1976 31ft rear bath sovereign floor rot

[Treyladut]

I noticed my rear floor around the back hatch for the tank valves has rot.I did a temp repair on it because I have 2 trips coming up.after my memorial day trip I am going to do the repair myself.I have 2 questions how hard is it? And I live in south Louisiana and I am going to do it driveway with no cover and it rains a lot Do you have to remove any outer walls?

[perryg114]

It will not be fun. Spend some time at the floor and frame forum. Welcome to the floor rot club. It is sorta like being married. You are now chained to a silver twinky.

Repairing/Replacing Floor &/or Frame - Airstream Forums

Perry

[Treyladut]

I am very nervous about doing the job.

[Treyladut]

When I remove the floor will the body move and do I have to support the back?

[webspinner]

You may not need to replace the whole floor. When you've taken a close look under all the carpet or flooring to know the extent you'll be able to assess whether you are in "patch" or "replace" territory.

We pulled up the whole carpet - no loss, it was going out anyway - and ended up having to patch a small bit by the front door and a larger bit in the bathroom. My husband did the work and did a blog post about it with pictures of the patching and penetrating epoxy steps. Our blog is in my signature line, if you're interested.

[Stoney]

the floor is weak at door so is it hard to repair it with out takin up the whole floor

[Stoney]

the rear bath as well by the valves wear all the water pipeing is going with pex pipe . little at a time to relace the copper water lines will be better in the long run .

[webspinner]

There are ways to patch a floor that are much simpler than taking up the whole floor, if the damage isn't too extensive.

Read up on the threads about floor replacement and shell-off renovations before you jump onto a project that big.

[Treyladut]

It's rotted all around the back to the wall.how much is involved removing all the underbelly and inspecting the frame also?

[Treyladut]

All I can say about these airstreams is that I am impressed with quality in the unit.I had a 5th wheel that was about 5 years old.I had to replace a roof and I had rot in my slide out.with trailer 35 years old and the few issues I have had I can't complain.

[Splitrock]

I spent much less time repairing the damage caused by water leaks than I spent finding and fixing the leaks that caused the damage. I did all the maintenance, like replacing the sewer vent seals and replacing the window and door gaskets, only to find I still had leaks. I had to remove the interior skin and insulation to find and fix the last leak.

Airstream engineers design leaks that are not repairable like the rear bumper trunk water intake port and the step release slot. Those two require redesign and rebuilding. There are posts about rebuilding the rear bumper storage water intake port. The step release slot requires belly pan drains (or removal of the belly pan).