Hi everyone! I'm thinking of putting down a wood laminate floor in the camper instead of a piece of carpet. Seems like size wise it's a lot easier to wipe up after a rainy weekend than try to vacumn it when we get home. Any one have wood flooring in their 13'? How difficult was it? Any suggestions or pics would be appreciated!! Thanks !

I put in a vinyl floor to make clear up easier. I can mop the floor with a wash cloth in about 30 seconds. I can sweep it from outside the door with a hand held duster that I keep next to the front cushion. I camp in areas with alot of sand and I want to keep it easy to clean. I also use my camper for winter camping and the carpet would be frozen solid and would not dry as quickly as the vinyl. The vinyl floor gets very slipper when wet though.

I have vinyl - so easy to clean up (especially with 2 large dogs that refuse to wipe their feet before getting in the trailer).

It is a little cold on bare feet, and the dogs sometimes slide on it. But with the scratches they put in my wood floors at home, I'm still glad I have the vinyl.

I have a piece of heavy-duty commercial carpet, over which I put a couple cotton rag-rugs. I like to use the Boler in winter, and the floor is definetely the coldest part of the trailer. The carpet at least affords a bit of insulation. It is easy to pull out, give a shake and beat with a broom, and small enough to vacuum in a jiffy. The rag-rugs collect most of the filth, and they go right in the washing machine. I do travel with dogs, and they prefer the comfort of carpeting as well, I imagine. I will concede that the wood and vinyl floors are more attractive, but for all around comfort, I go with carpeting. As I mentioned in a previous post, I hope to eventually equip the Boler with a radiant heat system. I will pull out the carpet and apply vinyl tile if I can pull it off! Cheers, Alec

I used a cheap snap together laminate over the fiberglass floor in our 13' Boler....seems to be OK....still haven`t finished off the base boards to close off the gap around the perimeter....caulked the gap, just so that the laminate wouldn`t slide around during travel....easy to clean and is very durable....not too good if water gets on it and isn`t wiped up immediately....if this happens it`ll tend to swell at the joints.....the laminate was very cheap...about 10 bucks.....it was discontinued and was being cleared out.. ...You can see it on our web shots site....Benny

We bought a 6x10 remnant of a good quality carpet for about $20.00. Cut it to fit over the fiberglass floor and the only fastening is the metal strip at the door edge. This means no tripping on a loose edge. It's easy to clean and soooo warm and comfortable to step on on a cold morning.. The remainder we cut to fit in the lower storage areas. It does seem to insulate somewhat and I like to think it takes some of the bounce out when travelling. I do know that stored items don't seem to move about as much when on the road.
Jim

I have faux maple laminant from Sam's Club. Love it.
Tom Trostel

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?...&p=70829465

Go for the Laminate!! Easy to keep clean.. carpet gets to dirty and smelly after awhile...

I have carpet and as soon as I finally decide what "smooth" surface I want..that stuff is going to get yanked out! When I go camping, every blade of grass, twig, dirt and mud seems to find its way to the carpet. I want to be able to clean it quickly with a damp cloth. Besides my daughter always seems to drop her P&B sandwich...P&B side down on the carpet

As far as hard surfaces being cold...that's why I bring slippers. When I get up in the middle of the night, slip them..good to go. The carpet is sooo yucky after a couple of days, I wouldn't want to walk around on it barefoot. I suppose I could always drag a vacuum cleaner along....nah

I installed laminate in my 17ft Boler.I really like it.Easy to clean and looks good.

I have Pergo in my house.... areas in the kitchen are swelling at the seams, as it is IMPOSSIBLE not to get some water on the floor. Plus, the stuff is fairly heavy. I personally would advocate vinyl... with some throw rugs that you can shake out or throw away. JMHO

Or... maybe some real wood *bamboo* stuff that they sell at Costco. Sure wish I'd have gone with that instead of the Pergo!

We have snap together laminate in our 13' Boler.

The good -- easy to keep clean, looks nice.

The bad -- gets pretty cold when its cold outside. We have a couple of throw rugs to walk on then, but they slip around a lot. As mentioned, it will swell at the joints if it gets wet.

A new project -- when I get back from our current trip, I'll pull up the floor and install electric radiant heating underneath. This can work under a laminate floor with a cheap switch or a more expensive thermostat.

I hadn't really noticed that we can have 80 degrees day temp and 30 at night. A really quiet heater would be nice!

I forgot to say .... if your rugs slip on the laminate floor put those rubber waffle rug holders under the throw rugs.. that helps alot.... Walmart has them.

The Fiber Stream has carpet on the floor... which was installed before the walls and cabinetry were put in. The manufacturer did not have to cut and fit it that way, but I'll have to remove most of the interior to get it out. Has anyone added insulation below the floor? I too would rather have a colorful vinyl that can be spilled upon.

We ripped out the lovely original gold shag carpet from our 82 Scamp & installed carpet tiles. Even though it may be a little more trouble to clean, I really prefer carpet under my feet. When we're camping, I just sweep it every day and vacuum when we get home. The best part is that we have extra tiles if one gets stained or damaged.
Sandra

I have just torn out our shag as well, and was all set to put in laminate. Then I was told that moisture was not laminate's best friend. The flooring expert at Home Depot suggested that I check out an oak plank tile called trafficmaster which comes in a 36" by 4" tile. It comes in hickory or light oak color and is so easy to work with. I am not a gifted handyman by any stretch of imagination but I found the installation was very easy. You cut it with a utility knife and a straightedge. I will post pictures of the finished results as soon as i unpack the rig in the coming weeks.

Apparently if you use a laminate in a kitchen, you should glue it together with a wood glue and this seals the floor .......it isn`t supposed to swell like an unglued one....usually it takes a fair amount of water to swell the unglued ones anyway......damp mop usually doesn`t affect it at all......worst thing are leaking dishwashers that leak under the floor and attack it from underneath and you don`t notice the leak until it`s too late....something like a stickie trailer, LOL.......Benny

I put laminate in the boler last year because it was cheap. Laminate stores always have specials on and you can pick it up for a song. I would'nt recommend it in a trailer. If you get it wet you have to immediately wipe it up. We were able to keep everything under control over the summer. BUT. After leaving the boler sit over the winter i decided to check in on the old boler and to my surprise the whole floor swelled from winter condensation. It seems to be fine now though. After this summer i may rip it out and put in vinyl. Too much hassle to try and keep it perfect. Summer camping is supposed to be about relaxing and not worrying about your floor swelling up.

We bought our Scamp used and were delighted to find out that the original owner went with vinyl instead of carpet.

We bought some by-the-foot carpet runner from Home Depot and put it down between the gaucho and the dinette. It was inexpensive and feels nice and warm underfoot. As an added plus, we can just roll it up and store it away if we prefer the coolness of vinyl during the hot summer months.

--Lynne

In Phoenix if you spill on your laminate floor, no problem. By the time you bend down to wipe it up it's evaporated.

I'm going with Cherry laminate as soon as I can find some that is being discounted.

We have carpeting for the following reasons: Warm to step on with bare feet. Cut and bound so that it can be yanked out or the floor underneath inspected in a matter of seconds. Can be used as a pattern and new carpet installed cheaply and easily (learned how to bind it).

Considered other flooring, but the following convinced me: we had a problem with water getting into the interior through refrigerator and heater vents. After exhaustive and difficult efforts at tracing the leaks down they were finally fixed, but when it was leaking it would come in underneath the carpeting and stay without us knowing about it. I reasoned that ANY flooring would have to be easily and quickly inspected so that no moisture could be trapped and lead to rot, mold, and mildew. By cutting the carpet at one strategic place (and underneath another section used as a throw rug to hide the seam) I can lift the thing for inspection in a second.

One extra piece is a large one on top inside the door, held in place with the threshhold. All we do is lift it up and shake it out the door while still attached, letting it fall back in place. We also have a 12v vacuum installed under the kitchen sink area. All we do is drag out a length of hose, stick it in the wall, turn the switch, and vacuum the carpeting.

Robert,

I used a utilitiy knife and cut my carpet off at the cabinets, then installed my vinyl floor. The carpet that wasn't exposed is actually in good condition and I really like having it in there. Unless you've had a leak and the carpet inside is rotten or smells, there's no reason not to leave it. I use throw rugs on top of the vinyl. Actually, I installed new carpet on the raised (non-walking areas) and vinyl on the traffic areas. I haven't regretted it one bit.

vinyl The best deal going.

good old peal and stick tiles with new aluminum molding to match. I get the most compliments on my floor out of the entire trailer.

What i see here is that there are pros and cons to different types of flooring.I think the solution is to go with what you consider to be the BEST FOR YOU.Each of us all have differnt ideas and different needs to suit ourselfs.Good luck in your choice.

Since my Boler 1700 was a total gut and floor replacement I used the Rustoleum Tintable Epoxy Basement floor coating. Because I had significant water damage that had leaked under the vinyl flooring and rotted the floor, I wanted to make sure the plywood was sealed tight. After glassing the edges of the new Plywood to the shell I flared it out and skim coated the floor with leveling compound mixed specifically for application over wood. Then mixed up the 2-part water based epoxy and rolled on a really heavy coat with a 1" nap roller and sprinkked the the color chips. I used the whole bag of chips so the floor has almost a terrrazo effect. It came out better than I expected and the floor is pretty much bullet proof now. The dogs haven't made a dent in it. I was originally shooting for a waterproof coating that I would eventually put some other flooring over but I will probably keep it for a while now.

Rob, That's EXACTLY what I want I so badly want some color in my trailer and I've seen websites that sell the chips in many, many different colors

What problems did you run into? Would you do it again? Is the floor now, hard to maintain?

oooooh, it's exciting to know someone has already done this

Hey Donna,

There really were no big problems. As I mentioned previously, since the garage floor paints are specifically designed for concrete. Concrete in a trailer you say??? Well most floor leveling compounds are Portland cement based. I used the 10 lb. box of Henry 547 Universal Patch and Skimcoat. Instead of water use the 546 FeatherEdge Additive this makes the mix more flexible and provides better adhesion to flexible surfaces like wood, vinyl, etc. I then started in the back corner and laid down about a 1/8-1/4" layer with a finishing trowel. I let it dry for about a week and then went in with a disk sander to knock off any edges I missed when toweling. Vacuum clean and then mix up the Epoxy according to the instructions. You will only need to mix half of the batch so you might want to convince someone else to do their trailer as well and split the cost. Roll out about a 3' x 3' area and throw on the chips then move on. The key is to keep a wet edge and really lay on the epoxy thick. The vinyl chips sink into the surface of the epoxy but if you are too thin they won't bond well. Once the whole thing cured for a week I went over the whole floor with a 6" putty knife to knock off any edges and loose chips. I then put down three coats of semi-gloss water based polyurethane. This really sealed the chips in and gave the floor a soother feel under foot.

Would I do it again? Sure it worked out really well and I am now in the process of prepping my basement for the same treatment.

Maintenance is no different than a poly'ed wood floor. Damp mop and you're done.

Things to remember:

Before skimcoating make sure the floor is free of loose material, soaps, waxes, etc.

When skimcoating, make small batches. You start with pudding and lay it down but your real smoothing comes when it starts setting up and if it’s setting on the floor, its setting in your bucket. Also if you get too far ahead of yourself then you have to get into the wet material to smooth the back.

Take your time when smoothing and blending edges. You can sand it smooth but it is a lot of work and it’s much easier to smooth it when it’s wet.

When you do the epoxy, make sure the trailer floor is level. I put a four foot level on the floor inside. This will ensure that the epoxy doesn't run.

When putting the chips down its kind of a sidearm broadcast throw I concentrated on the major traffic areas and put less down in areas that would be hidden by cabinets.

Regrets, My only regret is that they didn't have the tintable base epoxy kit when I did mine. Because all of the cabinets are wood toned I put the grey down which came with blue and white chips. It looks nice but in an ideal world it would have been nice to have some choices. If you go to the Rustoleum website you can see the 20 different tints.

That's about it. This is not the cheapest solution out there but it was what I wanted for my trailer. And for those of you concerned with weight, the leveling compound and epoxy combined is about half of what the same square footage in vinyl flooring weighs.

Good luck.

Rob

Thanks for the info Rob. I don't want to trash someone else's topic, so I'm sending you a PM.

We are going to put laminate flooring in our trailer after putting insulation down before we lay the laminate. I always keep an eye out at our local Restore from Habitat For Humanity. I purchased the flooring for $20 and it will do the floor and the area under out table in our 13' Boler. Not a big selection in color though lol but we ended up with the light unstained maple flooring.

We have vinyl flooring in ours (did the same in the Boler and PlayPac). Too many places we go to have lots of sand. We're sweeping the floors out once a day as it is. With carpet it'd be a bigger hassle.

I DID however add a carpet runner that goes down the aisle. Nice on your bare toes in the morning AND you can pull it out of the trailer to shake off crud easily.

Mike

We are currently negotiating the purchase of Boler but do have a 34' Motorhome with Laminate flooring. We love it and in 6 years have had no moisture problems even in BC winters.We do put a container of dryer in it in the winter (I believe it's silica ). We use a couple of small area rugs but even small stones in the tread of your running shoe don't mark it. We do wear slippers most of the time. It is sooo easy to clean.
Would definately do it again.

A few months ago I put a bamboo rug OVER the carpeting in my Scamp 16. The carpet was essentially new and I figured I could always go back if I did not like it. I found the 5x8 rug at the Sam's Club for approximately $30; only took about an hour to install. Doesn't alter the headroom much as it's only about 1/8th of an inch thick and it is only weighs 6-8 pounds. Cuts easily to fit with tin snips; so cleanly that you do not need to add trim. Sweeps/wipes and can be removed easily. We love it! So much, in fact, that I bought another for my Casita16 that I intend to rebuild at some point. Michael

Michael,

The bamboo rug is very attractive. How are the strips fastened together?

Vivian

Hello Vivian,

The strips are glued to a heavy backing material and the edges are bound with nylon tape. Cut carefully the rug can be installed as one piece as shown. Once installed it can be easily removed by rolling it from the door end.

Michael

After reading this post I am concluding that most people do not know how to lay laminate properly. I have had it in my 17 Boler for 4 years in Calgary with winter temps down to -30C on occasion with no problem. No swelling, buckling etc.

The secret is quite simple. Lay it like you were doing on a concrete basement floor in your house. First lay a vapor barrier. I use two layers of 15 lb. roofing(tarred) felt overlapped by 50% between layers. Then lay the laminate. I would suggest that if you are searching for the cheapest laminate then that is what you will get! It is made of cheap materials, with a cheap top laminate, with inferior locking structure, etc. Leave 1/4 inch at edges for movement and expansion. I also prefer the glue together laminates because the glue provides a water tight seal between the grooves. I suggest that if you get the click, lock together you also glue the seams as well. Water on the floor is only a problem when it seeps down into the seam and gets under the top coat of laminate. I have had spills, dog mishaps, etc. I try to wipe it up immediately but that has not always happened. I still do not have any swelling.

I have abreviated how to install so if any one wants a more in depth description let me know.

I havent heard anyone mention this yet so maybe it's not a good idea, but i plan on installing cork floor tiles. The theory is that it will be light, smooth, and insulating. If anyone has tried this and had trouble please let me know before it's too late.

I did THIS to mine last week.

I am liking it REAL well so far!

In my 13 I did the vinyl "plank" flooring mentioned earlier in this thread. It worked well too, but was cold.

This new stuff I got is warm to step on in the morning.