We're camping in four weeks. Let's replace the floor in the camper!

So, late in April AM tells me she's sick of the carpet in the camper and I should just cut it around the edges and put down some floor tile. Even got Jim over at Maine Vintage camper to tell me such a task was "No Big Deal". Made it sound like a weekend task.

Now, I've been balking about this particular project since last year because I know, with a 30 year old camper, nothing is a weekend task. It's wall to wall shag. When I say wall to wall what I mean is they installed carpet wall to wall then built a camper on top of it. The only thing that's not on top of the carpet is the plumbing bits that go through the carpet.

But, Happy Wife === Happy Life. (JavaScript programmers should note the equality operator here.)

Turns out that 90's shag is not that easy to cut. I did start by taking out the couch and fold down table. Then proceeded to spend a weekend dulling utility knife blades and scraping skin off hands and arms but I did finally get all that filthy, smelly, musty? carpet out.

Then I discovered why it was musty. Yep. there's rot.

Left Read under AM's bed.

Lots of Rot

Right Rear under my bed.

Well, guess that explains how the mice were getting in.

So much for the spare wool blanket.
Apparently the mice like Grampa Gus's Mouse Pouches!
and I thought it was suppose to deter them. LOL! Joke's on me.

So, the only thing to do is rip it out and replace it before I put the vinyl floor down. It took me some time to figure out how the water is getting in. There is a strip of trim around the bottom of the trailer. This covers the seam between outside wall and bottom cover. Over the years, there have been a few repairs and some of the places where the bottom was replaced are on top of the wall panel so rain running down the sides soaks into that seam. Behind that is a 3/4 inch aluminum U channel that wraps the sub-floor. It has rivits through it to hold said panels together. ALSO, under the floor is fiber glass batting for insulation. The rain water puddles under the floor on top of the bottom protection panels and soaks into the fiber glass. The fiber glass is stapled to the bottom of the sub-floor. So water seeps into the edge of the OSB sub-floor through unsealed rivits AND soaks the bottom of the OSB where it's pinched between steel beams and staples.

Red is the original bottom protection sheet aluminum. Silver is the parched sections from various "Accidents".
No-one told dad this was not an off road vehicle.

It get's better. At some point, lost in the fog of dementia, dad managed to impail the camper on a 4" steel post. The bottom skin is torn, a frame member is bent, and a hole was punched through the sub-floor into a dead cavity under the bed. I have no idea how that could happen but I can imagine the sheepish grin on his face after he extracted himself, and his camper, from said post.

"Nope, nutin wrong here... Squirrel!"

Worst of the damage is gone.
Unfortunately, those beams are not on 16" centers.

I did discover that under the city electric junction box, back in the street side luggage compartment there is a 1" hole and grommet where the Romex runs up to the circuit breaker. That strikes me as the perfect size for mice to use.... so when I pulled off the back wall panel to gain access to the U channel, I was not surprised to find a bit of a habi-trail in the fiber glass. 

That all got pulled out and replaced with 1" rigid foam panels with the aluminum coating on the outside. 

No More Rotten Floor

Took me for ever to dig the rotten wood from the 1/2" aluminum U channel that runs the perimeter of the trailer. The only method that worked was a pair of 1/4" wood chisels driven into the rotten wood from opposite directions forming a V. This allowed another bit of rotten wood to be pried out of the channel. Leaving it there would cause more rot. It also forms the support for the floor around the outside edge. Airstream routs a 2" by 1/4" rabbit around the perimeter of the sub-floor for this to slide over so you'll need to make the same rabbit. The good news is that I found where the cable tv hook up was since it rund through the sub floor between the luggage door and water heater. Phone cable does the same thing aft of the same luggage door. The wires are exposed in the bays on either side of the power cable storage compartment and accessible on the side walls. Mine were so dirty and corroded I didn't even know I had them.

Airstream also drills through the U channel, sub-floor, and trailer frame then uses all thread rods to tie the whole assembly together. There are 1" x 4" x 1/4" steel plates on top of the aluminum extrusion to stiffen the joint. I found no easy way to replace those without replacing the outside skin so I opted to leave them in place. This meant I had to cut slots in my sub-floor so I could slide them around the all thread rods. That's where things got ugly.

I used plastic sign board to make templates, Great stuff! 1/4" thick and easily cut with a utility knife. Because of the all thread rods I had to make six panels for the floor. The two corner panels had to be slid in from fore to aft then rotated into place. This had to be done first. Then I could slide the piece across the aft into place but don't screw it down to the frame yet. Next slide either side piece in to place. Dry fit the middle panel for width and screw down both sides. Lowes had a sale on water repellent CAT PS2-10 23/32 OSB sub floor so that's what I used. Nice stuff but it has a tongue and groove profile. I decided to make use of that in the joint across the traffic area. Unfortunately, this make getting the last panel (the largest) in place. I had to hold the piece across the aft up to get the tongue and groove in place before dropping both in place and screwing them down. couple bits of sheet metal and a bigger hammer did the trick.

With the sub floor in place, the flooring went in lickety-split. Using a vinyl product made cutting the odd profiles around existing bulk heads trivial.I ran a strip of three from back to front, used the longest strait edge (sink base board) as my guide. Then placed tiles to cut directly over an existing tile and used a compass with a sharpie set to the same width as the tiles to scribe cut lines into each. The vinyl cuts like butter on a table or miter saw. A jig saw makes short work of the funky shapes and curves. A rag with rubbing alcohol removes any sharpie marks left behind.

I did have to drill new holes for the rivets that hold the out side bed frame since the beds are now 3/8" lower that they use to be. We also took out all that nasty card board / felt trim around the beds. We thought about re-upholstering the card board but frankly, it looks cleaner and isn't any colder. We did take the opportunity to wash all the drapery before replacing it. A little bleach  took some of the pastel look out of the color. (never did like 80' decor).

Under the gaucho frame I cut 1/2" slots in the vinyl where the screws go through. This is something I learned from replacing the floor in the Shasta. Vinyl expands in the heat and will make a large bubble if there is not room for expansion. The sides have a 1/8 cap that I'll cover with trim/ Slots where the screws go through allow expansion front to back without letting the floor slip forward in transit. Not anchoring the front of the floor will eventually result in the floor sliding up the front wall of the trailer after a few trips.

We have an appointment with an upholsterer in August to get the gaucho a new skin. The fabric Mimi has picked out will look great with the existing colors and our flock of flamingos. I can't wait!

One parting bit of advise.... Mark the hot water line before you cut the pipe or you'll end up with a hot water toilet flush. Ewww...