Installing laminate wood floors

[jtad]

We have been talking about replacing the carpet and tile in our 2004 Holiday Rambler since we bought it last Feb. When we were looking at coaches we asked a couple of different places about doing the install. I don't remember what the quotes were but they were in the thousands. When I'm done I will have less than a $1,000 in the whole job. I'm pretty handy, have done a lot of tile work and have put down a laminate wood floor about a year ago in a cabin. So I thought I'd give it a shot... Carpet tear out wasn't bad, but the tile demo was a beating..Here are a couple of pics the last one is just a preview of what we are putting down. I will add some more as I go..

[skrams]

I want to replace our carpet with laminate or something, but I have yet to be able to find out how thick we can go subfloor to top, with the slides. How do you figure that out??? There's such a variance in thicknesses.

[msmith1199]

mike brez wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:

mike brez wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:
Mike, how did you find matching tile 15 years later? But it does look like a fairly simple design. I had tile installed in my kitchen and I kept about five extra tiles from the install. I also installed laminate flooring in the house and kept extra boxes of that too. So far haven't had to use it, but I have it in case.

I kind cheated. I added a 12ft island and and stole the tile from under it. They were a bear to get up. They were set ontop of wire mesh. This floor was off over a inch and built up. See if I can find a pic.

Then back to my original statement then if you break a tile you may have to replace them all since it can be very difficult to find a matching tile. And that is especially true for an RV since you likely don't get extra tiles when you buy the rv.

I can't say. I do have three extra tiles in my storage compartment from when I purchased my coach. Mine are granite.

I have a tile section in my RV and they left me no spares.

[mike_brez]

msmith1199 wrote:

mike brez wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:
Mike, how did you find matching tile 15 years later? But it does look like a fairly simple design. I had tile installed in my kitchen and I kept about five extra tiles from the install. I also installed laminate flooring in the house and kept extra boxes of that too. So far haven't had to use it, but I have it in case.

I kind cheated. I added a 12ft island and and stole the tile from under it. They were a bear to get up. They were set ontop of wire mesh. This floor was off over a inch and built up. See if I can find a pic.

Then back to my original statement then if you break a tile you may have to replace them all since it can be very difficult to find a matching tile. And that is especially true for an RV since you likely don't get extra tiles when you buy the rv.

I can't say. I do have three extra tiles in my storage compartment from when I purchased my coach. Mine are granite.

[msmith1199]

mike brez wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:
Mike, how did you find matching tile 15 years later? But it does look like a fairly simple design. I had tile installed in my kitchen and I kept about five extra tiles from the install. I also installed laminate flooring in the house and kept extra boxes of that too. So far haven't had to use it, but I have it in case.

I kind cheated. I added a 12ft island and and stole the tile from under it. They were a bear to get up. They were set ontop of wire mesh. This floor was off over a inch and built up. See if I can find a pic.

Then back to my original statement then if you break a tile you may have to replace them all since it can be very difficult to find a matching tile. And that is especially true for an RV since you likely don't get extra tiles when you buy the rv.

[bbaker2001]

that hollow sound on my brothers was because he put down the plastic underneath. I used the material that feels like thin carpet, no clicking

[mike_brez]

msmith1199 wrote:
Mike, how did you find matching tile 15 years later? But it does look like a fairly simple design. I had tile installed in my kitchen and I kept about five extra tiles from the install. I also installed laminate flooring in the house and kept extra boxes of that too. So far haven't had to use it, but I have it in case.

I just took this pic of 18year old laminate I uput down at my business. It is in three rooms that consists of office,bedroom and a tv room. I stay here a few nights a week and is easy to keep clean. It is floating with under lay ment. I still looks good but has that hallow sound to it. Same pic with and without flash.

[mike_brez]

msmith1199 wrote:
Mike, how did you find matching tile 15 years later? But it does look like a fairly simple design. I had tile installed in my kitchen and I kept about five extra tiles from the install. I also installed laminate flooring in the house and kept extra boxes of that too. So far haven't had to use it, but I have it in case.

I kind cheated. I added a 12ft island and and stole the tile from under it. They were a bear to get up. They were set ontop of wire mesh. This floor was off over a inch and built up. See if I can find a pic.

[msmith1199]

jtad wrote:
There were a couple of questions form different people. Yes it would have been much easier to leave the old tile in place. But we wanted a different look all together.. Some of you are "concerned" about the floor being cheap or easily scratched. You get what you pay for.. I have used this product before with dogs on it everyday, sliding furniture around with no problems at all. I understand a lot of you would rather have tile and it comes in high end coaches... This is not a high end coach, it is our coach and its what WE want. With that being said ya'll can chime in all you want doesn't bother me a bit, I like hearing everyone's opinions.. I will post more pics as I move along in the project, it is a work on it in the evenings kind of deal. Should be laying tile in the next day or two then the "wood" will go down.

What you quickly learn on here is no matter what you do to your motorhome there will be somebody who doesn't like it or would have done it better or different etc. My experience with laminate flooring has been similar to yours in that the stuff is basically bullet proof. I've got laminate flooring in my house that is going on 10 years old now and it looks as good now as the day I installed it. The biggest advantage I see to the floating laminate floor in a motorhome is if it does get damaged or if one day in a few years you decide you don't like it, it's very easy to remove and put a new laminate down. And if you want, they even make laminate flooring that looks just like tile too.

[msmith1199]

TNGW1500SE wrote:
I'd like to replace the carpet and vinyl with laminate but I'm worried about the slide scratching the laminate. Carpet always seems so dirty.

Has your slide torn through your carpet? Probably not and that's because the slide actually rides above the carpet and would do the same for the laminate.

[jtad]

There were a couple of questions form different people. Yes it would have been much easier to leave the old tile in place. But we wanted a different look all together.. Some of you are "concerned" about the floor being cheap or easily scratched. You get what you pay for.. I have used this product before with dogs on it everyday, sliding furniture around with no problems at all. I understand a lot of you would rather have tile and it comes in high end coaches... This is not a high end coach, it is our coach and its what WE want. With that being said ya'll can chime in all you want doesn't bother me a bit, I like hearing everyone's opinions.. I will post more pics as I move along in the project, it is a work on it in the evenings kind of deal. Should be laying tile in the next day or two then the "wood" will go down.

[TNGW1500SE]

I'd like to replace the carpet and vinyl with laminate but I'm worried about the slide scratching the laminate. Carpet always seems so dirty.

[msmith1199]

Mike, how did you find matching tile 15 years later? But it does look like a fairly simple design. I had tile installed in my kitchen and I kept about five extra tiles from the install. I also installed laminate flooring in the house and kept extra boxes of that too. So far haven't had to use it, but I have it in case.

[bbaker2001]

carpet to laminate to tile OH MY

all in all we love our new floor. put a warm barrier under it. and we are happy
if wife is happy so am I.
funny is this is they same floor we put in our home years ago. the cabinets are also just like the oak cabinets in our home. when we bought the 5er 6 months ago my wife said we need to make it ours. little did we know how close it would be

[lenny-shawna]

mike brez wrote:

lenny-shawna wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:

mike brez wrote:
Wait a second your a contractor and can't fix a chipped or cracked tile. :h

Is there a way to fix a cracked tile? I thought the fix would be to remove and replace it. And to do that you would have to have a matching tile. How many motorhomes come with some extra tiles? How easy is it to find matching tile for a motorhome? I bet it isn't very easy at all, but then again I've never tried.

You are correct. In addition to the tile not matching the grout will not match as well. Too many people slap things together haphazardly and call it acceptable.

I'm no contractor and not much of a tile guy but changed out kitchen cabinets and the base was narrower. Chipped out 15 year old tile replaced and grouted. Not much of a differance.

Well Mike, for not being a contractor or a tile guy it looks like a good job from what I can see. Tile and grout appear to match and flow well.

Your case appears to be the exception and most certainly not the rule.

Well done!

[mfox20]

Jtad,

Seems like a lot a naysayers kind of high jacked your post. Good color choice on the laminate. Looks good, keep us posted with your progress.