Finally finished tiling the 270. Took me almost a day and a half. Just kidding! Used Karndean loose lay. Tiles measure 24"x19.5" and each weighs almost exactly five pounds. Came out pretty good. The dark tile goes well with the light oak interior. I used 1 1/2" stair nose on the entry, peel & stick tile along with 3/4" corner guard trim (Koffler) on the starboard side race and toilet throne. Carpeted the bed sides and bed end with a pleated charcoal product.
Jor,
Looks great! Nice job!
John M.
Nice job Jor! Wondering how much weight the floor adds.
Not much. I used six boxes of ten. Had one tile left over and some scrap. Let's say the tiles probably weigh about 280 pounds. No telling what the old carpet and pad weighed. Personally, I think we make too much of the weight issue anyhow. I've had four of these things and each has been balanced and under weight. This one has an interesting weight factoid. The loaded coach (us, fuel and water) PLUS the actual weight of the toad weighed out to exactly the rated gross vehicle weight!
jor
Nice look, JOR! You make the "Hard Way" look pretty easy. Good looking products and the trim effect is really fitting for your coach. I am with you for weight considerations—drop in the bucket, right? Good job.
Looks great!
Very nice, looks similar to ours I'm really loving it. My understanding is one of the PO had it done, and I couldn't love it more! Easy to sweep up and keep clean! Nice job! Enjoy!
Nice work, John! Brett did the same thing to ours and we love it after having carpets in the Airstreams. Plus, it makes it easy to clean when you spill whiskey on the floor to test the propane sniffer! ^.^d
We generally use single malt to test ours but have been known, when guests arrive, to test with whiskey and scotch. :whistle:
Nice work! The PO for my coach had white quartz tile installed about 5 years ago front to back. One of the reasons that I chose this coach. I am wondering what mastic you used as I need to replace two of the tiles that have cracked. I have been trying to contact the person who did the work with no luck so far. I am surprised by how light the tiles that you used are as the 24 x 12 tiles that I have weigh considerably more than the ones you used.
Beautiful job! Fooled me, I thought it was ceramic tile. Looks like a terrific product. I know how difficult it is to prep for a luxury vinyl tile like this, please share how you got is so smooth in the preparation. I know all will show thru a vinyl floor not properly prepared. I want to change out my carpet and was looking at a similar product, however, it is click together, also 100% watererproof vinyl. I like the looks of yours better. Please share the secrets, I can imagine how much time the prep took. The trim matches perfect with the color and looks outstanding.
KenK: Re the weight, it's vinyl, not ceramic.
Jack: My prep was pretty much the same as what others have done. There are a number of threads and some excellent photos which you will find when doing a search. I'll post a bunch with this reply too and if you need something specific, just PM me. Anyhow, here's what I did:
Remove Furniture: I disassembled and removed the couch and also removed the cup holder assembly and magazine rack next to the pax seat. Also removed the little table behind the pax seat and the kitchen table top. I unbolted the driver and pax seats and moved them around during the job. Removed the toilet.
Pedals: I removed the accelerator pedal and the firewall cover pieces along with the Allison ECM cover piece. Documented where the pedal was.
Remove Carpet: Just slice sections with a utility knife and rip that stuff out. The carpet trim on the side walls is just stapled carpet with no backing. It tears right away from the wall and because the staples are small, you won't notices where they penetrated the wall covering. When you pull the carpet from the floor along the side you will expose the race which is just a plywood box measuring 3.5" x 3/4".
Remove Kitchen Wood Floor: This is a pain. On our last coach I left it in place as I really liked the look but in this one, I went with just tile. I found the best way to remove that stuff was to use a crow bar and a big ole hammer, attacking it from the side.
Fill the Holes: The floor plywood is bolted to the metal frame. The bolts are counter sunk so I filled those holes and a couple of other places with Durham Water Putty. I had to grind down a couple of the bolt heads that were sticking up a bit. I also used the water putty to repair the damaged plywood under the kitchen hard wood. Then I used leveling compound to level that area. Prep does not have to be perfect as the Karndean is thick, flexible and cushioned.
Cover the Race and Toilet Platform: I used an inexpensive closley matched peel and stick tile for both.
Lay the Tile: This is Karndean Loose Lay tile (Karndean (http://www.karndean.com/en/floors/easy-fit-ranges/benefits-of-karndean-looselay)). It's a commercial product which has a great feel when walking on it. It is not affixed to the floor, nor are the tiles attached to one another. The backing keeps it in place. I screwed it down, however, on the driver's side under the couch when I reattached the loomed wiring. This stuff is tough to cut. You will use about one utility blade per cut. Lots of difficult (for me) cuts to make around curved wood pieces.
Trim the Race and Toilet Platform: I used the Koffler trim which comes in other colors. Lots of 45 degree cuts which I did with a utility knife (to score) and tin snips to cut. I used six 4' sections. I would recommend you buy seven as I got lucky and ended up with literally a handful of scrap.
Carpet the Bed Sides and Back: I used inexpensive ribbed charcoal colored carpeting and affixed with that carpet sticky stuff. Put it on the sides and cut the speaker and outlet holes after with a utility knife. On the back you need to measure and cut for the electrical stuff before affixing. I used the same carpet for the firewall and Allison cover boxes.
Put It All Back Together: I found that the original placement of the pax seat was twisted about 3/16" rather than being straight on. I replaced the original bolts with shorter ones (3" grade 8s) to adjust for the lack of carpet and backing. Also the little table was off center by 1/8".
It's a big job but you'll like your coach better after you throw that nasty 20 year old carpet!
jor
I , too , used Kardean tile in our floor renovation. Everything said is accurate. Taking up the wooden floor was the most difficult part of the demo. I pulled up lots of existing plywood substate, which was later filled with a professional quality leveling compound. My old pal Randy, who was my flooring subcontractor for years, told me to install 1/4" ply over the existing substrata. At first, I was against it. Too much extra work. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to " do it right the first time". It wasn't as bad as I thought, and helped to take up the difference between old carpet and new tile.
Just a couple of thoughts:
After watching a lot of videos on You Tube, I learned that you should us a torch on the back of the tile to make the cuts easier. I did this. You can buy an inexpensive heat gun at Harbor Freight, instead. In hindsight, I would have gone this route.
My Kardean instructions told me to glue the tile down. Even though I thought it was a friction laid tile, I followed the instructions.
My biggest concern, and one that did cause some problems, was with the angle iron on my slide. After posting LOTS of questions on the forum, I just took a deep breath, and removed a length one at a time, glued 1/4" 4" x 6" felt pads the entire length of the metal with high grade 3m contact spray on glue, and reinstalled. It helped take up the change in height and acts to protect the tile when I move the slide.
We LOVE our new floor. Came out real nice. Thanks to Andy 2 and Pete for telling me about Kardean. It is a really top notch product. I could post pictures, but like to show it off in person. What a difference from the carpeting. 16 years of whatever in the pile. First thing to be remodeled. Real easy to clean.