Taking out old floor! Any tips? - Beachcomber

[Lisa_Pizza]

Hi All,

I'm taking out the old floor for my Beachcomber because it is rotted through and mouldy. But, the problem is these guys have the wood fiberglassed onto the fibreglass bottom!



Does anyone have any tips to take out the wood? I am currently using a crowbar and hammer. Then just whacking and pulling pieces off.

[Kenny Strong]

Lisa if you took a circular saw, set the blade to not go thru the plywood cut lines 6 inches apart in both directions it will allow you to break out smaller pieces.
does the whole floor have to come out ?
If the rotten areas are cut out, a new piece could be put in its place and glued back down to the shell with fiberglass resin; glass over the joint new to old.
Does your prybar damage the shell you are prying against ?
you could use a small piece of plywood under your crowbar to pry against (to spread out the pressure point)

Later Kenny

[Lisa_Pizza]

Hey Kenny, thanks for your response yes I did end up doing that and it worked (yay). I reefed on the last floorboard hard and some of the fibreglass on the ground cracked but I will likely be sanding down this whole floor and reinforcing many parts of it because there are cracks.

There were spaces for 1x2wood beams along the floor but they were under a thin layer of fibreglass which also had to be pulled up. Luckily the word and the fibreglass were silicone together instead of fibreglass, which made it slightly easier to take up.

I didn't take many pics of the process because I was working in the dark most days (dark at 5PM in Canada!). But essentially using that skill saw to cut a "matrix" along the ground then the crowbar and hammering it to pry up the floorboard worked.



I also found a hidden bonus crack in the floorboard! At night I used my work light to shine from the bottom and all the thinner fibreglass and cracks show through, which is a great way to detect some sneaky cracks!

[robeye]

Good job.. I use a reciprocating saw with a flush blade when doing this.. and I've done a few.. It's nice to see that a Beachcomber has the fiberglass under the floor. I looking for a new trailer to restore. I can fit these in my garage so daylight is not an issue. Keep asking questions, folks on here are helpful. And some of us live may even live close to you..

[David Tilston]

That worked well!