Flooring

[Jerri-Lynne C]

Hi All,

Sorry if this is covered somewhere else, I did have a look around, but i'm new (go easy on me!).

Last night I picked up a little 76 Boler for my son and I to take on a cross Canada move. I have about a month and a half before we have to leave, and I want to do some improvements, albeit mostly the interior cosmetic stuff and some functional fixes before we leave. We'll see if I'm overly ambitious as usual!

Anyway, my question is this - I would like to put flooring into this boler - I see that many people are doing laminate - I'm thinking about cork that goes in like laminate (so I guess first question - does anybody have any experience with or comments on this?).

The main question is that the floor is currently the fiberglass shell, so I'm assuming that there is some sort of a sub-floor required? I saw one thread where the owner had done a sub-sub floor on the trailer frame (amazing job, btw!), but I'm talking about a sub-floor over the fiberglass on the inside. Do I put in some kind of shim and if so what are people using? What thickness? and it seems like people are suggesting MDF (thickeness?)? Is there anything I should know?

Thanks for all input!

[GuyNicoletti]

Last year I put in leftover laminate flooring in my '78 13ft Trillium and it has woorked out great. Looks good and is easy to clean and sweep out. Laminate flooring installed in your home "floats" (is not glued or nailed down) and requires an underpad. Since I already had a carpet glued to the fibreglass floor, I used that instead (after cleaning it, of course). It was in pretty good shape because it was always covered with a vinyl floor, which was preferable to me than the carpeting. I'm no expert, but I'd think that the underpad you buy with the laminate would suffice on top of the fibreglass. Anybody else out there agree with me?

Guy

[Robin G]

Jerri Lynne, Sorry I can't help with your flooring question. But wanted to say, Welcome aboard and Congrats on your new trailer! Someone will be along to help with your floor question. Robin

[Lizbeth]

My Boler has a finished solid white fiberglass floor. I put bamboo flooring from Ikea right over it with no padding. That was a couple years ago and so far so good!

Congratulations on your new trailer!

[Michelle A]

I just put cushion-backed linoleum that looks like cork in my 75 Boler today. It was super easy, and looks really nice. I know that a lot of folks on this forum have done laminate flooring. I hear that laminate doesn't cope well with moisture... hence the lino. Just a thought.

[kevin61]

I tried laminate but found that it warped when I spilled liquids on it. Perhaps mine was a cheap brand.

My Boler does have the pebbled fibreglass floor so I decided to paint it instead. For warmth I put down a small mat.

[james kent]

Hello and Welcome
Home Depot carries a product called Allure and it's made for laundry rooms and concrete areas. I just finished laying a new floating floor in our second bathroom. We used a tile pattern but it comes in wood-look as well. It cuts with a utility knife and is fully waterproof. There's 24 sq feet in a box, so one might do your trailer.
Jim

[Jerri-Lynne C]

Thanks Guy,

This is really helpful - and I even have installed laminate in a home, so hopefully it will similar in the camper. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me to just place it right on the padding over the fiberglass . Maybe I should paint though, before installing. The glass is a fantastic bright yellow colour which is great... only I'm not crazy about yellow!

Do you happen to know anything about the countertops? How Are people doing these? As far as I can tell, my entire kitchen counter is a solid fiberglass unit - including the top. Are people just putting the laminate right over it?

[Jerri-Lynne C]

Thanks Robin! I'm VERY excited, have wanted one for about 15 years!! I just hope I have time to do some of the really interesting stuff before I have to head out on our *long* road trip!

[Jerri-Lynne C]

Thanks Lizbeth,

Bamboo is a great idea - I was a bit worried about the cork not being durable enough. But the bamboo is sustainable *and* works like the laminate. No trouble with moisture yet?

[Jerri-Lynne C]

It is a good point and something I'm going to have to think through for sure...

thx for the input!

[Jerri-Lynne C]

Thanks Kevin - it is definitely a concern I have had - and I have a 9 year old boy - so if something can be destroyed, he will do it! The previous owners had done the carpet over the fiberglass... I had hoped for something that looked a bit more like 'home"

[Jerri-Lynne C]

Thanks Jim,

I will definitely head to home depot and check it out before I go ahead with the project. I guess that will be in the next couple of weeks after I have gotten through the painting (no idea how long to expect that to take.. I'm still trying to figure out how to take out the cabinets, etc.

[james kent]

Yikes!
I would have to do some major cutting to remove any cabinetry in our 84. It is all glassed in place. Maybe just mask everything off that you don't want painted.

[Don N]

Jerri-Lynne, love the fact that you are using a Boler for your move across country. Where are you moving to? That Allure product from Home Depot is excellent to work with. We also did a bathroom floor in it and now will be doing our entrance way into the house with this product. We really like it and the are a lot of different variations they have available. Good luck with the move.

[Jerri-Lynne C]

Haha - thanks! I gave my son a choice between going to Europe for three weeks or driving across country - and he chose the latter. I probably would have preferred the former, but this seems like a really cool adventure too - and we will have the boler for future adventures once we get there .

We're moving to London (Ontario) so that I can attend Western and do my Masters! I might head up to Home Depot in the next couple of days and look into that (I'm supposed to be finishing up some research this weekend first).

[Gord Plowright]

Thanks Guy,

This is really helpful - and I even have installed laminate in a home, so hopefully it will similar in the camper. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me to just place it right on the padding over the fiberglass . Maybe I should paint though, before installing. The glass is a fantastic bright yellow colour which is great... only I'm not crazy about yellow!

Do you happen to know anything about the countertops? How Are people doing these? As far as I can tell, my entire kitchen counter is a solid fiberglass unit - including the top. Are people just putting the laminate right over it?

Hi There;
I installed the "Allure" "Bamboo plank flooring" in my 17' Boler last July!. I am really unhappy with results almost a year later,almost every joint has opened and filled with sand and dirt ruining the contact glue strip making the problem even worse.After further research I have since found Resilient type flooring (Allure is one) is not recomended for dirty and dusty environ's nor anywhere with a temperature swing over 25 C. also not to be installed on unheated floors. ( so a trailer is 0 for 3) I live in Chilliwack B.C. January low was -25 C and summer high will be high 30 C ,guess that explains the major problems along with the other two.I will be removing the "Allure Flooring" and going back to sheet vinyl flooring,no joints no problem's I'm thinking!
Hope This Helps : Gord

[GuyNicoletti]

Sorry Jerry-Lynne---I don’t know anything about covering fibreglass countertops. Mine is stock, but we did build an oversize cutting board that more than covers the sink, with wood strips underneath to hold it in place (on the sink) while travelling. This can easily be lifted and used elsewhere for food prep (on our Canadian Tire camping kitchen, for example).

Welcome to London and Southwestern Ontario. Hope your time at UWO is fruitful.

Guy

[Loren G. Hedahl]

Hi There;
I installed the "Allure" "Bamboo plank flooring" in my 17' Boler last July!. I am really unhappy with results almost a year later,almost every joint has opened and filled with sand and dirt ruining the contact glue strip making the problem even worse.After further research I have since found Resilient type flooring (Allure is one) is not recomended for dirty and dusty environ's nor anywhere with a temperature swing over 25 C. also not to be installed on unheated floors. ( so a trailer is 0 for 3) I live in Chilliwack B.C. January low was -25 C and summer high will be high 30 C ,guess that explains the major problems along with the other two.I will be removing the "Allure Flooring" and going back to sheet vinyl flooring,no joints no problem's I'm thinking!
Hope This Helps : Gord

I saw your post last night, too late to check the floor in my Scamp. I also installed "Allure" plank flooring, Oak rather than Bamboo, last summer about the same time as you did yours. We are only about a hundred miles south of Chilliwack, so our weather wouldn't be much different.

So this morning I did a fairly thorough inspection as soon as it was light enough. So far it all looks OK. One thing I didn't do was to nail down the edges. I just made mouldings of hardwood to cover the edges. These I cut for a tight fit and glued with PL polyurethane construction cement. This allows for some expansion and contraction differences between the plywood floor and the "Allure" flooring.

Also a few days after a winter storm, I noticed a puddle of water in the middle of the floor. I was glad that I hadn't used a wood product.

Our use of the Scamp since the flooring installation last summer was a couple of short fall outings, then a two month winter trip to southern California to visit a son, a long swing up to Missouri to visit a daughter (much of that leg on ice and snow) then a month on the beach in Texas before swinging back to the west coast and home. So the temperature swings our Scamp saw were from approx. 90 deg F to around zero deg F all within a few days enroute. I also can't believe anyone would consider us compulsive house keepers, especially when traveling so our trailer would see as much sand and grit as anyone's.

One thing that does concern me is the thickness of the vinyl coloration. I was considering coating it with a floor polyurethane, but wondering what prep work should be done to for good adherence. I tried sanding a piece of scrap and I must say there isn't much thickness until you sand through to a white underlayment. On a floor, once that happens it would be very visible and look awful. So I may still try a poly coating.

Sorry about your experience with "Allure". Its going to be warm this afternoon, so I think I'll take a small block of wood and a hammer and pound along all the seams.

[Jerri-Lynne C]

Thanks Gord,

Temp. fluctuation is something I hadn't considered... I wonder what other people are finding with their Canadian bolers...anybody?