The RV has a new floor!

For the last month or so I have been pretty busy working on the RV!  I know, what else is new.

It all started when I found water damage under the vinyl plank that I installed a few years ago. The co-pilot side window was broken and replaced a couple of year ago and we get rain so seldom that the leak went undetected for a while before I finally found and repaired it, but the damage to the floor went undetected for a much longer and the end result was rotten plywood under the vinyl plank.  Fortunately it was 1/4 plywood that I had installed over the real floor, which suffered much less damage. 

So at the very end of April, I started the floor demo project, removing all of the vinyl plank and the damaged plywood.  Of course, one of the first things I had to do was to remove the driver and co-pilot seats, and the recliner chair.  These were all bolted to the floor and are heavy and took some work to remove.  I removed everything I could from the RV but these were just too big and bulky.  Just stacked them in the slideout to worry about.

While all of this was going on, M and I decided to go with carpet tiles for a new floor.  The vinyl was just not working out.  Too much temperature variance and that was causing shrinkage!  We shopped a little bit locally and that got us nowhere but we did find an online site that had a lot of choices and good prices.  Having gotten our short list down to two choices I contacted the vendor.  Turns out that they do a deal on short lots, less than 500 square feet, and we had to take all of them, but for $0.99 per square foot and one tile on our short list had  272'  left.  My plan was to order 250' so 272' @ 0.99 was better that 250' @$1.29.  Shipping from GA came to $170,   It cost $1.63/ft, all said and done, delivered to my door.  Still a good price.

While waiting for the tiles to arrive I was working on all the prep work, mainly the underlayment.  I use 1/8" hard board for that and I think it worked out pretty good.

I took a couple of days off when Carl and Brenda came for a couple of days.





The carpet tiles arrived while they were here and I got started laying them a day or so after they left.  I don't know how much time I spent on the computer, with a lay out program, working with the layout of the tiles to minimize the waste with and make sure the tile seams are in just the right places, not matching the underlayment seam,  using a 24" x 24" tile.  My guess is that it is impossible but I got pretty close.  It took me just over a week to get the tiles down, with lots of time off, of course!


I had taken everything out of the RV that I could get out, including all loose furniture, bath room door and frame, and the toilet.  Then I decided to remove the mattress and bed platform  to allow for much more room to work.  While the bed was apart I took this as an opportunity to adjust the slide.  Naturally it had no adjustment so I ordered a 1-1/4" round stock nylon and manufactured and engineering fix.  It worked out rather well I think. The slide fits into the coach much better now.

Now that the floor was done, something had to be done about the doghouse, technically referred to as  the engine cover.  It was still covered with the original carpet and was in really bad shape. 

 So shopping for carpet, Part Two, begins.  No carpet guy wants to do RVs, mainly, I think because of the doghouse.  Takes very little carpet but lots of time to do it.  After a lot of consideration, I decide to tackle it myself.  After all, the worst I could do would be to screw it up, then find and play someone to do it right!  


The contact cement used fifteen years ago would not give up easily on its own.  In removing it, I had to separate the carpet for the backing,  then using a multi-tool with a scraper blade to remove the backing with most of the contact cement.
















This reminded me sheep shearing back on the farm, another life time ago! And in the end, if you use a lot of imagination, it almost looks like a sheep shin!

We looked at the big box stores and found nothing.  M was flying out to visit her sister and after dropping her at the airport I looked around Phoenix for remnants that would work for the doghouse.  I found nothing that would work but did find a $10 piece that I use for practice. The color was pretty bad I could still use the practice.  What I learned was that everyone in the desert area used some shade of brown for carpeting.  No shades of green or red was to be found.  I ended up with a 5'x12' piece of walnut colored carpet that I found in Prescott Valley.  Enough for three attempts.  My first practice cut, using the "practice" piece came up a little short, as did my first attempt with the real thing.   

It took me four days, with breaks and cement set time, to finish the job.  I had to do a lot of clamping in tight inside corners  and let that setup for a while before I could continue.

 

I don't know what everyone gets so worked up about!  I think this is was my first real carpet job and I think i did a pretty good job!

Would I want to do this again?  As my Dad would say, "That wouldn't be my first choice!"  It was some trail and error and a lot of patience for the floor and the doghouse, but, in the end it came out looking pretty good,   Maybe in a few years, when this wears out, I'll give it another go.