Flooring 101

Hello,
Hey look!!!! I have time to make a post!! I'm currently in the process of volunteering time at our local university to do research. We are currently researching the relationship between binge eating in impulsiveness in a sample of 12 Wistar rats. Pretty interesting so far. Anyways, you're not here to talk about rats.

I am finally making the long dreaded post about flooring an RV. As you saw in one of my past posts, the major task was taking the original flooring out. To start here are the tools you will need:

• Metal Spatula
• Tape Measure
• Flat Nose Pliers
• Philips and Flat Head
• Utility Knife
• Gloves
• Pry Bar

You'll also want:

• Precision Claw Bar

Apparently Home Depot discontinued selling the claw bars....I found this gave just enough leverage to get out even some of the toughest staples. And there are A LOT of staples!!!! I didn't get a picture of the 10 staples right on top of each other....it was ridiculous!

In a bit we'll go through the next supply list but this is a start....now pick a corner and begin pulling it up. It will take time, and some effort. I can tell you I got pissed off a few times! 

Some areas will have more staples than others, especially the slide-outs. What you'll need to do is get the pry bar as close to the pile of staples as you can and use the leverage from the bar to push the carpet up. The linoleum is much easier. Gloves are nice because you'll find rusted staples and the flooring in general is pretty icky so both safety and sanitary.

Another one of the most difficult sections to remove was the carpeting off the stairs. They had secured it in place extremely well, with the intent it wasn't going to be removed, obviously, and because it's an extremely high traffic area. 

Because the RV is built in one piece, you'll find areas in which the flooring is actually stuck under walls. You can use your utility blade to cut around it and cut it right up to the wall. Actually works pretty darn well. 

Now comes the tedious part....before you can move on, every single staple needs to be out of the floor. This is where the precision claw comes in handy. At the clawed end, shown in the above picture you can take one of the prongs, place it through the staple and leverage the staple out of the floor. At times the staples may snap and you end up with a little point sticking out, this is when you use the flat nose pliers to pull the single end out. You'll start to feel like you're close to done....run your hand along the top of the floor and I will guarantee you will find more....just a reminder, every single staple has to be out otherwise you will cause damage to your new floor. 

Once all the flooring has been removed, and the staples plucked, you can move onto filling. Here is what you will need :

• Plastic Wood (I recommend the larger size as you tend to go through more than you realize). 
•  Sand Paper, 150 Grit, 220 Grit

You will want to look over the floor and find areas that are uneven, contain holes, or have screws that leave sunk in areas in the flooring. When you find one, sand any rough edges, take your metal spatula and get a chunk of the plastic wood.

Then fill the hole, crack, or uneven surface by spreading it across the top....It should fill the hole completely. 

As you can see, as you spread it across it fills the screw hole (oh come on now lets keep it appropriate). Do this for all of the major imperfections and allow it to dry for several hours...I used a space heater to assist in this process. 

Once it's dry you'll sand it with the thick grit to get the rough surfaces smoothed, then final sand it with the fine grit sand paper....You may do this for many areas within the RV, including separation in plywood, 

or to cover seems created when filling floor spaces that will not be solid.

We got rid of the table right in the living room. You can see the metal supports in the living room floor in the top left picture. Eric cut the wholes to squares, then reinforced underneath the area with several smaller pieces under the floor as you can see in the picture to the left. There is a piece screwed into the floor that will provide additional support. Then finally we put in a top piece to make it level with the rest of the floor. In the top right picture, you can see that we filled it with Plastic Wood and allowed it to dry....this let it blend in with the rest of the floor. 

You'll likely go through the RV at once filling the holes, then the following day sanding and filling any additional holes you notice. Keep this stuff handy, as you place the floor you'll find new uneven areas, cracks, and screws that will need to be covered; you will also continue to find staples that will require removal. But we'll talk about that in the next post. 

Anyways, feel free to ask me questions, this is not as extensive a post as I had hoped. I missed out on some important pictures but all well.

For now,
Happy Camping!