Installing laminate wood floors

lafrentz wrote:

lenny-shawna wrote:
Jtad,
I too am not a fan of tile or carpet in an RV. Tile is very heavy and do to the perpetual motion of driving, is susceptible too cracking. Chipping is another problem that warrants concern; even high end porcelain chips. And yes I've dropped objects on my tile and chipped it.

Carpet, well not many positives there so I'll leave it alone.

I like glued down engineered wood. I would also glue in-between the joints to make it highly water-resistant. I installed this in my home and a couple years later had a pipe break and flood the floor. We though for sure the floor was ruined. Fast forward 4 years and still the floor looks beautiful with ZERO water damage. I attribute this to the fact that the wood was engineered and I glued both the wood to the floor and the joints.

Since you have an RV and are going over a wood substrate I would first install a water barrier and install over that.

Good luck!

tile weight makes no difference in a DP nowadays.factorys have it now as standard flooring.Todays tiles do not chip or crack like the old days with special underlays and the new super thinsets available
all mid to upper end Class A All use tile flooring.Engineered hardwood is cheap flooring and marks very easy and hard to repair it
you don't see it coming from the factory.some people use it to repair old units which works well

You are correct in that tile is more resistant to chipping than the old days and that it is standard in most DP. However, many manufactures care about the bling aspect and will pack as much as they can onto the frame. While the engines can handle the weight of the tile, the axles are usually close to their maximum carrying capacity when leaving the factory. Then the customer puts all their personal belonging's, fuel, water etc. and now the axle are over weight.

As far as cheep, well as with most products the price point is all over the place. There are high quality (expensive) options out there and budget friendly (inexpensive and not durable)as well.
I would and do avoid most anything made in China.

The underlayment's and tile setting material nowadays are amazing at controlling tile cracking but was that used by your manufacture. And even if it was, chipping is still mostly unprotected from drops.

I feel my DW and I have a very nice RV, not by any means top of the line and we do have both cracked and chipped tile. The later was caused by my carelessness.

If it was wood (either real or engineered) I wood be able to fix it. For the record I'm a general contractor in Florida.

Again, this is my opinion and personal choice about tile in an RV. I simple like the look and maintainability of wood over tile especially in a rolling house.