Flooring Install Question

[frjeff]

Will soon be laying new flooring in our "new" Excella. Currently has an overlapping edge vinyl plank which has pulled apart and curled on the ends. I was some sort of self adhesive type, and it is ugly.

So, I definitely will go with an interlocking floating type. Just which, not sure.

The question:

Most install directions for the interlocking floors say to start at one wall, then working across to the other side from that first piece.
However, we AS'ers are faced with curved walls in some areas (front in ours).
So, could I start at dead center and work off of that in both directions until I reach the walls that require scribing?

Just not sure if it is possible to interlock pieces on both sides. ? . ?

[phlegm]

Not with laminate.
Each piece has a tongue and a groove that are designed to snap together. You can try it if you like with just a few pieces inside a box, even if the box is exactly the size you need to fit in 4 or 5 pieces (wide), when you get to the center it will be impossible to get the tongue/grooves to lock together because you can't get a good angle to interlock the 2 pieces.

If you were installing hardwood like I did in my house a few years back, they are also tongue and groove, but the tongue is a slot. I cut a hardwood spline that fit between to grooves and was able to start in the middle of a wide door opening and then work out into the rooms.

With laminate the BEST you could hope for if you started at each wall would be that the middle pieces would have to be cut to form a straight line, but no locking.

Starting from one wall to the other really isn't that bad, last weekend I installed a laminate in my full AS starting at he street side rear corner and working forward and toward the curbside. When I got to the curbside I have had to trim each piece down to roughly 4" (stock pieces are 5.25")

I used the streetside main wall as my "straight" edge.

Getting started.


The rear, the right side is the curbside.

[DaveP]

It depends on the flooring and how it interlocks. I put Cali laminated cork flooring in my Airstream this winter. I did not remove the cabinets, so I had to start on the centerline and work in either direction. The trick is to leave it unattached until all of the flooring is in and then tack around the edge. Cali is meant to be a floating floor. If you get flooring that sticks down with adhesive, the method I used will not work. If you want more about the tricks of doing it this way, let me know. Good luck!

[Minno]

We used floating click lock cork floor and covered the entire trailer floor before we started building furniture (as Phegm did). Definitely a start at one end and work forward to the other end project for us. However, if you're working around furniture, DaveP is probably the best working solution. One of our MN Unit members liked our floors so much, he pulled all his furniture out and put his floor down over this past winter. He said it was easier to pull the furniture out than work around it.

Kay

[phlegm]

Kay,
When you installed yours did you leave it free floating?
Or did you pin it down along the edges?
Or is it just the furniture/fixtures that hold everything in place?
thanks,
-ron

[HowieE]

Working in the small space that an Airstream offers I would suggest starting in the center line of the trailer. This is a common practice in flooring that causes the opposite edges to be equal and thus eliminating a strange last section against one wall.

I installed my flooring using this approach. I suggest removing the floor mounted cabinets as much as possible to eliminate cutting and providing a clean look. I took out everything except the kitchen sink cabinet, that cabinet has a toe kick and thus the 1/4 round is not seen. That should be the only 1/4 round you need install. When reinstalling cabinets I drilled a 1 in. hole through the floor any place I would have to put a screw into the sub-floor. In 10 years i have never seen any evidence of movement even having gone through temperature range that exceed 100 degrees F.

Investigate the connection system on any flooring you are considering. Some require equipment to lock and some will only assemble easily in one direction.

I used Armstrong since it solved any questions I mentioned.

Can check it out here.

https://www.airforums.com/forums/att...6&d=1471220678

[Minno]

Our floor is free floating. The cabinetry sits on top of it and is fastened to the walls, not the floor except for the refrigerator cabinet, and the recliners, oh and the table. We fastened the recliners down with an elongated bolt through the foot so they're easy to remove as needed. The edges where the floor shows are covered with aluminum corner riveted to the wall. That is only around the front quarter of the trailer. Nothing has lifted up or shifted out of place. The floor has been down for 5 or 6 years now.

Kay

[follow_me]

Originally Posted by DaveP

It depends on the flooring and how it interlocks. I put Cali laminated cork flooring in my Airstream this winter. I did not remove the cabinets, so I had to start on the centerline and work in either direction. The trick is to leave it unattached until all of the flooring is in and then tack around the edge. Cali is meant to be a floating floor. If you get flooring that sticks down with adhesive, the method I used will not work. If you want more about the tricks of doing it this way, let me know. Good luck!

The Cali vinyl bamboo with cork bottom is on my short list to install in 85 Excella after I finish my sections of subfloor replacement needed due to spots of rot. I have the original carpeting right now so this will be a welcomed upgrade. Would like to know more tricks from you DaveP, lots of good suggestions on this thread, thanks!

Tim

[prairieschooner]

take a look at this product, worked best for me;
https://www.lowes.com/pd/SMARTCORE-b...Plank/50076951

[DaveP]

Tim,

Please email me at pheteplace (at) aol (dot) com. We can set up a time to discuss by phone. I think I can be more helpful that way.

[Wconley]

We put in vinyl click-connect planking in a 1965 Shasta we restored. The vinyl pulled apart with Day/night temperature swings. Multiple attempts to solve the problem failed. Possibly we didn't get the slot and groove in correctly the first time but it was a pain. It looked great while it was connected.

[prairieschooner]

I had the same problem as Wconley with the JUNK I got from Lumber Liquidators. After checking around most of the Vinyl Planking interlocks with a vinyl core and that core can easily pull apart. The Smart Core has a rigid core and doesn't pull apart...at lest not without breakage. Not sure if any other product is similar.
I lid the vinyl planking in my '58 and have a couple of years on it now (snow in the winter and the heat of the summer) with no issues. I did talk with the manufacturer and they recommended that I glue it even though it is intended as a "floating floor" in a household application. I used dabs of a polyurethane adhesive and glued the seams over my subfloor, the subfloor had previously been sealed with epoxy.
We looked at all of the flooring at a few rallys and saw numerous issues with "floating floors" pulling apart and didn't want to deal with that.
Problem with an engineered hardwood is moisture. I started to lay one in my '58 Traveler but the overhead vent leaked and that one had to come out.
I started from the center and worked my way out so to each end so that the result was attractive, a bit harder but doable. I used aluminum molding to trim and was happy enough that I have done the same thing in my Motorhome.
Best of luck.

[sheriff1]

Check out Shaw Floorte, LVT, worked great in our 27FB.