Well not so much a hole as it is a "flap" Horse pulled back in the last stall, struggled, jumped back in and when it was all said and done the roof is busted. Trailer is a 1995 Trail-et.

Hubby put a piece of plywood on top of the trailer, because of course now all of a sudden its raining everyday, and he said there is a bunch of mossy type stuff on top of the roof. My questions are, how do you clean a fiberglass roof (we have a power washer, but not sure if that will bust thru the roof) and how do we go about repairing the hole in the roof? Would it be worth it to take the trailer to a shop and have it done or can hubby and I do it ourselves?

You may have a problem. If there is a "flap" of fiberglass skin material seperated from the roof, it may have resulted in a delamination of the layup. If there is plant life growing on the fiberglass's surface, it is a result of degradation of the FRP lamination by UV rays. TE wasn't noted for superior fiberglass construction, and after 17 years, the elements have done their damage.

Yes, the roof can be power washed at a low setting to rid it of the plant growth. You should not use the narrow spray tips, as the roof is quite weak at the moment and can be further penetrated with excessive pressure.

If you know how, you could turn the repairs into a DIY situation. Materials for an 18' trailer would be in the $4-$500 range, and it will take a couple of long days to effect the repairs. You will be working with partial rolls of cloth, buckets of various resins and MEKP hardners. 

The flap will have to be cut out, and the area spot repaired. The entire roof will have to be sanded and made spotless, then new FRP materials will be added to the entire roof, to strengthen and over coat the original surface. A final coating of gel coat resin or marine paint will then be added, to protect the new materials. Basically you will use your present roof to support and shape the additional materials, that will become your new roof.

Physically it's not a hard job, but it does take some knowledge and skills. The materials can be ordered in bulk from several sources. Boat yard repair kits will be quite inadequate for the scope and intent of your project.

At $70 -$80 an hour labour, the entire restoration will become quite expensive if you farm it out. Just patching the hole will not cure what is wrong, and more future issues will develop. I would suggest getting bids from a marina, which should have employees that are familiar with FRP layups and repairs.

Called the trailer shop, they told me to get a repair kit and do it myself.

I got a couple pictures to give you a better idea of what Im dealing with, hopfully they attach. The stuff on the roof can be picked off easily by hand, its light and crumbly, kinda grey in color. I see the same stuff out in the woods growing on trees.

You have to determine whether your trailer will be a"keeper" or not. If not, yes, a scab patch afforded by a quick repair, will temporarly stop water from running into your trailer. However, if you want the trailer to last any amount of time and be reliable, a patch is not the answer.

Did the trailer representative look at your trailer? Did he base his response to you upon what he saw, and surface tested? When he assessed the resiliency of the layup, was he satisified with the results? How did he evaluate the 17 years of UV exposure? What other observations did he make?

Only you can decide what you want from your trailer, and how long you plan to keep it. You will need to have it properly evaluated in order to make your decision. A phone call will not suffice.

Picture are too big to attach I guess..

I just called down to the local trailer dealer to see if they even fixed fiberglass roofs, kinda just getting a feel of where I need to start. Heading down there tonight to ride and will have them look at it then. Gard, thank you so much for your input! I see no new or new to me trailer in the near future so fixing the roof the right way is very important to me. We also have an RV shop in town and I will be running the trailer down there to get their opinion as well.