2007 Floor Shrinking

[blucloud]

We are looking at a 2007 rear entry Airstream/ 28ft.
Noticed that the floor seems to be shrinking, pulling away from the edges.
The floor has warped by the sink. Looks like they had repaired earlier with a wooden seem. There is also a wooden piece by the entry door.

Is this a problem with the floor or something more?

[aftermath]

This is happening to mine. The interior temperature fluctuates between over 100 in the summer to close to 10 in the winter. I would assume that the free floating flooring would, over time, move a bit. I first noticed a slight bulge running the length of the floor directly up against the kitchen cabinets in front of the stove. Now there is a similar but smaller bulge in front of the door and I see evidence of it pulling away from the entrance.

I will be interested is hearing from the experts on this. I am also prepared to hear the gamut of possibilities. Shell off restoration! What?

[Bill M.]

Are you talking about the subfloor or the flooring over the subfloor? Is the subfloor OSB or plywood? I have 2 older trailers with the OSB subflooring. I have made repairs in front of the door on the one that the door leaks on and repairs up front under the vista windows that leaked. I have repaired most of the spots on both without doing a frame off. Just patches. But I may have to pull the water heater on one to do a patch under it. Certainly the sink could leak enough to cause a problem but it looks like a good owner would have found it and fixed it first.

[wulfraat]

This is a known issue with Airstream vinyl flooring of that era. Airstream only glue the floor around the edges when it is originally installed at the factory. Over time the glue fails and the flooring will wrinkle / bunch up / shrink / etc..

We just replaced the Vinyl flooring in our 2008 International with Bamboo hardwoods. It was bubbling and such as well.

Lots of threads on flooring options on the forum...

[Ray Eklund]

Our former 23 foot 2006 Safari had linoleum shrinking as you came into the front door entry. Maybe three+ linear feet that shrunk away from the wall trim 3/8" or so. No ripples anywhere, just shrinkage issues noticed from that side. Other areas are concealed and were not an issue.

Took some aluminum 'tacks' with a flat head about 1/4" to 5/16" and hammered them onto the edge to keep it from curling. As the shrinking process was done by that time, the tacks held the edges firmly and just add as many as you like.

Not something you want to see, but another example of materials that could be improved. Had this been a new home... the supplier would be catching plenty of heat from the new owners. Trailer owners... a different story. Isn't it?

[Hans627]

Linoleum shrinkage is the reason I need to replace my floor. After rolling it back to get to the subfloor for water damage repair, it shrank a good inch from all the edges plus got some ripples in it. I could not get it flat again.

I tried various methods to stretch it, heating it with a heat gun, using a roller to try to roll out the ripples, all to no avail. So as soon as it cools down a bit I going to start laying the new floor.

[heitkergm]

My 2006 Bambi 19' has a gap of about 3/8" on the road side by the door where the vinyl floor has shrunk. The shrinkage goes toward the front under the dinette. No rippling or creases so far. The black floor waterproof underlayment is not the nicest thing to see when you enter the trailer and look down. It seems to attract the dirt. But at least that hasn't shrunk.

I'm "glad" to hear that it's a common problem. But I'm not in the mood to replace it just yet. I'll wait until the floor wears more...

[KJRitchie]

My floor in my 2008 Classic 25FB is buckling. Getting Marmoleum installed soon. Kinda sucks AS used substandard flooring. Cheap paper backed vinyl.

Kelvin

[wulfraat]

The flooring product itself that airstream uses is just fine - that's not the problem. The issue is that they only glue it down around the perimeter of the trailer. If they glued the flooring down onto the subfloor over the entire contact surface shrinkage wouldn't be an issue.