Using pourable epoxy on floor soft spots

dman535 wrote:
It looks like we have a small leak on our 2021 Retro, it has created some soft spots on the osb flooring. Has anyone used pourable epoxy to strengthen the flooring in a these units? There are only a few spots near the door.

2021?

Why not seek factory warranty assistance?

Such a new unit, you need to get the manufacturer involved rather than attempting to "jerry rig" a half hearted fix that will haunt you until you dump it on the next unsuspecting owner.

Pouring epoxy over the weak spots is not really a repair (although I am sure there will be a few chime in that it works).

A real repair would be to cut out and remove the weakened and damaged subflooring past where the water leak was and into good solid wood. Then you can patch in with brand new subfloor material of your choice (for me, it wouldn't be OSB or MDF, it would be real plywood).

Once subfloor has been repaired, you will have to install new vinyl flooring to cover the repair.

I used a two part epoxy and injected it every 10 inches or so then plugged the holes with wood dowels. I was not satisfied with the results so I made a pattern and topped the whole floor with 3/8 plywood. I did stop the leak before repair.

Back in my boating days I used some "wood hardeners" to firm up areas of dry rot that would have otherwise required some extensive demolition and repairs.

Some are two-part styrene based and others are just single-part products.

I recently used this to firm up the wood underlayment that had softened when my old dishwasher leaked:



https://www.acehardware.com/departments/paint-and-supplies/patch-and-repair/wood-filler/18139?x429=true&gclid=7cfa4513a2ff1de8d1b52630fcf6881a&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=7cfa4513a2ff1de8d1b52630fcf6881a&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PLAs_FF4-Paint-Sundries_Paint-and-Supplies_Other_All_Other&utm_term=4581871119251771&utm_content=Paint-and-Supplies_Patch-and-Repair_All_All&gclid=7cfa4513a2ff1de8d1b52630fcf6881a&gclsrc=3p.ds


One trick I learned with my boat repairs was to use an Ice Pick to create holes in the soft wood that allowed deeper penetration. The secret to repairing soft areas with a "hardener" is to get as much as possible deep into the wood. Most epoxy products are more viscous than the Minwax hardener and usually only penetrate the immediate surface area.

The Minwax product dries nice and hard which makes a good surface for gluing on new floor covering (or replacing old if it was just peeled back).

Never used it but there are a few epoxy's marked for just what you're talking about. But you're going to want to figure out where the water is coming from that caused the soft floor in the first place.