Part 5 - Not the Full Monty, it’s the Rear Admiral
The Inside Story
The exterior was all back together so it was time to reassemble the bedroom. During all the time that the wall was open I had been checking for leaks whenever it rained, and sealed them up along the way, so I was comfortable putting the wall skin back on.
The original fiberglass batts were put in place first. Once again those cleco fasteners were the secret weapon for holding everything in place and properly aligned before the pop rivets went in.
The exposed edges of wall skins have a plastic J-trim on them and most of the original trim was brittle and had fallen apart during disassembly. Vintage Trailer Supply carries new trim and it installs easily enough.
The interior of the bedroom was completely wiped down with soap and water. After months of grinding, cutting, and welding, walls and ceiling were pretty nasty. Speaking of nasty, there was no way I was putting the old carpet back in since it had a bit of mold on it from the leak. The old carpet had been done by the previous owner, along with vinyl tile squares in the galley, hallway, and bathroom.
Since new carpet would be installed, my wife and I decided we would extend the carpet all the way from the bedroom and down the hallway, since that hall is often used as a dressing area. While I was at it, I thought it might be nice to put down some sheet vinyl in the bathroom.
The old vinyl tiles came up easily with a wide scraper. People always freak out about those tiles, thinking there might be asbestos in them. However I knew the previous owner had put them in long after asbestos went out of style so I had no fear.
I’ll go into some detail on the carpet and sheet vinyl since I was able to find little to no information on installing this in an Airstream, the current trend seeming to be laminate.
The bathroom was done first. This is the center or perhaps more accurately called, the side bath. Not much floor space to stand on. The previous owner had just tiled this small area and had the toilet sitting on the bare wood subfloor. When removing the tile I found a hidden sheet metal access panel. You can see it slightly opened, in the corner of the bathroom floor. Of course I had to open it to see what it was for. The answer is the inlet to the gray water tank is under that cover.
Good fortune struck as I was able to find two square yards of sheet vinyl on Craigslist for cheap. Since it had been rolled up, I laid it out on the driveway in the blazing sun so it would lay perfectly flat. The toilet is temporarily removed. Note it is the original Thetford Aquamagic Galexy Starlight. Then I taped a bunch of sheets of paper together, lay that on the bathroom floor and did some careful cutting, making a full sized paper template.
When the sheet vinyl was laying perfectly flat in the sun, I marked the backside of it, using the template, need to remember to flip that upside down as well, and cut the vinyl with a utility knife. The vinyl was then installed in the bathroom.
It was not glued in place. You will see two screws in the left edge, which are for a meal extrusion at the base of the shower stall. Removing the screws and putting them through the vinyl was necessary for it to lay flat along that edge.I put in a few wire staples around the toilet flange, as well as on the extra that I had left sticking out the bathroom door. These staples will be hidden once the toilet is reinstalled and carpet is put down in the hallway. A thin bead of white caulk was used to seal around the perimeter of the bathroom floor.
Since the toilet had originally sat on the bare wood subfloor, and would now have a layer of vinyl below it, I had some concerns about whether or not the seal to the flange would be tight enough. I really over-thought it and tried some things that I won’t bore you with. The solution is to just get a new seal and bolt the toilet down in the normal way and the bathroom is completed.
Now for the carpet install. I had never installed carpet before, but have seen people do it, and I was able to find some helpful videos on youtube. I wanted to install the carpet as one piece, without any seams, due to my lack of experience.
Carpet was purchased from a local discount warehouse. I had a fairly long piece as it would go from the back wall of the bedroom and all the way down the hall. The selection of remnants in that size was limited, and I ended up paying a bit more than I had planned. That said, a smaller piece which would have required me to make a seam at the bedroom door, would not have saved me a whole lot.
Before I could put down the tack strips, I needed to mark the outline of the pedestal for the bed. The pedestal is composed of many pieces, the first of which is a plywood ‘spine’ that screws to the floor. That determines where all the other pieces land so it needs to go back right where it was. Since it lands on new subfloor I had to refer to the measurements I took of the spine’s location before it was removed. Once the spine was in place, I assembled just enough of the pedestal, with as few screws as possible, to get it all in place so it could be traced on the floor. After that it gets removed for install of tack strips.
You have to buy a box of tack strips, which contains enough for several rooms of a house. More than enough for the little round bedroom and hallway. These go down quickly, though a bunch of little pieces had to be cut to do the radius corners. The little pieces were secured with a pneumatic staple gun.
Maybe you noticed two shiny bolts protruding up through the sub floor, where they will be near the center towards the foot of the bed. Perhaps those are somehow anchored to the frame below for mounting a hidden safe…
The carpet pad goes in first. I used my old nasty carpet as a template for pieces. No problem having seams in this. You can cut the pad easily with scissors, and just use a few wire staples with a manual staple gun to keep it from shifting during the carpet install. I bought the higher grade of carpet pad for not much difference over the cheap stuff.
For cutting the carpet, I once again I used the old carpet to use as a template for the bedroom portion and left a long ‘tongue’ on it for the hallway, which was based on some measurements. I cut the carpet oversized several inches in every direction. A utility knife can work for cutting, but an official carpet knife works better, just have plenty of spare blades.
The best advice I can give on the carpet install, which is what the guy at the store told me is, take your time. Lugging the carpet into the trailer and getting it wrestled roughly into place requires a helper.
For laying the carpet I did not use a kicker. Just stretched it snug by hand and used the wide plastic carpet chisel to cinch it in around the perimeter of the bedroom and down the hall. At that point I could trim around perimeter, though I left the area where the bed pedestal will be alone for now.
I let a few inches of carpet extend into the galley, then folded that end under itself, the folded edge flush with the doorway, then used a pneumatic staple gun with ½” long crown staples to secure it in place. Same with the transition at the bathroom door.
Before putting installing the bed, I decided to put the nightstand in. Super easy when you have room to work around it.
It was tricky to get a clean fit of the carpet at the base of the bed pedestal, due to the curved face of the side pieces. I trimmed one area at a time based on my marks on the floor, as I set each piece of the pedestal. Use an electric screw gun. There are many many screws in that pedestal.
See the final blog entry for a few obligatory shots of the final results. The storage compartment below the head of the bed did not get carpet, but I later bought a cheap cut-to-fit rubber cargo mat for SUV’s from an auto parts store.
The exterior was all back together so it was time to reassemble the bedroom. During all the time that the wall was open I had been checking for leaks whenever it rained, and sealed them up along the way, so I was comfortable putting the wall skin back on.
The original fiberglass batts were put in place first. Once again those cleco fasteners were the secret weapon for holding everything in place and properly aligned before the pop rivets went in.
The exposed edges of wall skins have a plastic J-trim on them and most of the original trim was brittle and had fallen apart during disassembly. Vintage Trailer Supply carries new trim and it installs easily enough.
The interior of the bedroom was completely wiped down with soap and water. After months of grinding, cutting, and welding, walls and ceiling were pretty nasty. Speaking of nasty, there was no way I was putting the old carpet back in since it had a bit of mold on it from the leak. The old carpet had been done by the previous owner, along with vinyl tile squares in the galley, hallway, and bathroom.
Since new carpet would be installed, my wife and I decided we would extend the carpet all the way from the bedroom and down the hallway, since that hall is often used as a dressing area. While I was at it, I thought it might be nice to put down some sheet vinyl in the bathroom.
The old vinyl tiles came up easily with a wide scraper. People always freak out about those tiles, thinking there might be asbestos in them. However I knew the previous owner had put them in long after asbestos went out of style so I had no fear.
I’ll go into some detail on the carpet and sheet vinyl since I was able to find little to no information on installing this in an Airstream, the current trend seeming to be laminate.
The bathroom was done first. This is the center or perhaps more accurately called, the side bath. Not much floor space to stand on. The previous owner had just tiled this small area and had the toilet sitting on the bare wood subfloor. When removing the tile I found a hidden sheet metal access panel. You can see it slightly opened, in the corner of the bathroom floor. Of course I had to open it to see what it was for. The answer is the inlet to the gray water tank is under that cover.
Good fortune struck as I was able to find two square yards of sheet vinyl on Craigslist for cheap. Since it had been rolled up, I laid it out on the driveway in the blazing sun so it would lay perfectly flat. The toilet is temporarily removed. Note it is the original Thetford Aquamagic Galexy Starlight. Then I taped a bunch of sheets of paper together, lay that on the bathroom floor and did some careful cutting, making a full sized paper template.
When the sheet vinyl was laying perfectly flat in the sun, I marked the backside of it, using the template, need to remember to flip that upside down as well, and cut the vinyl with a utility knife. The vinyl was then installed in the bathroom.
It was not glued in place. You will see two screws in the left edge, which are for a meal extrusion at the base of the shower stall. Removing the screws and putting them through the vinyl was necessary for it to lay flat along that edge.I put in a few wire staples around the toilet flange, as well as on the extra that I had left sticking out the bathroom door. These staples will be hidden once the toilet is reinstalled and carpet is put down in the hallway. A thin bead of white caulk was used to seal around the perimeter of the bathroom floor.
Since the toilet had originally sat on the bare wood subfloor, and would now have a layer of vinyl below it, I had some concerns about whether or not the seal to the flange would be tight enough. I really over-thought it and tried some things that I won’t bore you with. The solution is to just get a new seal and bolt the toilet down in the normal way and the bathroom is completed.
Now for the carpet install. I had never installed carpet before, but have seen people do it, and I was able to find some helpful videos on youtube. I wanted to install the carpet as one piece, without any seams, due to my lack of experience.
Carpet was purchased from a local discount warehouse. I had a fairly long piece as it would go from the back wall of the bedroom and all the way down the hall. The selection of remnants in that size was limited, and I ended up paying a bit more than I had planned. That said, a smaller piece which would have required me to make a seam at the bedroom door, would not have saved me a whole lot.
Before I could put down the tack strips, I needed to mark the outline of the pedestal for the bed. The pedestal is composed of many pieces, the first of which is a plywood ‘spine’ that screws to the floor. That determines where all the other pieces land so it needs to go back right where it was. Since it lands on new subfloor I had to refer to the measurements I took of the spine’s location before it was removed. Once the spine was in place, I assembled just enough of the pedestal, with as few screws as possible, to get it all in place so it could be traced on the floor. After that it gets removed for install of tack strips.
You have to buy a box of tack strips, which contains enough for several rooms of a house. More than enough for the little round bedroom and hallway. These go down quickly, though a bunch of little pieces had to be cut to do the radius corners. The little pieces were secured with a pneumatic staple gun.
Maybe you noticed two shiny bolts protruding up through the sub floor, where they will be near the center towards the foot of the bed. Perhaps those are somehow anchored to the frame below for mounting a hidden safe…
The carpet pad goes in first. I used my old nasty carpet as a template for pieces. No problem having seams in this. You can cut the pad easily with scissors, and just use a few wire staples with a manual staple gun to keep it from shifting during the carpet install. I bought the higher grade of carpet pad for not much difference over the cheap stuff.
For cutting the carpet, I once again I used the old carpet to use as a template for the bedroom portion and left a long ‘tongue’ on it for the hallway, which was based on some measurements. I cut the carpet oversized several inches in every direction. A utility knife can work for cutting, but an official carpet knife works better, just have plenty of spare blades.
The best advice I can give on the carpet install, which is what the guy at the store told me is, take your time. Lugging the carpet into the trailer and getting it wrestled roughly into place requires a helper.
For laying the carpet I did not use a kicker. Just stretched it snug by hand and used the wide plastic carpet chisel to cinch it in around the perimeter of the bedroom and down the hall. At that point I could trim around perimeter, though I left the area where the bed pedestal will be alone for now.
I let a few inches of carpet extend into the galley, then folded that end under itself, the folded edge flush with the doorway, then used a pneumatic staple gun with ½” long crown staples to secure it in place. Same with the transition at the bathroom door.
Before putting installing the bed, I decided to put the nightstand in. Super easy when you have room to work around it.
It was tricky to get a clean fit of the carpet at the base of the bed pedestal, due to the curved face of the side pieces. I trimmed one area at a time based on my marks on the floor, as I set each piece of the pedestal. Use an electric screw gun. There are many many screws in that pedestal.
See the final blog entry for a few obligatory shots of the final results. The storage compartment below the head of the bed did not get carpet, but I later bought a cheap cut-to-fit rubber cargo mat for SUV’s from an auto parts store.
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