Carpet Replacement in MH

If you're going to be any where near Texas, you should poke
Ernie.

We did Allure from HoD. It's NOT recommended for installation in non-climate controlled environments, so you need to make sure it will move after it's down. Don't screw anything through the vinyl into the floor - cut around all penetrations and leave a 1/8" gap. When I did this, there were a few members here that had problems with Allure and a few where it worked out fine. This floor hasn't been through a winter yet, so I can't tell you how it stood up.

Was going to be my suggestion ^. Rip that carpet out and put down some snaptacular wood grain flooring.
Idk what the brand is now, but it was not expensive. Got at Home Depot and it's totally synthetic and supposedly snaps together water tight. Threw some in the laundry /mud room a few years ago. It sees 99% of the traffic in and out of the house including 2 boys who could wreck a steel bridge with a piece of foam rubber if they tried and 2 big dogs.
8 months a year of wet/muddy boots and shoes and a few overflows from the washing machine.

It still looks great.
I'd NEVER put carpet in a camper anyway. But we CAMP in ours. Sooo nice to just mop/wipe or sweep and bam it's clean again!

Thanks for your responses. I thought about Allure since I used it in our cabin bathroom and kitchen and it was fine. The only thing that concerns me is how it will hold up in the Indiana winter. I will probably go to Florida for a while but not for the whole winter. In our cabin in Michigan we would leave the heat at 55 degrees all winter and there was no problem. But I have been told that it should not be used if it will get below freezing. But I heard the same thing about laminate wood floors. That is why I wonder if anyone has had experience with these floors in the winter.

Bob and Linda
2004 Winnebago Sightseer 35'
2010 Buick LaCrosse Toad

We pulled up the carpet in the LR and bedroom of our 5th wheel. We replaced it with 16" vinyl tiles from Home Depot that are glued down. It was surprisingly easy but hard on the knees. I'm not sure how they would hold up in freezing weather

The issues with Allure all seemed to be incorrect installation. The floor has to move as a unit when you're done. Also, there are 2 types; the planks that snap together and the planks that have adhesive (grip strip). I used the grip strip which glues all 4 edges to each other but not to the subfloor. It's been hot here for a few weeks and I'm not seeing any buckling. I put it down with temps in the 50s.

It was only $300 for the material. If I need to rip it up next spring and do something else so be it. It's so much cleaner than 20 year old carpet.

Our flooring project: Sightseer 35N.
I called the factory about what would be needed if I installed laminate flooring and Winnebago advised me that I needed to replace the existing shoes under the slides. The existing ones are made of high density polyethylene.

I made an appointment for a couple of months later and stopped by the factory on our way from NH to CO.
When I got to the factory, they made up the new shoes with carpet on them. The cost for them was going to be about $150. The shoes were 1 X 6 s about 3 feet long with an angle cut on one side and covered (glued on) with the material that is used to cover the floors of the service bay. There were six of them as I recall.

Then when they were supposed to install them they came out and said they were afraid that the material would create too much friction running on the existing carpet and the slides would not function properly. I did not want to remove the carpet until I got to my sister in law's place where I intended to install the laminate flooring, so I did not have them install the shoes and decided to rethink the whole thing.

I ended up deciding that I was going to install the flooring and see what would happen. I really didn’t think the existing shoes would be any worse than the carpet type. It seemed to me that the carpet type could catch dust and small rocks as easily as the old smooth ones.

We used Armstrong's best grade of laminate. We picked it based on some tests that Consumer Reports did that showed it had better wear and scratch resistance than Pergo. It's 3/8 inch thick.

We were surprised to find that a Carpet Time store had much better prices on the best grade than Home Depot or Lowes had on the middle grade which is all Lowes and Home Depot carried. The best grades were special order.

We did the installation of our flooring ourselves. We couldn't find an installer willing to do the job.
It took us about ten day’s altogether (we only worked about 4 hours a day though). It wasn't terribly difficult but did require a lot of cutting and trimming because of all of the corners.
There were some challenges involving the front of the slides, around the stairs, underneath the dinette, the transition piece between the driver’s area carpet and the laminate, and the trim piece along the back wall.

Before we did the installation we did a test by removing a square of carpet and making sure the slides would ride over a piece of T molding, laminate and underlayment.

Some people try to cut the carpet back under the slide, but we cut the carpet in front of the slides leaving enough carpet to be stapled down. I was afraid the slides would catch the carpet when the slide went back out. Baseboard molding covers it so it doesn't show.

If you do the job yourself I would recommend a few things to have:
1) Table saw, 2) Chop saw, 3) Good saber saw, 4) Rotozip tool, 5) Air brad nailer, 6) Air stapler, 7) Utility knife and sharp hook blades, 8) Screwdriver type staple puller

There were two grades of the foam underlayment available. We used the best grade - more expensive but thicker and provides a moisture barrier.
We also used a special waterproof joint glue in areas that are prone to getting wet - like in front of the sink, refrigerator, and around the stairwell. (This is used to glue the joints so spilled water can't get in the joints - not to glue the flooring to the subfloor).
We also used silicon caulk to fill the 1/4 gap at the edges in those areas.
The caulk and waterproof glue are both recommended in the instructions from Armstrong.


Regarding the project; we are extremely happy with the results. It is very easy to clean and it looks good.

As far as the slides coming in goes, we have had one problem. The first few times we operated the slides everything was fine. Then we had a scratch show up in front of the dinette. The next time we brought the slide in we put a thin piece of plastic (flexible cutting board) down at that point. When the slide went back out the plastic was badly scratched and it left two paper clips on the plastic.
Apparently Damncat who loves to steal and play with them had batted them under the slide before we got the baseboard fixed to the front of the slide in that area.

We added door sweep strips behind the baseboard trim in front of the slides to keep pebbles and paper clips from getting under the slide shoes.

Since then we have had no more scratches. We do vacuum carefully before we operate the slides. The good news is that the scratch is not noticeable and if you don’t know it’s there I don’t believe you will see it.

Clay L,
Thanks a million for the post. It is exactly what I am looking for. I will be saving this and review many times as we go through the adventure. I was concerned about using laminate but you have convinced me that is is okay to use. By the way, have you experienced freezing weather and how did the floor stand up?

If anyone else has an experience like Clay, please let me know.

Bob & Linda
2004 Winnebago Sightseer 35N
2010 Buick LaCrosse Toad

BoLyn wrote:
Clay L,
Thanks a million for the post. It is exactly what I am looking for. I will be saving this and review many times as we go through the adventure. I was concerned about using laminate but you have convinced me that is is okay to use. By the way, have you experienced freezing weather and how did the floor stand up?

If anyone else has an experience like Clay, please let me know.

Bob & Linda
2004 Winnebago Sightseer 35N
2010 Buick LaCrosse Toad

I installed laminate flooring (one of the cheapest with attached backing at Lumber Liquidators). I used a heavy duty underlayment under the attached back flooring. The floor is still basically like the day I installed it, five years later (except for the holes I drilled for the table).

BTW, I installed floor coverings, only, for about 9 years so have some experience.

Thanks Westend. Have your floors gone through any MN winters?

Regarding winter, yes after we stopped snow birding it went through a CO winter with temps down to -20 and the summer before went through one summer with temps in the 100s. No problems.