Vinyl floor over fiberglass floor?

[rdyn]

Hi all,

I am hoping to change up the floors on our 13' 1974 Boler. I don't know much about these things but it appears that the floor is the original fiberglass floor. I've included photos. I would like to put down a wood-like vinyl floor on top. However the green fiberglass floor extends up the sides of the boler and it seems is part of the fiberglass shell - so there is no taking that out

Any tips for putting in flooring over the fiberglass? Can the flooring go up to cover the green fiberglass that extends up the sides of the Boler?

Also accepting any tips for installation.

Thanks for your help! I haven't done any big mods on our trailer yet and this is all very new to me, so I apologize if this is a silly question.

Rebecca

[rbryan]

Yes, you can install vinyl up the sides as well as the floor. I'd make sure the fiberglass is squeaky clean, and use a releasable adhesive like Roberts R6280. It works as a permanent or releasable install, so if you ever wanted to remove the vinyl you could easily do so.

The radius looks really tight where the wall meets the floor, but you may be able to just run the floor piece up the wall without cutting it. A side benefit would be that spills couldn't get behind the vinyl without a seam.

[thrifty bill]

I saw a Boler were a person used a single piece of wood styled flooring that was just laid loose over the floor. It actually looked good and laid flat. Owner pulled it up to show me his work.

[EricAllyn]

There is also a snap vinyl at Home Depot and other stores, that snaps together in a way that it stays. that would give a wood type look, and be easily replaced sections if something happened.

[Gerry]

Here in Maine, the colder part of the USA, and we use to do winter camping, my wife got those 1/2 thick foam rubber mats that people use for work area fatigue mats and they interlock together. She cut them and just laid them on the floor. The insulate against the cold and if a spill occurred just take them up and after cleaning up, lay them back down.

[ststefan]

If you aare trying to make radius bends get thinner flooring. Try heating up the flooring before bending so it bends easier.

[meryone]

Trust me when I tell you, I did a lot of research before choosing and installing ours. You will love this. It is a floating click and lock type vinyl floor. Instead of actually snapping together it has the male and female sides that have an peel and stick only where they come together and not on the actual floor. I did mine in Pacific Pine. Because we have a Burro with curved fiberglass interior walls we then trimmed the floor out with tub and tile vinyl caulk and it looks great.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/TrafficM...17-0/202885484

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Magic-1-...3016/205188853

[rbryan]

Allure works great. I'm installing it in our Escape 19. But, the OP wanted a floor they could carry up the wall a bit, I'm assuming without a seam. Allure can't make that bend, plus, you'd have to adhere the Allure on the vertical parts rather than allowing it to float. I'm thinking sheet vinyl is a better application in this one case.

[daveandbonscott]

Ditto on Meryone's comments. I installed over fibreglass flooring and it was easy
You can cut the pieces to fit for the floor but I'm not sure about the baseboard effort up the sides. You also need a hand-sized roller (not cheap - $40 at Home Depot) but you can rent them. Be careful you cut the right end of the plank for size ( I learned the hard way!!) It turned out well - you leave maybe 1/4" space from the wall and then just nail in quarter round for baseboard.
Good luck and you have good advice from eveyone

Dave and "Berniece" - 17 ft '77 Boler

[meryone]

Just my 2 cents for Rikki. By the looks of your pics your walls look great and a faux wood floor would look great w/o coving up the wall. Good luck.

[Jon in AZ]

I'm wondering how you would "nail in" quarter round... Surely you wouldn't want to put a nail hole into a fiberglass-encapsulated floor, right?

I agree you can't bend the vinyl plank floors (of which there are two types: one that sticks together and one that clicks together). I'm thinking you should either leave the vertical sections exposed or attach separate strips with adhesive.

[Tom 72]

For the sidewalls, you may want to consider vinyl or rubber base like that commonly found in commercial buildings. Pretty easy to trim and install. Looks professional. Available in many colors.

[Phoneman]

My 1973 boler had some issues with the floor. The fiberglass floor seemed to be a little weak, so I wanted to clean it up and give it some more strength. I opted for a sheet of good 1/2 in. plywood. I used silicone around the edge of the plywood to seal out any spills, one more coat of paint will cover the screws. One sheet was just enough to do the main floor and the area under the table. We don't use the table anymore so the carpet is just there to help stop the storage boxes from sliding around. We painted the wood and fiberglass with good green floor paint, it seems to work ok. The other reason I stayed away vinyl flooring, is that up here in the north, it seems to shrink in our cold winters. We have a Jayco hybrid and the vinyl has pulled away from the sides and then in the warm weather, it will pucker up anywhere it was fastened down.*
If you do use vinyl, I would just paint the vertical part of the floor area and only use the vinyl the flat parts. The silver trim worked good and I used it at the door also, just screwed it through wood and fiberglass.
Good luck on your project.

[Phoneman]

I tried to post a picture, but I guess it didn't work. Maybe the file was too large.

[rbryan]

Originally Posted by Tom 72

For the sidewalls, you may want to consider vinyl or rubber base like that commonly found in commercial buildings. Pretty easy to trim and install. Looks professional. Available in many colors.

That sounds like a viable alternative. The vinyl plank floor can float, which would mean no issues as it expands/contracts due to temperature changes, and the vinyl/rubber trim piece would only have to adhere to the side walls, with it's bottom lip overlapping the floor.

[fofobraselio]

Originally Posted by rbryan

That sounds like a viable alternative. The vinyl plank floor can float, which would mean no issues as it expands/contracts due to temperature changes, and the vinyl/rubber trim piece would only have to adhere to the side walls, with it's bottom lip overlapping the floor.

Has anyone used / considered using a foam or other thin 'insulating' material between the fiberglass and the floating vinyl planks? If so, has this proved to add any benefit?

On the topic, I feel for the vertical baseboards, you could trim the vinyl planks to length, click them together and perhaps hold them down by sandwhiching them between a couple pieces of floor edging.

[Raspy]

Floating floors are commonly laid down over 1/8" polyethylene foam sheeting. This gives the flooring a soft bed to set on, but the insulating value is minimal.

The trouble with a floating floor over a fiberglass subfloor is that if you spill something it will get down under the floating floor and you can't clean it up. Imagine spilled milk spoiling under your floor, for instance.

Better to glue down a sheet floor or vinyl tiles that are sealed to the floor and can be mopped with no space under them.

Best of all might be cork tiles. They are a very good choice because they are non-skid, quiet to walk on, glue down very securely, very durable, look nice, conform to uneven subfloors and are warmer to the touch than hard flooring "boards". When glued down no spills can get under them. You don't need a base moulding to hold them down like you do a floating floor and they are thinner than a floating floor so you lose less head room. They can be varnished or left natural, but I think they come with a coating from the factory. I see them in old houses and they are fine after many years, and I've even seen them in commercial buildings.

[sclifrickson]

If I were redoing a floor like this, I’d use a waterproof variant of the click-together, wood-look, “luxury vinyl tile”, available everywhere that sells flooring; float it on the existing floor and then caulk quarter round trim in place (not nail or screw it), both to hold the floor in place and to waterproof the installation.

[k0wtz]

scot first of all how do you lay your flooring. I am thinking of redoing our kitchen in some of this stuff. I got some from Sams but its not holding up very thin vinal!


on your trip interesting I found the best barbecue at one of the casinos outside of Memphis in Mississippi tunica sound right? it started out as a corkys now its changed to something else but its still the same flavor. Can you believe a buffett of barbecue?

also I note you are from Arkansas. the worst highway in my life is located between carthage mo to branson. I took our 40f bus that way one time and I didn't think I would ever make it. 15m and hour curves and lots of them I have traveled all over the world and that road tops them all!

bob

[FRED SMAILES]

Hey Riki, we have a 74 boler as well. I really like the original floor in our trailer because it is so easy to care for so we just through area rug on it.
Once when changing up on the rugs we found this foam workout interlocking mat and installed it still in there after several years use, easy to remove for cleaning and light! Which is always a concern for me.
Pics at post 68 in the link below.
Good luck on whatever you choose!
Fred
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...r-55601-5.html