, and cleaners and processes to reduce the stickiness.

This one might get you started: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f46/...cky-51349.html

[BIGED52]

Those black specks in the ceiling design are really flies that have become stuck up there! It's not so much the finger prints in the sticky stuff that is weird it is the foot prints! Ha Ha!!!! Use the search function on the blue tool bar above and search sticky walls and you will find lots of posts that should help you get the sticky off. I have used spray kitcken cleaner for wood cabinets with good results so far on my walls. Hope this helps Happy Trails, Ed

[silverbeauty]

I have tried a load of cleaners because my trailer was sticky and smoky, by far the best product is Mean Green. That stuff means business.

[Ed Emerick]

The trick is awning cleaner. Worked on the 61, 68, 59, and most of all the 88. AWNING CLEANER!!!!!! thats the trick

[Becky B.]

After you get the sticky gone, coat it with Future Floor Wax. It's acrylic & will keep the sticky from coming back. I can't take credit for this tip. Andy from Inland always gives this tip out & it works!

[Mexray]

Tried everything that was suggested here on Airforums, but I've found that POR-15 is the only thing that really works to clean the vinyl interior to my satisfaction, quickly and easily! Sure, some of the other stuff works, but not nearly as easy as with POR-15...

After cleaning and rinsing with plain water, when completely dried, a coat of Future Floor Wax as mentioned above will seal the surface and make it smooth and shiny again!

It was nice to have the old sticky ceiling collect all those bugs, just like your own built-in fly strip...

[Maryw164]

Krud Kutter works great, but you have to rinse well. Then to seal and not have that sticky come back you need to use the future floor polish.


Mary

[HiHoAgRV]

Originally Posted by Maryw164

Krud Kutter works great, but you have to rinse well. Then to seal and not have that sticky come back you need to use the future floor polish.


Mary

I second the Krud Kutter. Mrs. HiHo did our '77 over 3 years ago and it's still fine. We never did use the floor polish.

I think the trick is to use the trailer at least once a month....

[Mexray]

I'm sorry gang, I tried Krud Kutter also, and it doesn't do half the job that POR-15 does...KK took several applications to get the stuff off, for ours, at least...POR gets it in one application...learned about it here on Airforums!

You do need lots of ventilation, however, as POR is powerful stuff!

[Roadrunner]

What is POR 15 and where do you get it? Thanks!

Bob

[DKDarrow]

POR 15 has a lot of different solvents/acids..........which one?......Not only is this stuff hazardous to the technician/ME; but protecting the interior from spills seems to be a pain........what to do?.......thanks.....Dennis

[dwightdi]

The sticky is caused by the liquid plasticizer which is used in the flexible PVC coating film. It degrades and becomes incompatible with the rest of the PVC formulation is kicked out of solution and ends up on the surface. You have to remove this sticky liquid and then seal the surface so it can not get out again.

[StingrayL82]

Tri-Sodium Phospate (TSP) works wonders. You can get it at any hardware store. Follow directions and you'll never have sticky ceilings again. I did mine four years ago, and it's still nice and smooth.

[pickerdd]

This past weekend I used Krud Kutter to clean the walls in our Safari and it worked very well. I'll echo comments from other folks in that it has to be rinsed off really well!

I'm not sure if it was the wall paper adhesive or something else leeching out of the wallpaper in our 38 year old Safari, but after I sprayed KK on the walls (I worked on a 3'x3' section at a time) after a minute or so a tea colored substance started to form on the walls and it smelled really bad! It smelled similar to cleaning old rancid grease with a very powerful cleaner. I cleaned the walls twice and once they are fully dry and Krud Kutter odor has dissipated I'll seal the walls with Future wax.

This stuff definitely cleaned the walls well, but make sure you ventilate the trailer when you use it.

[dwightdi]

Dear PickerDD,

There was no conventional wallpaper adhesive used to produce the laminated aluminum sheeting used to produce the interior walls of your trailer and therefore there is no leeching of adhesive. As explained in post 13 above, there is a liquid plasicizer in the formulation of the PVC laminated material. Read post 13 above for details of the cause of the problem.

The interior wood panels do use a solvent based adhesive to laminate the PVC film to them. It breaks down over the years and the vinyl loses plasticizer and shrinks. This causes shear stress to occur in the bond and the vinyl frequently pulls loose from the plywood. The only solution to that is completely removing the vinyl film and then using contact adhesive to relaminate the panels. You may chose to buy new vinyl film at that time as it is difficult to remove and reinstall the vinyl without wrinkles.

[pickerdd]

dwightdi,

Thanks for the clarification. Once I get all the walls clean (I plan to clean them again to remove any residual substance the first cleaning missed) I'll apply the wax Andy mentioned in a previous post to seal the walls.

[Wabbiteer]

*Note: For the Vinyl coated liners, not the end caps...

I tried three or five, maybe seven graffiti removers and other high strength cleansers and was as sickened by added overpowering fragrances as the original smellynast the trailer had when I got it, or the fact they didn't work, plus all of them left behind a film semi-bonded to the plastic especially visible as shiny spots & streaks when viewed from an angle.

This summer I went back over the trailer using Windex (off-brand) with 5~7% Acetone and 3~5% 2-butoxyethanol. An easy source for the butoxyethanol is 'dry erase board cleaner' found in office supply shops but I bought mine online in gallon quantity ($18) and an easy source for the Acetone is 100% pure Acetone fingernail polish remover found in large bottles in some discount stores.

A quote from Wikipedia "2-butoxyethanol... ...provides cleaning power and the characteristic odor of Windex and other glass cleaners... ...is the main ingredient of many home, commercial, and industrial cleaning solutions; such as SimpleGreen..."

It takes many fresh paper towels to keep from redistributing the oily glaze this cleanser produces, and several wettings but gives a paper dry finish without any odor AFTER the surface dries and the soiled towels are removed from the trailer - it worked so good I thought I'd can it and sell it here - but the idea it might damage someones brand new trailer or remove the print off some obscure warning label stopped that idea quickly.

Anyway - the above mix chewed through 35-year-old grime under the galley and behind overhead storage racks when I stripped the interior this summer and just wanted to share it with y'all.

2-Butoxyethanol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Inland RV Center, In]

Once the vinylclad gets sticky, cleaning it is very time consuming.

Once it's clean, apply a couple of coats of "Future Acrylic Floor Polish" to it.

That will protect the walls from getting sticky again, as well as making them look great.

That polish is available at most any large grocery store.

This subject has been covered in depth, many times in the past on this Forums.

Andy

[Mike Leary]

If you're sensitive to harsh smells, Trader Joe sells a great product that we use.
It's called "Cedarwood & Sage Multi-purpose cleaner".