How to refurbish Roadtrek with a goal to remove musty odor?

[VTPete]

Hi Monica,
My RV was far beyond these kinds of tips... which are good for prevention.
My RV was so bad that when I cut into the old 5 inch foam of the mattresses, even the very middle of them smelled bad. The old fiberglass board insulation behind the walls had gotten mildewy. Before I realized how bad it was, I tried every possible treatment I could find... from baking soda, to vinegar, to ozone generators, bleach, hydrogen peroxide, etc.

My RV was pretty much a worse case scenario because when you walked into it, everything looked in great shape. But, as I pulled furniture and walls apart, I found that every screw that was in affected areas showed signs of water damage as they were rusted horribly. This was in the back and front... not the middle. So, it wasn't in a flood, but had clearly been left open for at least a season during heavy rains with at least one leaking skylight window.

My personal experience with mildew is that NOTHING works to remove mildew on soft surfaces such as insulation, foam, deep carpet and even books, magazines and some bedding. For example, the original cushion covers seemed in good physical shape, but even FIVE runs through the washing machine with hot water and bleach could not remove the damage done to the fabric's slightly rubbery back side.

In the end, making my RV habitable required throwing out the chairs, ripping up the carpet, tearing off all the walls and insulation and building all back from scratch. The few areas I couldn't get easily to behind the sink and bathroom still have some original fiberglass back there and on hot days still cause smells. But, I removed 90% of the contents of the RV and no one but me smells what's left. I still, as previously mentioned, run the Ozone generator occasionally as well as still run Lysol spray through the vent systems on hot days.

Dropping the fresh water tank to completely scrub it, cleaning the hot water tank and removing some of the plumbing worked for the water system.

It was a job that started one small door panel at a time. (I have videos of the entire process, by the way.) Had I known at the start that I would be tearing out everything, I'll admit that I probably never would have done it! Now, I'm glad I did because not only do I understand where every wire, bolt and pipe is, I also have an interior that looks brand new. Well, ok, it looks like the walls are brand new and that someone installed vintage appliances. Ha ha. It is, after all a '96.

-Pete

Originally Posted by Monica998

There are 10 simple homemade tips to get rid of musty RV smells, you can have a try. (Which I have found it from the Google as follows)
https://camperreport.com/10-simple-h...sty-rv-smells/

[VTPete]

It's now October, 2019. Since I've started, my kids and I have driven thousands and thousands of miles in this RV. The only surface that remains original is the headliner and the front door panels. Everything else was completely stripped out and replaced in order to remove the odor. On hot days, I can still smell a bit coming from the insulation inside of the venting system, but living in the RV causes no allergy symptoms and is not an issue.

The most recent update to the RV for me was replacing the cabin power supply unit. The old one never charged the cabin battery correctly, but the new one works perfectly! I also replaced the front shocks at the recommendation of my local mechanic and I'm glad I did.

In another thread I detail what I did for the leaking sky lights (FlexSeal) and have had no problems with them leaking in the two years since I did that.

What a fun RV!

[VTPete]

It's now January 2024 and my RoadTrek 190 Popular is still running great.
The kids are now old enough that three of us don't really fit in the RV with a lot of comfort - but one of them will be headed to college in the fall.
In other posts you can see where I also created some graphics for the side of the RV. My last bit of work was to pull off the spare tire mount, sand it down to clean metal and give it a couple of coats of paint before reinstalling it.
There really is no longer any mildew smell. My brother and his wife have borrowed it a couple of times and her comment is that "it smells like a clean hotel room." I still run the ozone generator a couple of times a year to kill off any spores that might be active, but I don't think about mildew any more!
I've had a bit of miscellaneous work done by professionals... replaced the front shocks and a few other things. At this point my only regret is that I've had to keep it outside for all these years. But, it doesn't leak anywhere and since 1997 when I started posted about it, the kids and I have had 7 great years of fun visiting national parks, historic sites, etc.