Picked up our 5 cases of Red River Allure at Home Depot last night (it was almost 4 weeks from the order date until it arrived at the local Home Depot even though they estimated 7-10 days). The stuff looks great, so it was worth the wait. Now we can't wait to see how it will look when installed. I am hoping to install it this weekend.
We even stopped by the storage yard yesterday during a fairly heavy rain to verify that I got all of the necessary seams sealed. We found everything completely dry inside the trailer. Woo hoo! But I still have a few questionable seams to tackle as a precaution as soon as the Vulkem we ordered comes in (now I must wait for that phone call).
We are still considering installing the red and white underlayment, but may not totally decide until the moment of installation. I think I can set the seams good enough just by walking on them (I am well over 100 lbs. and the bottom of my foot concentrates the weight more than a roller would).
But all of this talk about rolling/sealing the seams suggests to me that, if I do use the underlayment, I may want to utilize some sort of hard surface between the Allure and the underlayment when I walk on them to set the adhesive. It seems like I would just need a strip of aluminum or other hard material about a foot wide - I'd just move it every time I add another plank.
Now that I think about it I bet the perfect seam tool would be the type of roller that is used for formica type laminate. The following Harbor Freight page shows what I mean. It is called a J-Roller.
When I thought a bit about a 100 lb vinyl flooring roller I suddenly realized that the 100lbs is pretty well spread out over a fairly large area of the floor. Lets say for sake of discussion that the roller is about 24" wide. That means that only about 1/24th of the 100lbs is applied for each inch of the width of the roller. So 100 divided by 24 works out to only about 4lbs of force per inch of roller width. You could easly apply that much force to a seam using a J-Roller. The roller is hard rubber too so ther is virtually no chance of damaging the flooring. J-Rollers are also readily available at the big box stores too. I think that the one I have I bought at Lowes for a kitchen counter project I was working on a while back.
Another delay on Vulkem. It seems they ordered gray/aluminum, and that is what the case was marked, but inside it had black. I am not sure if the tubes were mismarked as gray/aluminum also, but whatever the problem, apparently there is a recall by Trempro of at least the gray/aluminum colored 636 Vulkem. I guess I should have ordered off the internet for a couple of additional dollars per tube.
As for the flooring - tomorrow is the day I start (and hopefully finish) the install . . . and just my luck, they are now predicting low 90's for the next 3 days - not my preferred working temperature, but I don't have the time to wait any longer, so I hope to get started early before it gets too hot.
Finally got started on the floor this weekend! Yeah!!!!
Unfortunately, because of the delay in getting the Allure, the project really needed to be finished this weekend. It wasn't. And this despite working until after dark both Saturday and Sunday (must be my measure 10 times cut once philosophy). Now it will continue as an "every evening" project until complete. Oh, we also lost over an hour lost to a storm warning that drove us to the basement and uprooted trees and overeturned an RV a few miles away.
Among other projects, I put new carpet over the protruding humps in the bathroom because they already were covered in carpeting and this looked much easier than boxing them in with panelling. The complexly shaped humps cover pipes that didn't fit under the bath vanity - maybe this is an anomoly with the 28' models, or maybe all split baths have this issue - I am not sure.
I did put down the red & white underlayment from Home Depot throughout the whole trailer. I had less than one foot left over from the 30' long x 40" wide (100 sq. ft) roll when finished. A trailer longer than a 28' would probably require a 2nd roll.
And after much debate, I began putting the Allure in the rear bedroom and worked forward orienting it side-to-side. I got most of the way thru the center bath. The bath was slow going because of a lot of custom cuts, But the good news is that very complex cuts can be made with Allure if you are willing to take your time. It should go faster now because I now know what I am doing and because most of the cuts now will be straight.
I did get the toilet closet flange reinstalled and just oversized the screw holes a bit, but I did need to buy longer screws. When it came out, the flange was set with Vulkem - I just used the teflon thread past when I reinstaled it.
One other observation is that pulling the protruding carpet fibers and tucking the flooring under the cabinets did not produce a finished appearance. The gap is just too large vertically in most places and I can see the underlayment in a couple of places if I look at the right angle. I will eventually have to put down some quarter round or other molding to cover the gap, but that won't be until later in the summer for sure.
I have been taking photo's, and will eventually post them, but it is not a priority at the moment. Sorry. I willl keep everyone posted on progress but may not post pictures until the project is done.
For molding around the edges I suggest checking out some plastic molding that I have used for several things. I found it at Home Depot. It is about 3/8" x 1/2" with a double curve that is a little fancier than just quarter round. It is white but I found that it takes paint nicely. I spray painted some black that I used around the new formica counter tops that I put in my kitchen - the house not the Airstream. The good thing is that it is very flexible. Another good thing about it is that it is pretty reasonably priced at less than $3 per 8 foot piece. It is available in a couple of other shapes too by the way.
Yeah, we have looked at the vinyl covered plastic molding at Home depot - some of it is even embossed with a wood texture and looks pretty real. My concern is that there may be places that the cut ends will show and they are just an off white that I am not sure can be stained to match. We'll eventually have to make a decision, but right now I just have to get the trailer ready to go camping in less than two weeks - the molding is not required for that purpose, but I do need to get the goucho and tables back in, and I don't want to do that unless the Allure is completely installed.
Today, because I had an appointment after work, all I could do was reinstall the toilet and tow the trailer back to the storage yard to avoid the wrath of the Homeowners Association. Work will have to continue in the storage yard.
Oh and I can't help but say that the Red River Allure looks fantastic so far - I can't wait to see it in the larger area near the door and goucho.
Well, I took the plunge and picked up some Prego 'Indian Tigerwood' laminated flooring from Loew's tonight...I'll start ripping out the old carpet tomorrow...
This style flooring has foam type underlayment already applied to the bottom...should provide some additional insulation.
Our Ambassador is a rear bath with twin beds, so I think I'll tackle the 'lengthwise' pattern. I'm not going to remove the fwd gaucho, as it's not carpeted underneath.
The actual laying of the flooring looks easy enough, but there are enough nooks and crannies to deal with... wish me luck! If your ears are ringing in a couple of days, you'll know it just me making the air blue as I'm working on this jigsaw puzzle!
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Let us not be too particular;
it is better to have old secondhand Airstreams than none at all.
Mark Twain, updated
I too, had a difficult time cutting out the edges, when I see others photos, I wonder how they did it so well around all the cutouts. Another secret I have yet to discover.
It is so clean and neat though, took it out twice to camp in, some seams came up a bit, so rechecking that there is enough space between walls and flooring.
Worked on the floor (in the storage yard) until well after dark tonight. I've got to say that is a bit spooky after the sun goes down. Anyway, I continued to put down the Allure, first finishing the bathroom and then continuing into the kitchen area. It'll take at lease one more evening to finish putting down the floor, and then another to put the goucho and tables back in, but I am making progress.
I thought I'd take a few minutes and post a teaser photo to show what the Red River Allure looks like. This one is in the bath, after replacing the old blue carpeting on the "humps" with new brown carpet, and after installing the Allure and reinstalling the toilet closet flange, but before the Toilet went back in. This is from a couple of days ago, but it provides the best image of the new floor. On the lower right corner, you can see the red underlayment. I have many more photo's before and after this image that may eventually be posted to show the process, but this is the only one for now. Enjoy!
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wish me luck! If your ears are ringing in a couple of days, you'll know it just me making the air blue as I'm working on this jigsaw puzzle!
It looks like the flange came up and back down OK. Now Show us the rest of the trailer so we can admire your work
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