'92 Land Yacht project continues

[92landyacht]

Well I removed the old TV from the dash:


And now I have a nice storeage cabinet with some assistance from Glorian. He provided me the general inspiration and images while I built the cabinet from items I could find locally. The door was custom built through a company called Raw Doors for about $28:




Now onto the next project:





I picked up 94 square feet of 10mm plus 2mm pad oak laminate floor for $1.76 a square foot and no sales tax at my local Lumber Liquidators supper sale. I chose a floor that was lighter then the surrounding cabinets purposely. My plan is to install a 6mm vapor barrier under the floor and install the floor lengthwise.

Any pointers from those that have installed laminate flooring in an RV would be greatly appreciated. The one area that I'm wondering about is weather I have to completely float the floor or can I mount some of the furniture (small cabinet or dinette) on top of the floor? As I understand it, I need to not allow the floor to come in contact with any unmovable object.

I'm in the process of removing the carpet and pad now. Will post more picks as I go. I'm expecting some sub-floor damage since I had water damage originally.

[Condoluminum]

If you search for "laminate floor" there are a number of threads of those who've gone before, lengthways and sideways with a variety of materials.. I believe key rules are to allow for some expansion/contraction, but you could anchor in places around furniture or posts sticking up through floor.. In some cases, gaps at edges under moldings are really to allow for installation with snap joints as much as for expansion.. Several did report that their floor tended to shift forwards as result of braking after some travels...

[Airstream12557]

Quote: Condoluminum said "In Theory, there's no difference between Theory and Practice, but in Practice, there is usually a difference..."

I remember a quote in my Mechanics of Materials text from 50+ years ago, "When theory and practice disagree; either theory or practice are wrong."

We just placed an order with a local shop to have a solid cork tile floor installed in our MH.

Sam

[wvabeer]

I like that Cabinet that replaces the tv. Where did you get that?

[92landyacht]

I built it. The only part that I didn't build was the door front. I ordered that from a company called: Raw Doors. They have a great app that allows you to create custom door fronts, drawers, face frames and back-bars in many styles and wood types to pretty much any dimension you want. They're priced rather well too. The door front cost me about $28 shipped and was constructed very well from solid oak. Once it arrived, all I needed to do was to sand, stain and urethane it. The box I designed using 1/2" oak plywood and 1/4" oak strips all from Lowes. Gloran provided me with some pictures of his and I just patterned mine in a similar fashion. Not exact, but close. I may still add a center shelf for added storage.

[gloran]

The cabinet turned out very nice, good job! Its always nice to take one more item off the to do list. My coach came with the optional oak flooring already installed in the galley. It was showing wear and wasn't installed properly. It was loose in a number of spots so when you walked on it, it made alot of noise. Also from being loose it made creaking noises driving down the road, very annoying. I went to Lowe's and picked out a glue down oak flooring in a similar style and color. I had to patch OSB subfloor in places where AS actually used some adhesive. With a leveling patch I ended up skimming in whole area, then used a floor sealing paint before cutting and installing new oak. Also installed it in the bottom of kitchen sink cabinet.

[92landyacht]

Floor and cabinet bottom looks good. With mine I'm going to have to replace everything from the kitchen/bath line forward to the step-up just behind the captains chairs. I pulled some of the carpet up and found enough dirt to grow a garden. I took a sniff of the carpet and found it smelled like a wet dirty dog. This is even after I shampooed the carpet several times. I think that this is the primary source of any off smells I still get when the humidity gets a little high. This Sunday is supposed to be really nice weather so I'll start to pull all the carpet out and begin the floor prep. I'll take pictures as I go.

The primary question I still have is, what to do with the small cabinet between the two barrel chairs and the dinette? Do I run the flooring under these or should I float the floor around them? The amount of trim work would make going around more difficult. If I pull them up and run the floor under it would save me a lot of work. I'm just worried that this would anchor the floating floor to a fixed object and induce buckling later on.

[92landyacht]

Here's the progress for day one on the new floor. Found some expected damage from the original roof leaks when I bought the LY:

Removed all the carpet on the front section and the kitchen area:








Decided to slop the carpet instean of making a straight line from side to side:


I've replaced the damaged floor and removed most of the staples. Here's the stair area as of today:


I removed all the carpet and wood. Plan on replacing with laminate floor and trim pieces. I'll post additional pics as I continue. Expecting rain Tomorrow so will have to wait until the weather gets better.

[wvabeer]

Wow , I bet that was a job getting all that out and cleaned. I am gonna go down that same road maybe later in the year.

[gloran]

I've never installed that type of flooring, but I wouldn't think you would have a problem with buckling. Especially with the cabinet between the chairs, its light weight and can mount to the wall. If you could run new flooring under the dinette seating, the flooring would go a lot easier for sure.

[92landyacht]

Floor repair begins:

First step was to remove the damaged wood and allow everything to dry out. The blue material you see is the 1.5"s of foam insulation that's under the subfloor.

I cut out the damaged wood on the floor. I'll deal with the riser later.

I used Gorrilla Glue as my adhiesive of choice. The glue is supper strong and completely water proof.

Infact it requires moisture to cure. I used a spray bottle to mist the bottom of the wood panels before setting them on the glue.


This is the same method I used to repair the damaged walls. I put the glue down on the floor insulation.




Once the glue was put down I put the misted floor boards in place.


After the floor boards were inserted I used some available weights to clamp it in place.

[wvabeer]

looks like a big job

[92landyacht]

Not really as hard as it may seem. So far that is. Next step will be filling in any low spots and screwing down a couple of loose sheets of plywood that AS put down around the dinette. Not an issue when under carpet but not acceptable under a floating floor. After that I'll put down a 6mm vapor barrier sheet just in case of any future leaks. Then it will be on to the FUN part... Laying the click-lock floor. I figure I should have most of it done by this Sunday. Only working on it a little today, Weds and Sunday. Much of the time will be letting things dry, harden or acclimate. The only part I'm dreading is the tedious trim pieces.

[92landyacht]

Sunday I worked on the floor again. First I used a product to fill in and feather out any low spots:


Once dried and sanded down I put down the 6mm vapor barrier:


I had to bevel the first row in order to clear a metal plate and bolts:


Sevel rows of flooring yields this:


Several hours later I have this:




This Wed. I'll begin to finish the trim and complete the stair area.

All I can say is this is a very do able project but patients is a must. Lots of odd cuts are required and the use of a miter saw, table saw and jig saw are also very helpfull. I built a DIY table saw from a saber saw. I'll post pics on the next go around of the table saw I built and final trim work. So far I have about $250 invested.

[wvabeer]

That looks great

[Paul Dobbin]

Unquestionable, a new floor makes it a "new house". The best bang for the buck in ownig a "used RV". While not easy as you can see from the posts above, well worth the efffort.
When we bought our 94 Land Yacht it had the original blue carpet in the usual places except the kitchen & bath, that had hardwood floors. We replaced the carpet on the floors and lower walls just as Airstream had done it originally. Then we took the leftover pieces and had the edges bound and applied snaps to use them as runners on top of the new carpet.
Now 8 years later, we're considering removing th runners for another fresh new look.
Note: The binding was donae at a cost of $1.00 a foot and well woth the expense. Ask you local captet store to refer you to a local binder.

[92landyacht]

On Wednesday I was able to complete most of the flooring project. Trim is now down and the floor is really coming together. The only thing I need to complete is the stair well and to cover a conduit under the dinette table with new carpet.

Here's the stair well as of today:


Here's the riser:


And some more views:






Still need to recover the conduit under the dinette:


Once I finish the stair well I'll be on to the next project:

[cesalie2]

92landyacht,


As always, impressive!

[wvabeer]

The floor looks really good

[BarnacleBill]

Looks Great!