Time to fix the floor - whatcha think?

[irm]

Hi everyone,

We brought our 2007 25fb home last weekend and are SO SO exited!

We knew going into it that there was evidence of the well known floor damage and we've just began the process of getting after the fix. We went in with the hope that it was within our very capable DIY skills and the agreement that if it was crazy bad that we would take it in.

WELL...we are feeling really good about it. We pulled the dinette, rolled the vinyl back and here is what we've got:

*Currently dry BUT damaged areas of wood around the edge of the wall: about 4.5ft long x 3inches in from the wall. I've attached photos - we brushed out all the dry wood chips and I'd say about 2-3 plys of the plywood chipped out in some spots.

*If you go 6 inches away from the wall, it's damp but the wood is super super solid (clearly JUST wet and not damaged) so we're just leaving the flooring rolled back and letting it air out.

Our PLAN:

*Buy the wood filler/epoxy to fill in the holes and repair the damaged area
*Remove rear belt line trim to fill and seal the crack we are expecting to find due to AS not doing this at the factory
*Seal all the panoramic windows

Question for those who have repaired their own/are familiar - based on my description and photos does our repair plan sound good? We don't feel like we need to actually cut our the floor and replace it since such a relatively small area is damaged and we've seen on the forum that the wood repair products will actually strengthen the damaged wood to a state better than the original.

We REALLY don't want to pull the rivets/wall panel off. We live in a very dry climate and think it's likely that if it was previously wet, it's now dry.

Last comment - of course, the pics likely look REALLbad. The black areas are just part of the original plywood...it's black even at undamaged areas around the entire perimeter about 4 inches (when I had seen other's pics before we pulled out the flooring, I feared the black was mildew).

We just want reassurance that we're fixing it right - don't want to do things totally half-assed!

Thanks!!!

[swede0030]

I replaced 21" at the rear this summer. While cutting out a 6" rotten circle I realized the bumper water leak comes in the under side of the floor. The small circle became 21" all across the rear. I hope you won't find that true on yours!

[Tom Nugler]

Boy, You’d think after 30 plus years Airstream would have figured out how to seal up the rear ends of these things.
Both of the Vintage rigs I’ve owned have had similar damage.
Now that you’ve cleaned and removed the loose ply, you’re correct in that you need to stabilize the area.
I’ve used Git-Rot in the past with good results. BoatLIFE | How to use "Git"-Rot
This is a liquid epoxy that will strengthen the damaged plywood before filling the remainder with epoxy. Dry out the ply as good as you can.
I don’t know precisely what AS is using for insulation on the newer trailers but for Vintage rigs we recommend removing the Fiberglass insulation from under the floor to help prevent moisture wicking into the new repair.

Good Luck,
Tom.

[irm]

Update to our post on fixing floor damage to our 2007 25FB:

1) We removed and sealed the H* out of the belt line trim. Also applied a bead of sikaflex across the top seam after replacing the trim (see arrow in photo).

2) Sikaflexed the mitre joints of the rear panorama windows.

The floor: we couldn't find "Git Rot" in Boulder - we're super landlocked and there isn't a whole lot of boating supply stores around here. We went to Home Depot and bought two products that seem similar. Elmer's Rotted Wood Repair - a penetrating dry rotted wood stabilizer and Elmer's Structural Wood Repair - a 2-part epoxy.

After letting the wood dry completely and removing dry rotted wood debris we ended up with some holes that were just a few plys deep but ALSO two holes that were all the way down to metal frame. We made the call - the holes seemed far enough away from the portions of floor actually screwed to the frame AND small enough (only ~2"x3") that we decided to NOT replace the wood.

*Step 1: apply Elmer's rotted wood repair with a sponge paint applicator all over the rotted area as well as the previously damp but still good wood. Allow to cure over night. This is the white liquid stuff all over. It dried into a shiny, rock hard sheen.

*Step 2: mix up the Structural wood repair puddy and fill in all the holes and cracks. We pressed it in by hand. Allow to cure until able to sand. This is the photo with the white, puddy looking stuff.

Next step - sand, re-rivet (super EASY...we just bought the tool and watched a You Tube video explaining the process), put everything back in.