Well, spent close to 4 hours non stop yesterday in ripping out the carpet. Getting the carpet out from under the slide was the real issue, but got that done. The next 4.5 hours was chiseling out the glued down hardwood floor and wondering why they glued this down to start with. I basically used a flat bar with lots of swinging the hammer. Tried heat and an undercut saw to no avail! Will be posting photos as I go to help others who may decide to undertake this endeavor! lol
Our powered recliners arrived yesterday, like 5 days earlier than they said. Not a good thing when you have half of the coach tore out with the captain chairs laying on the Jack Knife sofa and tools scattered everywhere. The joys of remodeling!
The flooring I will be installing is SmartCore Ultra, which uses patent CoreTec technology! This is a lock together vinyl rubber flooring that is approx 1/4 inch thick.
Floor level compound and sanding coming up next!
Will look sweet when finished.
Thanks Dub! Can't see paying someone else when I feel I can do this myself! I will say it is much harder work than coming in a home and laying 1500 to 2000 sq feet! lol
I was awed by how difficult it was to remove the oak parquet. I took up a lot of the plywood substrata, especially removing the sheet
metal under the oak. Foretravel did NOT intend to have the flooring removed. I infilled the the areas that were torn up and the bolt holes with a floor leveler. THEN I installed a 1/4" underlayment. I originally was going to pass on the underlayment, but my old flooring subcontractor suggested that I rethink that. I knew it was necessary. It also helped in taking up the difference of the carpet thickness when I had to deal with the slide. I ended up removing the angle iron on the slide, took off the the plastic slide material, and glued 3/8" thick felt pad on the angle iron to ease the slide over the new floor. Probably should have taken pictures of this....or maybe I did ?????!!!!
I have done many tasks on our coach sometimes what you think will be a walk in the park actually becomes a crawl through Hell.
One of the worst was the removal of the trash compactor. Foretravel bolted it from below with no regards to if it ever needed to be replaced. I ended up having to cut it out in sections. I was NOT ready for the work and mess.
Looks nice!
Was the carpet stapled down all over or just along the edges?
Planning a new floor, probably floating cork on top of a pure cork underlayment this winter.
A word of caution....the previous owners of my coach did NOT secure the flooring near the slide properly. $5000.00 later, we have the punctured bladder replaced, believe me the edge near the slide is very securely secured... I stapled the heck out of it ... The slide picked up a few of the new planking, bent them over, and punctured the slide rubber.
Safe Travels
Dave
You go Joe!! looks like all you like is "FINISHING UP"
Chris
I included the wood flooring into the design of my vinyl tile after reading several posts about the difficulty of getting that flooring up. The carpet was pretty easy, especially without a slide. It took me some time to find a transition, but found something I liked.
Looks fantastic!
Thanks Chris! Will be laying out the flooring tomorrow. Had to take a day off to recuperate! lol
Ouch! Plan on counter sinking stainless steel screws on the first planks under the slide and then glue the rest.
Just like a normal home carpet, lots of staples. I use a flat screw driver and dikes to remove. Just takes patience and wearing gloves to go over the floor to make sure you got all of them!
Joe,
When you are done laying the floor and ready to trim out the gap along the perimeter you may want to consider using the InstaTrim. Very clean, easy and durable installation. Made to be used inside and out. It is a flexible pvc material and will go real easy around those fancy rounded Foretravel corners. When I did my coach I used wood trim. A lot of work, staining, installing and in and out of the coach. The rounded corners were a challenge. I believe you will be impressed with the InstaTrim. Comes in I believe 5 colors. We are getting ready to change out the floor in our park model and we are going to use the product. You will find a lot of uses for the product.
John M.
InstaTrim Self-Adhesive Trim Strips | InstaTrim Self-Adhesive Trim Strips (https://instatrim.com/collections/instatrim-trim-strips)
I cut the new flooring tight against the walls- no trim required
Great idea for the finished edge. I did take my time in fitting the flooring tight to the cabinets. The round corners are a challenge for sure. I have also used caulking matched up to the wood to finish out the job. A small tight bead will look nice, but again, patience grasshopper, patience!
Ernie,
I like to cut flooring tight to the wall, also, but the info on the product box, Heritage Mill, wanted a 3/8" gap for expansion/contraction. I , personally, have never seen flooring move that much, especially in a small area like the bedroom of the coach, but I did allow for a gap. I will look into the Insta Trim, if I can figure out where to buy some. It seems you are not concerned with "movement." I come from the school that wood " breathes".
Glenn,
They have the InstaTrim on Amazon or you can order it directly from the factory on the link I posted.
John M.
with all the coaches I have installed, with urethane adhesive, there has never been an issue with any movement, expansion or contraction. This is engineered wood, that I mention as it is dimensionally stable.
I'll keep doing it this way till I'm too old, which is fast approaching
Well, finished up this morning, but then had to get the two recliners inside before the rain and hook up the electric. I ended up mounting the living room AH vertically to the wall. With the recliners in place, should be good to go.
Here are a few more photos; The sliding door over the steps was fun and I still haven't decided what I want to replace the carpet on the side walls with yet. Thinking on diamond plate? The work around the drivers compartment was tedious, but am satisfied with the results. Dottie and I are both in our new recliners laid back and looking at a blank wall. Hope to start on the big screen TV tomorrow.
Will post photos of the heater tomorrow. Ready to pass out right now! Trim for the steps on order!
Looks terrific. Please elaborate on removal of kitchen wood floor and also what you did about rubber sound deading to level in front area and also if it was in bedroom area. Was there tile in bathroom? You mentioned leveling material, what did you use?
When I removed the wooden flooring from my 2001, I was using a two pound sledge and chisels. It was glued down well. Under the wood, there was a metal sheet, also glued down. That took up pieces of the plywood substrata. I used a powder mix given to me by my flooring subcontractor, used by the pros. Don't remember the name, but it is mixed and is self leveling. Did some sanding before installing 1/4 inch ply sub floor. The carpet up front had regular underlayment with a million staples. The underlayment in the bedroom is a dense, black, heavy foam which is also stapled down, although not as many staples. We don't sleep in the bed while driving, so don't notice any difference in sound level. Wouldn't the sound come from under the bed??
Jack, as Glen stated, the wood floor was a bear to remove! Same thing, glued down with metal under the flooring and it was glued down as well. I was lucky in that only had two places that needed to be leveled. Purchased product at Lowe's. Can't remember the name, but it is premixed. We have ceramic tile in bath and that is staying for the time being. If I decide to replace later, will go back with more tile. Not sure what you are speaking of with rubber sound deadening. The only thing I removed in living area was the carpet and the padding.
Here is a photo of the AH heater mounted vertical on the wall. Will have to get some trim to dress it up, but should work fine there. Had enough room to install the electric box and plug both recliners in.
Bedroom does have special expensive sound deadening padding FOT left it down and added a new layer of quality regular carpet padding on top rather than replace. Way cheaper and very cushy.
We had the same black vinyl/lead foam padding in the cockpit area under the carpet as in the bedroom. As others have stated, in the kitchen, the wood floor was glued down on a metal substrate that was in turn glued to the plywood subfloor. Removing the metal sheeting resulted in damage to the subfloor. I used West Systems epoxy with fiberglass cloth patches cut to the shape of the divots in the worst places and just mixed with glass bead faring filler in the rest. I initially put in Bamboo flooring over quarter inch cork underlayment from the bedroom up to the cockpit area (boundary defined by the forward most edge of the sofa) and left the carpet in the cockpit. Subsequently, upon removing the carpet from the cockpit area and choosing a luxury floating vinyl tile, I used (what passes for these days ::) ) quarter inch plywood under a roll of 5/16" rubber gym flooring. This combined with the 5mm thickness of the vinyl tile, resulted in a level floor from cockpit to bedroom with no transitions. The 5/16" rubber gym flooring is extremely dense. The OEM black vinyl/lead foam would have been much to soft under the click lock vinyl tile, I believe that the rubber gym flooring material provides a suitable substrate for the floating vinyl tile flooring (though I doubt the manufacturer would agree :o ) as well as provide some sound damping properties. I hope I live long enough to wear the flooring out... if so, redoing it would be much easier the next time!
Don
don't they make the same stairnose trim as your floor?
Mine I removed after install and powder coated it oil rubbed bronze.. holding great.
They do for mine Ernie. Order came in today, so another busy day tomorrow! Will pick up wood for mounting TV over top of Jack Knife sofa. May take sofa out later, but right now, DW is winning out keeping the sofa for the time being!
Joe, Don,
Your floors both look great. Did you glue down the flooring directly to the subfloor or are they floating floors?
Thanks for the info.
In my case, the flooring is floating. It sits on top of ¼" cork in the case of the bamboo and on 5/16" rubber sheet in the cockpit, so gluing not an option. Besides, I may be the one to change it down the road and I wanted to make it easy on myself!
Don
Mark, if you don't have a slide in your coach, then a floating floor is not a problem. However, I have a slide and the floor has to be glued to keep it from moving with the weight of the slide. I and many others glue the vinyl or laminate flooring to the plywood.
Don, your work is amazing! You take great pains in addressing all the small as well as large details in your improvements of your coach. I am humbled by your work!
Back at you Joe! I would like to consider replacing the sofa with theater seating one of these days, but I store three guitars and a few other things under there, not to mention Tys likes to stretch out on the sofa... but I still have a lot of interior projects in mind, so you never know.
Don
Anyone know what years FT put the steel substrate under the kitchen wood floor? Mine is a U295, 1997, build 5040. It would be nice to know, making a difference whether I'd remove the wood when I replace the flooring.
Don. thank you for the update, your information.will be useful to many.
Jack, I would call FOT and speak with David Flanagan in the remodeling department. He would know for sure! He has been very helpful to me on any questions I have asked in the past!
Not a specific answer to your question, but while I was in a death match against that 16 Sq. Ft. of devil inspired flooring, I pondered long and hard as to why FOT would do it this way. It occurred to me that it was likely a way to speed up production assembly line style back when they were making ~200 coaches per year give or take. I think they assembled the floors laid out on the the sheet metal, glued them down to the sheet metal, stacked them away. When a coach reached the stage of completion where it was time for flooring, they carried the whole assembly into the coach and glued it down. Bam! done... So I imagine that any of the coaches that have the roughly 2' by the length of the kitchen counter/Fridge area, are probably done the same way. It probably explains why the size of the area covered by wood flooring is the size it is. I doubt if any larger fully assembled section of flooring could conveniently be moved or stored.
DON
Received the stair bullnose yesterday and got busy this morning. Trim around the steps is done. Still need to figure out what I want to replace the carpet on the sides with. Even thought about FRP board. Ideas?
In another rv, I used the same on the side walls as the flooring I installed.
Got the TV mounted over the jack knife sofa. Need to get the trim back on to dress it up! We don't have any trouble reading the print on the TV guide now! lol
Well, in between lots of rain, wind and lightning, finally got the valances mounted back behind the TV. Dresses it up, but photo is a little dark.
Wondering if there is a way to change the title of this blog?
Sure. As original poster, go to the first post, click on "edit" and change it.
Brett
Joe, looking great. Nice, quality, job. Thanks to you and others who shared their information in this thread. As a similar project is in my future, I take great interest in creative remodels, such as yours.
@juicesqueezer How did you address the slide and difference in heights of the new flooring vs. the carpet & pad? I'm assuming the new flooring is "shorter" than the old? Did you adjust the angle iron/UHMW slide supports along the base of the slide to adjust the height? Did you put felt or some other "soft" fabric on the bottom of the UHMW to keep from scratching up your new floor?
As I have noted in previous posts, I took the teflon off and installed 3/8" felt. I feared that if there was any grit on the floor, the teflon would scratch the very expensive tile. The felt seems to work perfectly. I have also had to adjust the angle iron a few times because the slide " tipped" into the coach. Hope it all works out for you. The difference in the thickness of the new floor vs. the carpet and pad that was removed was the biggest concern I had ,before I undertook this remodel.
Glenn, if I am understanding you right, you just used the felt and did not re install the teflon? How thick was the new floor you installed? I will be removing the covers on the couch, etc. to watch the slide as it comes in, but since it was fairly snug to begin with, am hoping there is no tipping what so ever. Will also run a vacuum again under the sofa area where the slide pads touch the floor!
I made an absolute bonehead mistake after tearing my carpet out due and not adjusting the slide supports, and I ended up damaging the top of the slide with the two hydraulic plungers that lock in the slide after it is retracted. The slide was tilted too far inwards and the plungers missed the holes. You can pull the slide in, but listen very carefully. After the slide stops moving, but BEFORE the plungers are pressured, release the retract button. Walk outside and see how the face of your slide lines up with the face of the wall surrounding it. You will know if you need to shim the slide supports upon visual inspection. If the slide is flush with surrounding wall, OK to go press the retract button and extend the plungers. If the slide is proud, or recessed, you will need to adjust the supports accordingly.
Well, here are the results of the day I have been loosing sleep over. The new flooring with a slide and bringing it in and locking in place! Bottom line, no go! Brought the slide in and it would not lock in place. So, adjusted the teflon slide plates and finally, got the slide to lock. I did install some felt under the slide pads, but it did not help much. When I remove the drawer under the jack knife sofa and took a look at that long slide pad, I could see it need to be removed and re adjusted. Using a crowbar, I was able to lift the slide up enough to reattach the slide plate and that seemed to do the trick. Brought the slide back in and it locked in place. Long day for sure, but realized that it would have been easier to add a 1/4 inch ply under the flooring I installed. Adjusting the slide plates was not a problem, just that I was disappointed in the fact that this slide had been removed last year prior to my purchase of the coach and a new slide seal was installed. What I found was lots of screws missing on the plate and or not tight or stripped out. Went out to the local Lowe's and purchase 3/8 inch self tapping screws to remedy the issue. All bolted up and back in place and DW is enjoying the TV once more and the larger space now that the slide is back out. So, I would recommend that anyone else doing a new flooring job to consider a minimum of 5/8 inch replacement between the carpet and pad and the new floor. Mine was 3/8 inch thick and it certainly needed an additional 1/4 inch to make the job much easier in the long run! Sorry for the length of this, but thought I would try and explain what exactly happens when doing these type of jobs. Hope this helps someone else in the future. Would I do it again? Bottom line, YES! I have roughly $650 invested in flooring job.
Great job Joe, I knew you could do it
Chris
Thanks Chris! Used some of the ceiling material you gave me. Worked like a charm!
Joe,
sorry I am just now seeing your post. I installed a 1/4" plywood subfloor under Kardean tile, which is probably metric, but was a healthy 1/8". I removed the angle iron, REMOVED the teflon, then glued a 3/8" thick, industrial quality felt. I had to redrill holes to adjust the angle iron, and STILL had problems engaging the upper locking pins. Went to Nac to get some professional input. Whey readjusted the angle iron. Seemed to help. I could never figure out how the teflon, rubbing over the carpet and pad, was able to support the weight of the slide. Still don't.
I agree Glenn; I can't see how those slide pads worked with regards to the carpet. Removing the longest slide pad and using a crowbar to lift up the slide itself, I installed the self tapping screws and the pad was sitting on the new floor when done. I did not remove the teflon and added the felt material. A side note: both ends of the slide were tight to the floor. It was the middle areas that had a gap. Hopefully, I won't have to address this issue anytime soon again!