RV FEATURE
4. HIDE THE SILICONE!
Look under almost any kitchen and bathroom sink inside a caravan and you’ ll likely find gobs of silicone sealing the hole where the plumbing feeds through the floor. Obviously it needs to be sealed, lest dust and water and cold air come through. That said, some manufacturers employ the‘ more is better’ principle, pumping those gaps with more silicone than a cosmetic surgeon’ s clinic in Hollywood.
Occasionally, though, it will be done neatly, and I can live with that. But when it comes to a purchase worth tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps it shouldn’ t be a case of‘ living with it’, especially when they could fit it off with a plastic collar that would probably cost $ 1 each. Jayco is one manufacturer that uses them, and from a visual perspective, it’ s much neater. If I had to look at giant gobs of silicone every time I opened the cupboard beneath the sink, it would make me feel less pleased with my purchase.
These plastic collars are readily available and cheap... but they ' re not in wide use within the industry.
Check for consistency, too. For example, I was checking out a van recently that used these plastic collars at plumbing entry / exit points under the two sinks … but for reasons known only to this manufacturer, it had opted to use massive amounts of silicone to seal the holes where electrical cabling exited the floor under the bed. I’ ll reiterate: the manufacturer had used plastic collars to provide a neat finish elsewhere in the van, but reverted to loads of silicone under the bed. The mind boggles …
That ' s a lot of silicone...
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