Slide-out Floor Rot

[mr__ed]

I recently had my fiver towed to the company that manufactured it, for evaluation before sale (Nuwa Co.). They report that the 2 of the slides show some damage on the bottom portions due to water intrusion. Now, I'm taking their word for it. I know that the rug in the slide areas has never been wet (I've checked after every heavy rain). Since the bottom portion of the slides are never exposed to rain, I'm wondering how they could possibly incur water damage? Could rain have seeped in through any of the windows located on the slides? I can't think of any other possibility. Is this a common problem? This is my first RV with slide-outs. My next one may be without slides.

[rjf7g]

colliehauler wrote:

rjf7g wrote:
I have the same problem - water entered through the side at the bottom. Has anyone had the slide floor replaced? I have a superslide with dinette and couch and another with the head of a queen bed in it...I have a quote and want to check it for reasonableness.

Next spring I'm having a RV tech replace two slide floors in two different trailers, both slides are 4'x 12' in Forest River trailers. The tech quote is $1500 per floor and I will assist. On both trailers we believe the water came in from where the floor is attached to the wall. The sad thing is once water enters the cotoplast does not allow it to leave. The OSB absorbs the water and the freeze thaw cycle speeds its demise. The local shop wanted $3500 and they took care of everything. The tech told me by the time you find it, Its to late. I like the room with the slides but a trailer without slides is sounding more attractive. I had to wait until next spring because they had 5 trailers to replace the slide floors ahead of mine. They also had a few roofs to replace. They will use plywood instead of OSB.

Thanks for the info - The quote that I got from my dealer was $2900...

[Allworth]

Water was getting into mine behind the trim strip about 6" above the bottom of the outside wall, then wicking through the (wood) frame members.

New floor (installed from inside) was not hard work, just hard to get my 74 year old frame into position.

Elastomeric paint on the trim strip stopped the intrusion.

[Bird_Freak]

stickdog wrote:

Memphisdoug wrote:
Just curious Stickdog, when you replaced your floors what did you end up putting on the underside of the new wood - plastic wrap, solid plastic sheet or the epoxy paint you mentioned? Mine had the plastic wrap on it when it went bad and the dealer replaced it with the solid plastic sheeting on the underside.

I used waterproof epoxy paint

I used hard plastic on the bottom of mine from a shower wall from Home Depot. This is what my local rv repair shop uses. 3 years now and still good.

[mr__ed]

colliehauler wrote:

rjf7g wrote:
I have the same problem - water entered through the side at the bottom. Has anyone had the slide floor replaced? I have a superslide with dinette and couch and another with the head of a queen bed in it...I have a quote and want to check it for reasonableness.

Next spring I'm having a RV tech replace two slide floors in two different trailers, both slides are 4'x 12' in Forest River trailers. The tech quote is $1500 per floor and I will assist. On both trailers we believe the water came in from where the floor is attached to the wall. The sad thing is once water enters the cotoplast does not allow it to leave. The OSB absorbs the water and the freeze thaw cycle speeds its demise. The local shop wanted $3500 and they took care of everything. The tech told me by the time you find it, Its to late. I like the room with the slides but a trailer without slides is sounding more attractive. I had to wait until next spring because they had 5 trailers to replace the slide floors ahead of mine. They also had a few roofs to replace. They will use plywood instead of OSB.

NuWa wants over $2k to repair each slide. I had been very happy with my fiver overall but I think faulty construction techniques on the slides contributed to the problem. Besides, I'm taking their word that this problem even exists. I had my neighbor check the slide bottoms, but he didn't notice anything. The total repair estimate came to over $14k, which included other problems they found. There is a soft spot in the bedroom floor between the bed and sink which was there since new but didn't concern me too much. That repair was included in the estimate.

[stickdog]

Memphisdoug wrote:
Just curious Stickdog, when you replaced your floors what did you end up putting on the underside of the new wood - plastic wrap, solid plastic sheet or the epoxy paint you mentioned? Mine had the plastic wrap on it when it went bad and the dealer replaced it with the solid plastic sheeting on the underside.

I used waterproof epoxy paint

[Charlie_D_]

Found a soft spot on my bedroom slide at the outside corners. Disassembled the bed and cut the carpet back. Cornners had bad spot a couple inches square. Bought some Woodrot liquid harder and cleaned all the bad wood out. I then used some epoxy to fill in and rebuild. A member of the Forest River forum said, and I agree, that it came in under the corner trim pieces.

Our slides have the trim piece with mitered corners and is held on with screws covered by vinyl trim. The water was getting under the vinyl trim and migrating to the edges of the floor.

[Charlie_D_]

Found a soft spot on my bedroom slide at the outside corners. Disassembled the bed and cut the carpet back. Cornners had bad spot a couple inches square. Bought some Woodrot liquid harder and cleaned all the bad wood out. I then used some epoxy to fill in and rebuild. A member of the Forest River forum said, and I agree, that it came in under the corner trim pieces.

Our slides have the trim piece with mitered corners and is held on with screws covered by vinyl trim. The water was getting under the vinyl trim

http://cdn.forestriverforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=94040&stc=1&d=1447189046

[tko9900]

I have a Hitchhiker II with points of rot. Trim screws on the slides for sure is one of the problems, caulked all of them. Another area on Hitchhikers is the way they wrapped the the bottom of the walls at the point they meet the floors. They used some material that I would compare to roofing felt paper & simply wrapped the wood & stapled it. No caulk. On mine I sealed this point with window sealing tape, (3-M ) & caulked the joint the length of the slide. Road & wheel spray was getting up into this area. Poor construction method. Caught it early enough.

[RV_daytrader]

You would think manufacturers would use marine plywood in the slides. Oh wait, that would cost more! What was I thinking??!!

[sail2liv]

We encountered large amounts of condensation during very cold temps around window frames - so that could be going on inside the walls....good luck

[Memphisdoug]

stickdog wrote:
I just replaced the floor in two of my slides bedroom and the large dinette, sofa slide. Both had water damage at the ends not in the center that area was solid. This was my first RV so I was not looking for this problem though I discovered it not long after purchase and my original thought was that it was minimal. Over the last 5 years it got to the point where I knew I would have to replace the floors and thought I was going to sit down at the kitchen table and wind up on the pad. On our way to Alaska last spring I stopped at Lowes and bought a 3/4 sheet of plywood to keep that from happening. When we returned from Ak I began the replacement. It turned out the plastic wrap was all that kept me from going through.
The cost of materials for the two slides were about $500.00 Marine plywood, waterproof epoxy paint and fasteners. I preformed the work at a friends place with a full shop of necessary tools though I performed all the work till we wrestled in the new floors which with a couple hands only took about 10 minutes.
The removal of the old floor was more work and took more time than installing the new.

Just curious Stickdog, when you replaced your floors what did you end up putting on the underside of the new wood - plastic wrap, solid plastic sheet or the epoxy paint you mentioned? Mine had the plastic wrap on it when it went bad and the dealer replaced it with the solid plastic sheeting on the underside.

[stickdog]

I just replaced the floor in two of my slides bedroom and the large dinette, sofa slide. Both had water damage at the ends not in the center that area was solid. This was my first RV so I was not looking for this problem though I discovered it not long after purchase and my original thought was that it was minimal. Over the last 5 years it got to the point where I knew I would have to replace the floors and thought I was going to sit down at the kitchen table and wind up on the pad. On our way to Alaska last spring I stopped at Lowes and bought a 3/4 sheet of plywood to keep that from happening. When we returned from Ak I began the replacement. It turned out the plastic wrap was all that kept me from going through.
The cost of materials for the two slides were about $500.00 Marine plywood, waterproof epoxy paint and fasteners. I preformed the work at a friends place with a full shop of necessary tools though I performed all the work till we wrestled in the new floors which with a couple hands only took about 10 minutes.
The removal of the old floor was more work and took more time than installing the new.

[Memphisdoug]

I just purchased a used trailer from a dealer and discovered soon after getting it home that the floor in the bedroom slide was rotten. Keep in mind with a bedroom slide (at least mine) that the floor on the inside of the unit is not the same as the lower portion of the slide you see from the outside. Mine has two floors separated by the aluminum square tubing that makes up the slide framework. I was lucky, I put up a big enough stink with the dealer that I bought it from that they replaced the rotten bottom wood of the slide for free. I have read a lot on this subject and it seems the most common cause of rotting floors in slides is water wicking into the wood from trim screws.

There are some interesting videos on YouTube about replacing slide out floors. Some people do it without removing the slide from the unit. Others remove the entire slide to replace the floor. I was ready to do mine myself if my dealer had not offered to do so.

[colliehauler]

rjf7g wrote:
I have the same problem - water entered through the side at the bottom. Has anyone had the slide floor replaced? I have a superslide with dinette and couch and another with the head of a queen bed in it...I have a quote and want to check it for reasonableness.

Next spring I'm having a RV tech replace two slide floors in two different trailers, both slides are 4'x 12' in Forest River trailers. The tech quote is $1500 per floor and I will assist. On both trailers we believe the water came in from where the floor is attached to the wall. The sad thing is once water enters the cotoplast does not allow it to leave. The OSB absorbs the water and the freeze thaw cycle speeds its demise. The local shop wanted $3500 and they took care of everything. The tech told me by the time you find it, Its to late. I like the room with the slides but a trailer without slides is sounding more attractive. I had to wait until next spring because they had 5 trailers to replace the slide floors ahead of mine. They also had a few roofs to replace. They will use plywood instead of OSB.