floor experts?

[bob2010]

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?

[mobilefleet]

unfortunately gdetrailer has no idea what he's talking about or is confused.  "Lite" trailers with bonded floor construction don't use wood joists or staples (you can't staple luan to foam), they all use aluminum joists which are basically a thin hollow wall joist that is crap.  The whole floor structure is bonded at the factory in a grid fashion and is 1/8 or even 1/16 luan on both sides, with a foam middle.  There is really no way to repair it because there is no structure to tie into, unless you consider a hollow mickey mouse aluminum frame to be sufficient. And you can't lay out or repair osb or plywood in just one area without doing the whole trailer, because you have a 1/8 top layer or less before you are at foam.   In very few cases you can inject epoxy into the floor IF the repaired soft area is very small.  It's also important to realize that sometimes soft floors are mistakenly assumed to be water damage, when sometimes it's simply an issue of little or no support underneath because part of the reason these are "lite" is because manufacturers save weight by placing support beams way too far apart, sometimes 4 feet or more under the trailer.  It's a terrible design and I would avoid any trailer with this construction.  My advice comes from rehabbing and flipping over 200 trailers in 18 years, so I'm well versed in their construction.  good luck

[Caveman_Charlie]

Last time I had a TT with a bad floor I just screwed 1/2 inch plywood down over the entire floor. Then I put floor tile I bought at Shopko on the top. The lip of the door on the TT was just the perfect height that it allowed me to do this.

[colliehauler]

I think most ultra-lights use that type of construction. My 2003 Gulfstream Streamlight had the bonded floors. The floors felt spongy from day one. I traded the camper after one trip.

My first and last ultra-light. Most regular trailers use plywood/MDF over wood floor joists.

[Mike_Up]

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?

NO. Get away from glued together fiberglass skinned laminated trailers and the problem will go away. The best way is to get a aluminum sided stick and tin trailer. They really are only a few hundred lbs heavier than a fiberglass skinned laminated trailer although those laminated trailers have tags as ultralight and the such. I can't say enough good things about the quality built Jayco Jay Flight series. Better built than many, has great features, and inexpensive.

Jay Flight Floors: Constructed on 5/8" tongue-and-groove plywood on 2" x 3" wooden floor joists and wrapped with a protective moisture barrier.

IMO, as you see, laminated floor/roof trailers are throw aways but they sure look purty.

[Gdetrailer]

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..

[david123]

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

[way2roll]

You may want to post your question in a new post rather than replying to a topic that's 11 years old. 

[gmw_photos]

My FunFinder (Cruiser RV ) trailer has 5/8" tongue-groove marine grade plywood as the floor. It is undercoated on the bottom surface before it is bolted down to the frame.

This trailer is marketed as a lightweight design, for whatever that is worth.

[westend]

Not all are composite panel like described. It is a very poor use of a material for the function of flooring.

[Leaf-Peeper]

From what I've seen, the majority of trailer manufacturers use a laminated floor construction (vinyl - luan - foam - luan - water barrier). Any trailer with "Light" "Ultralight" "Lite" or the likes in the name will most likely be built like this. The few trailer lines I know of the don't use a laminated floor are made by Northwood Manufacting and Outdoors RV.

[beemerphile1]

In my experience, most RV floors are OSB.

[FrankShore]

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?

Most floors are using closed cell and even open cell polystyrene (Styrofoam) but in addition to that, the mfgs are using marine grade plywood, not OSB (bad stuff for RV floors)