floor experts?
Just sold a palomino camper with soft floors. Had what they called bonded floors which is Styrofoam with thin ply wood attached. Can't repair them because seams won't hold as that floor gives a bit u...
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bob2010 wrote:
Just sold a palomino camper with soft floors. Had what they called bonded floors which is Styrofoam with thin ply wood attached. Can't repair them because seams won't hold as that floor gives a bit under foot by design. At least that is what I am told. I want to buy a new camper from a dealer now. Do all the campers around the 18 to 20 foot length have theses floors?
Simply not true that you can not repair a "bonded" floor.
Not sure who told you that it can't be repaired but they are wrong.
As I type I have a 1980s trailer in my yard which I REPAIRED a BONDED FLOOR.
Pretty much ALL RVs use bonded floor technique, you cannot and will not get away from it.
The trick is understanding how it works.
There ARE wooden "ribs" or joists running within the floor sandwhich..
Typically the subfloor is 1/2" plywood, in cheaper units you will find strand board or MDF (lightweight trailers you might find 1/4" luan for the subfloor).
underside of the floor will have 1/4" or 1/8" luan.
Joists are laid out over luan, glued and stapled together, then styrofoam is glued in between the joists. Then the subfloor is glued and stapled to the joists. Makes for a strong light weight floor.
To fix..
You cut the top layer back to a joist (cutting lightly into the floor revealing a about half the joist which leaves a place for the replacement floor to be screwed down), then dig out the Styrofoam between the joists, add in a cross piece of 2x2 to run to the joists.. This creates a place to screw down the sub floor on the ends.
If you find any rotted joists you can do what is known as "sistering" which is basically nothing more than adding a new joist beside the old damaged one (remove all the rotted joist back to good wood), then new joist is screwed or nailed into the good left over portion of the joist.
When the new subfloor is in you can use a little bit of automotive fiberglass resin with long strands (AKA TIGER HAIR) to fill in the gaps between the original floor and the new repair. Grind/sand the Tiger Hair flush with the floor (this fills in the gap so your flooring will not show the seem). Now you are ready to put new flooring of your choice down.
It is not all that hard or difficult to fix, just takes a little understanding and some sweat..
Im looking at a Citation 30 ckts travel trailer with slides.. The whole kitchen area is soft . When I took out a 2 ft square piece of lino I found a thin layer of rotten plywood , about 1 in thick styrofoam then more ( 1/4 ?? ) plywood and below that a silver material like aluminum foil . My theory is that bottom membrane has water somehow running on it wicking up and rotting the wood. So how too fix the floor and how do i find how the water is coming in.. Your thoughts are appreciated
You may want to post your question in a new post rather than replying to a topic that's 11 years old.
