Sticky interior ceiling

[McMike]

Hi, I recently noticed the interior ceiling on our popup was sticky, to the point that it left a residue on my fingers (a stickiness that I could feel but not see). It was pretty uniform everywhere on the ceiling.

There was no obvious coating like mold, and it cleared up after the camper had been set up for a while. I suspect maybe the ceiling coating material is partially melting when the roof is down and closed in the hot sun, so it cools off once opened?

It's an old ceiling. 2008 Palomino Banshee.

Thoughts?
Thanks.

 

[McMike]

Hi, I wanted to bump this post to see if anyone has familiarity with this issue.

It seems to me that the ceiling coating is disintegrating - whether the glue or the color or whatever, it is starting to come off as a sticky substance that leaves a powdery residue. What I am wondering is whether this is age-related, or whether there's water penetration in the ceiling/roof sandwich that is causing the ceiling coating to dissolve in some way.

I am also wondering if this will remain cosmetic and minor, or will continue to get worse until the ceiling itself starts to fully slough off.

Ultimately, due to age, and definite water penetration and rot into the horizontal and end board roof space, I am making a roof replace/landfill decision here.

The wood end panels and sidewalls are surely rotten to varying extents all the way around. The end boards are clearly only being held together by the glue sandwich. I assume the horizontal sandwich is similarly waterlogged, due to a leak through the vent fan penetration that went too long undetected.

I am tempted to tear out and replace what I can of the plywood end panels, also reinforce the roof support mount sections with metal sandwich plates, and try to coax another few years out of it. (Like the old saying about a car making weird noises, so just turn up the radio and keep driving)

But am afraid this ceiling sticky/powder thing is a foreshadowing of something worse lurking behind it in the ceiling.

 

[Jim Keeling]

Hi, I recently noticed the interior ceiling on our popup was sticky, to the point that it left a residue on my fingers (a stickiness that I could feel but not see). It was pretty uniform everywhere on the ceiling.

There was no obvious coating like mold, and it cleared up after the camper had been set up for a while. I suspect maybe the ceiling coating material is partially melting when the roof is down and closed in the hot sun, so it cools off once opened?

It's an old ceiling. 2008 Palomino Banshee.

Thoughts?
Thanks.

Cooking grease, heater fumes.

 

[McMike]

Cooking grease, heater fumes.

Thanks. Not grease though. We never cook in it.

We don't use the furnace all that much either. And it should not be releasing anythign indoors except hot fresh air.

 

[bronxbomberfan75]

Hello…noticed the same thing in our 95 Jayco Pup. I think the previous owner used the wrong type of paint on the ceiling and it’s getting sticky, so every time we close the pup, the white sticky residue transfers to the vinyl windows.

We’ve already done the whole interior remodel, paint, flooring, electrical plugs, and converted to electric brakes and installed 7 pin connector. Getting ready to camp this next weekend and now I don’t know what to do to keep the paint from transferring to the vinyl from the ceiling. Super frustrating!!

Probably going to use a temp solution like contact paper or peel and stick floor tiles. I don’t want to have to completely resurface the ceiling 4 days before our trip.

 

[tfischer]

All I can tell you is our 2005 Palomino Pony doesn't have this problem. That said, I can't imagine water intrusion would cause the plastic ceiling to to disintegrate. Perhaps cleaning it and painting it with a stain-blocker such as Kilz would help?

 

[bronxbomberfan75]

Our ceiling is aluminum, painted white. Upon further review I noticed that the previous owner used incorrect paint and where they repainted, it is sticky. To me it looks like he used an interior water based house paint. It’s almost like the heat or potential moisture broke down the paint. On those repainted areas I used Acetone and took the paint completely off. Sticky is completely gone now. As an interim fix, until we rebuild our full roof top (we have dry rot) my wife and I installed rolled white vinyl contact paper the length of the ceiling to ensure we don’t get paint transfer to the vinyl windows when we lower the roof down. Fingers crossed it holds and doesn’t start coming off the ceiling. Quick fix for us since we are heading in our first camping trip with the Pup after spending a month and a half renovating. Time will tell how it works.

 

[Dubbya]

Might be a film left after using some type of cleaner to wipe the ceiling down or perhaps bug spray.