16’ Scamp Floor Replacement

[J.Har]

We’re looking to have someone replace the carpet in our 1990 16 ft Scamp with a light fake wood flooring.

1. Does anyone have a general guess at the price?
2. We’re in Denver and would rather pay someone to do it. Any reccos from Colorado folks?

Thanks for any help!

[thrifty bill]

Assuming the subfloor is OK, I’d just post on a local Denver FB group. I’d give a wide range: $250 to $1000. The problem is finding someone to do a small job.

If the subfloor is good, I prefer one of those waterproof click together floating wood look vinyl floors. You are talking approx $100 in supplies. To save even more, I see it at nearby Habitat stores all the time. Depending on their pricing you could save about half.

Anytime I have a small job to do, I just go to our local FB group and ask. It’s really hard to find people to do jobs right now.

[redbarron55]

You can forget the "sub floor" being OK.
The light fake wood covering is hiding the rot.
You can put some weight with your foot around the floor, feeling for the soft spots.
As to replacing the flooring, that is the easy part of the job.
You can also look from underneath for patches and rotten spots. The original floor is over 30 years old and in that time a window or vent has leaked (most likely) and since it stayed and was not dried up promptly it soaked into the OSB floor and swelled the wood and started the rot.
To help the rot the BOTTOM of the floor was sprayed with polyester resin and the top was left unsealed.

[Mike_L]

As previously mentioned, you should start from underneath and make sure the frame and supports are in good shape. Next, why is the floor soft? Has it deteriorated or is it soft from years of flexing under weight and from travel. Rotted materials should be replaced. Otherwise you may be able to overlay it with new plywood. A minimum thickness would be 1/2 inch but 5/8 would be stronger.
Use a large sheet of cardboard and masking tape to make a template of your floor area to be covered. The template can be made from several pieces and taped together. When finished, the template should fit exactly, otherwise adjust until it does.
Use the template to mark your plywood. If you are using more than one piece of plywood, avoid seams in high traffic areas when possible. Glue/screw plywood in place, paying particular attention to seams.
Laminate flooring is easy to use and very durable but it is also heavy, cold to walk on and not suitable for use on floors that aren't solid. If not properly supported the laminate may flex under pressure which will weaken joints and over time cause them to come apart/leak. Some moisture resistant designs are available but any standing water can be a problem as only the factory edges are water resistant. Any boards trimmed for installation will have unfinished edges which may soak water.
A more viable (and easier installation) option would be to use your template to cut a single piece of linoleum. Apply adhesive to your new plywood floor and lay the linoleum. No seams, completely waterproof, easy to clean and very durable. Don't forget to seal the perimeter.

[Jon in AZ]

The OP said nothing about a soft subfloor. It’s not uncommon in trailers of that age, though, and it would certainly be worth investigating before replacing the finish flooring. .

If the subfloor is sound, replacing the carpet with vinyl is pretty straightforward. A general handyman should be able to handle it.

[J.Har]

OP here – thanks for all the replies! No problem with the sub floor from what I can tell by looking underneath and don't feel any soft spots. But I suppose we'll know more once the carpet comes up.

Really just want something easier to clean with 2 kids and a dog that carpet gets dirty really quickly. Thought maybe there were companies that show up and do the swap out quickly, but sounds like it's easy enough that a general contractor can handle.

And thanks for the advice on weight–we tow with a Subaru Outback so I for sure don't want to add much weight!

[redbarron55]

If you remove everything to get to the whole floor (which is not necessary for just removing the carpet and relaying some flooring) then when the floor is exposed I would coat it with an epoxy resin water proofing coating.
In my case I replaced the entire floor due to rot and made new 3/4" exterior plywood pieces to fit (along with a lot of other mods) I covered each piece top, bottom and sides with fiberglass woven fabric and epoxy resin. These were then glassed in to the shell to form a waterproof floor that would not let water get to the wood to rot it out.
I know it is water tight as I had not yet resealed the windows and had a small lake in the back after a hard rain. I soaked that up with a sponge, happy I had sealed everything.

[dora D]

In my 2000 Scamp I had sheet vinyl installed from the factory. Back then I was told I was the first person to ask for it since they only installed the carpet. So consequently it was a cheaper grade so it really showed it’s age after 15 years of use.

I installed a floating vinyl plank flooring right on top of the existing vinyl which cushioned the new flooring as well as not having to remove the existing glued down stuff. However in order to do it right and have it look decent I removed the dinette seats as well as the metal molding that covered the seams at the edge of the rising platform on the front edge of the table. Removing the bench seats is easy. Cut through the caulking on the sides and remove a few screws. This way you can also insulate the water supply lines from causing condensation problems between the water tank and the sink base using those foam insulation tubes.

I installed the planks perpendicular to the seat benches on the platform and carried that same orientation forward onto the rest of the floor. The ends of the planks fall underneath the front edge of the bench’s this way. However since this is a floating floor I drilled out a small circle of vinyl around the screws that hold the bench in place. This allows for any slight movements from expansion and contraction to occur. As long as the suns not beating on the surface you won’t see much of that anyway. I then glued some matching quarter round moulding along the base of the cabinets in the walkway to cover the slight gap left for expansion and prevent dirt from getting in.