Repairing a rotten RV floor and LifeProofing the whole thing! (Part 1)
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- When a outer wall repair fails on an RV, water can get inside and will ultimately rot out the subfloor. That's exactly what happened to this Thor Summit camper after a deer ran smack dab into the side of it on the highway. The dealership installed patch panels to repair the damage, but over time the sealant they used cracked and separated which allowed water into the wall. I'm pretty sure that if the boss can step inside and his foot goes right through the floor, it's time to figure out where the problem is and get it fixed!
In part 1, I'll remove the rotten wood, get a patch panel cut and installed, and then begin the process of installing LifeProof vinyl flooring from Home Depot in the entire camper. Part 2 will be coming soon.
Thanks for watching!
You have helped this disabled single Mama more than you know. Thank you so very much 🙏
I'm so happy that the video was helpful for you! The struggle is real, I have have nothing but respect for all women like you who are trying their best to make everything work as a single parent. Glad I was able to make one aspect of your life a little easier!
I appreciate you taking the time to share the project with us.
Almost exactly what I'm dealing with but with a truck camper bed area. So helpful! What I thought was condensation has been water leaking in under the top layer. On the bright side, my mom thinks I'm a bad a$$, I'm feeling overwhelmed as this is my half ripped up home.
This is SO helpful!! I just bought a camper and the first thing I want to do is fix the floor and get rid of the dingey carpet! You gave so many really great tips
Man don't procrastinate because I went to my brothers for a week and a wicked rain hit back in March. Blew out one of the sky-ports & soaked all my cabinets, the floors & the ceiling panels!!! Also destroyed a roof that only had 1 hole now is like touching paper like potato-chip strength ha ha ha
Good luck
My brother s camper had water damage what we did was remove the bottom out side panel and cut the floor out and then we slid the plywood under it and screwed the wood framing back to it. And sealed the out side of the wall and it never had a problem with it. The corner molding on the out side we replaced it with 1/8 by 2”x2” angled aluminum and sealed we did not use the old one because it need to be seal every year but the new corner piece worked great and no more leaks.
This just happened to me and the disappointment and the panic was real. Thanks for this video!
You got the whole Bob Villa voice and personality going on there. But like Norm, you do the work lol
Just inherited an old 2006 Pull RV camper from purchasing some property in alabama. The owner threw it in. Discovered some rotten wood flooring in the back two corners. My assumption is someone left the windows open at some point and came back to the wet flooring. So far, I have only taken out the fold down couch and side tables. It hasn't discouraged me though, especially after seeing this video. Thank you for taking the time to talk through the things you came across. The glued in side tables were a surprise. So I probably won't try to remove the bed area as well and just floor around it. My concern is the water damage looks like it went under the kitchen cabinet section. That is my next task. Trying to decide how to determine if it is rotten there without removing it all. If I can that is....
Water damage is always a tough battle to win. The best thing to do is pull the entire camper off the frame, but very few of us have the time and resources to go to such extremes. If it were me, I'd get a good flashlight and a solid poker stick of some kind, and get on my back to examine everything from underneath. There is usually a plastic water barrier that protects the subfloor, but you should be able to use the poker and feel for soft spots to get an idea of how extensive the rot is. Some campers, older ones especially, are built pretty well and have additional solid layers underneath that cover up the subfloor, so this may not work perfectly. Worth a shot though. If you can feel out most of the water damage, you'll at least be able to map out how far it goes before pulling out cabinets and other components that you might not need to. Good luck, and thanks for the kind words!
@@AllThingsMech thank for responding to this commenter, I have a ‘95 camper with soft floors and visible wet plywood where the dinette storage is and I’ll be removing the dinette to inspect the damage. I think it’s my corner on the outside or one of the windows bc well, it’s a ‘95.
This was helpful bc my underside is super protected and firm from my area.
I know everybody says bleach, however it don’t get rid of it completely … use peroxide on mold areas just a tip thanks for the guidance bi needed!!
Thank you so much for making and posting this "how-to" RV floor repair video! Your tips have been instrumental with regards to repairing my own floor! whoooo!
Thank you, Elaine! Really glad the video was helpful for you! Please feel free to drop another comment if you run into any snags or have questions, and I'll do my best to help out however I can.
@@AllThingsMech I got it done! whoo hooo! frik. LOL! I did exactly what you did with the 2x4 floor frame and it is holding the patch panel good! :)
@allthingsmech could you go I to more detail on how to 2 the 2x4 frame? What are you attaching it to?
If the wet floor problem was the result of rain coming through that outside storage access door, find some plastic car window louvers designed to cover the top 2" of car side windows. They come in different sizes. Attach to the outside a couple inches above the access door with PL
It wasn't. It was the result of a botched repair by the dealer.
Thanks for sharing. Great video. I recently had to replace mine and while i was at it i replaced my kitchen sink sized bathtub with a 38 inch stand up shower stall and my small plastic toilet with a house toilet. I made a small video of it with pictures i took.
Really solid upgrades! My biggest things are a good mattress and a good shower, so I can definitely appreciate that. Normally I'd focus on the kitchen too, but if I'm camping, I'll be grilling outside anyway. 😁 Great work!
@@AllThingsMech I agree. I often use it while im working out of town and i want to have plenty of room to take a shower and not worry about running out of hot water. And like you said. A comfortable bed makes a big difference. Thanks
Thank you for sharing your experience...
Thanks for the video. its not a easy thing to do and edit a video.lots of great tips.
Did you find the source of the water intrusion so it doesn't happen again?
Ya did good. I'm looking to repair on my dads Nomad with the sandwich panel floor. Good tips for the flooring.
You have to pull the gfi outlet out and than test and reset it I had the same issue with mine
My 40 ft Gulf Stream park model back bedroom floor is rotting out. Turns out the water was coming from the outside where the outside panel that was supposed to be tucked under the corner trim piece was not tucked under and had a 1/8” gap. Well I gerryrigged that with some good heavy duty tape and caulked first. But now after not being at my camp property for two years it’s almost too bad to walk on. I bought it used from a dealer in 2012 at three years old. It’s a 2009. My wife who just recently passed away thought after we got the thing parked on the property that she thinks it had water damage from a hurricane in jersey because in the storage space you access from outside had water stains on the carpet under the bed. But otherwise looked good. Now it needs a complete bedroom floor and I’m probably gonna have to re tape the outside corner again. I would like to sell it for 5 grand and be done with it. The whole thing looks brand new inside and out. Awning is huge and in perfect condition. I just don’t want to do the work and don’t feel like putting what one commenter said could be 6500 bucks.so anyone looking for a nice park model, has two bathrooms, bunk beds in front with a bathroom and sink, has three slide outs,big glass sliding doors into kitchen and living room. Another entry door into the back bedroom area with I believe is a king size bed,nice bathroom and a separate shower. That floor in back is the only thing needed. I just got back from spending two weeks there. First time up there since my wife passed away. I was surprised how much I enjoyed being there with my standard poodle. If my knees allowed me to kneel on them I would fix the floor myself and keep it. But it is almost impossible for me to do the work. ✌️👍🇺🇸
Good video sir.
Excellent tutorial... thank you
Did you just wedge the new floor under the wall? I’m doing the same thing i gutted out my subfloor in half my thor and wondering how I’m gonna slide these new boards under the wall😅
At the 8:30 mark, so that noise often is the convex discharge fail from the main watt-splitting lead capacitor[s], releasing current overflow via the dissipation chambers.
The Flux inverter needs signal fluid replacement, we use Delco & pour it generously over the circuit panel (((be sure to wear PPE))) . . . . . . . so there is that, apology for the faux diagnosis but I felt snappy to get a smile he he . . . . ha ha-ahhhhhh... .. ... .. ...
THanks for the job coverage as I am preparing for total roof replacement & have no history with such a construction other than regular home building. THANK you for the tips
Also what about the weight issue in replacement of everything, using the better materials I guess maybe are heavier .... dumb question ? lol maybe
#AlwaysForward ~ #Godspeed
Thank you!
You can deep score it with a good blade and snap it. Some you need ear pro for
I was going to have an installer lay our new flooring but after watching this I will watch a couple install videos and do it myself. I have really good knee pads.
Very unfortunate that you couldn't have the time to cut a few inches up that rotten wall.
Definitely give it a try yourself. If you have a decent rubber mallet, a miter saw and table saw (or have access to someone who does), you can lay the flooring down pretty fast. My wife did two rooms in our house by herself while I did the living room and hallway.
As for the wall, if it were a house I'd have made the time. But, this trailer relies heavily on that extremely fragile 1/8" panelboard for pretty much all of the internal structures...trying to fix it would have probably just made it worse, honestly. It's dry now and although it looks a little ugly, it's still solid except at the very bottom where it split a little.
@@AllThingsMech Could you get a circular saw to work?
Maybe next time try putting the trailer in a bag of rice?
Seriously though, can you do a 1 year update showing how the LVP flooring has held up (especially in front of the slide floor)?
Why people don’t use marine grade plywood for rebuilds amazes me, better yet use OSB for a subfloor 😮
1) This was over 3 years ago when a 23/32" sheet of plywood was $90 at Home Depot. I used what I had lying around. 2) Welcome to the world of cattle ranching, where ranchers don't care about doing the job perfectly - they just want the job done. "It's good enough for who it's for." 3) The trailer is still doing fine.
Thanks for watching!
Working on a travel trailer is like pulling a sweater thread 😭😭😭
That humming is most likely the fan failing but those converters that the manufacturers install are all cheap junk! … they fail for no rhyme or reason. Replace it and upgrade a little bit and you wont have that problem with losing your shore power again.
Thanks Wade! This was my first foray into working on a camper so it had me stumped. Much appreciated!
Thank you for sharing this journey! We are currently working on our first (much more extensive) rotten subfloor removal/replacement - it does feel good once you know it is rotten to get it out. One question - for the lifeproof flooring, I thought there had to be a perimeter gap of 1/4 to 1/2 inch between the flooring and any vertical surface (walls, benches, etc). to allow for expansion from heat or else you could be dealing with the floor buckling. It did not look like you did this, did this flooring not call for it? Thank you so much!
Hi Jenna! You are absolutely correct, the flooring does call for a slight gap around any vertical surface. I have installed so much of this stuff that I went into 100% autopilot during this series and completely forgot to even mention that part of it! The gaps are there though, trust me. 🙂 They make special tools and wedges for setting the gaps, but the easiest method I've found is to just use a few pieces of scrap flooring from one of the cutoff ends - they are just about the perfect width for the job. You just need to make sure that whatever trim you use to finish off the install is wide enough to cover the gaps completely. If you need to make the gap a little smaller, you can peel the black rubber underlayment off of your scraps to gain an extra 1/16" or so. The nice thing about this flooring is that it's extremely forgiving for the average DIYer, so as long as it's not butted right up against the wall, expansion/contraction isn't a huge issue in most cases. Of course, out here in the desert everything is pretty dry. If you're in a more humid area this could be a much bigger issue, but as long as you make an effort to set some sort of gap, I doubt you'd ever have any buckling issues. This was a great catch and a great question, so thank you for asking! Best of luck on your project - it absolutely does feel great to get the rotten junk out of there!
@@AllThingsMech Thank you for confirming!
@@jennaplumb6696 Thanks for asking the question
Hello, thank you for all the tips, what is the electric cutting tool you used in the beginning? My 33' Mountaineer has a rotten floor at the front corner of the slideout (main floor, not the slide) and this looks like it would make cutting away the rotten floor much easier.
It's a Milwaukee oscillating multi tool, part number 2836-20. They are available at home depot for about $229. You can find them much cheaper online, just make sure you buy from an authorized Milwaukee distributor (NOT places like Amazon) or Milwaukee won't honor the warranty if it ever breaks. Thanks for watching, please let me know if you have any other questions.
How would you of replaced what perimeter stud that goes along the entire base of the wall? We have that but ours is aluminum tubing that has cracked due to rotted floor and the weight of the wall
Tough to say without actually having dealt with it, to be honest. Short of welding the cracks (which you'd need a mig spool gun or AC-capable TIG welder to accomplish), the best option would be to cut out the damaged tubing and replace it while you fix the floor and other water damage. There are ways to do that without a welder, but it's not my area of expertise and I'm hesitant to make a recommendation to you without seeing exactly what you're up against. I'm sure that wasn't very helpful, I apologize. 😕
Are you going to be able to do anything to fix the wall? I have the same issue with my motorhome right now.
Hey John, sorry I missed your comment there. If the wall gets any worse then eventually we may rip it out and replace it, but these trailers are very cheaply made, unfortunately. The only way to truly fix it would entail ripping out that entire section of wall, because the panelboard is so thin that there's no way to really fix it properly without the repair being very obvious. If it ever gets to that point I'll be sure to film an update, but for now it's still holding up.
Wasn't the floor rotten under the wall too? Did you remove it or just leave it?
Great question. The wall board itself is extremely thin 1/8" paneling. It was slightly warped, but after some bleach and thoroughly drying it out, it was structurally sound enough to leave it alone and reattach it to the braces with staples. The small amount of subfloor left behind under the paneling was rotten, but that was also bleached and thoroughly dried out. The floor joists under it didn't have any water damage and were completely sound. Since I added those extra 2x4s to handle all of the load bearing work, that little strip of leftover rotten subfloor is basically there as a gap filler behind the paneling. It's completely concealed and isn't hurting anything. I would have done the repair a little differently if I was allowed more time, but all things considered it's been holding up extremely well. Thanks for watching!
Does the floor have any problems with humidity or freezing.
When it's still in the boxes you need to be careful about any drastic changes, but I've found that it's very resistant to fluctuations in temperature and humidity once it's installed and the planks are locked together. Just make sure you leave enough of a gap around all of the edges to allow for expansion/contraction of the floor. I believe the gap is supposed to be 1/4" - 1/2" at the edges, but the instruction sheet should have the specifics.
Last time I installed floating floor, had to lay down vapor barrier. That was in a house
Never hurts to add a moisture barrier, but not necessary in this climate or for this application.
Great video! How many boxes of flooring did you end up using?
Thanks Ryan! In total, I used 5 full boxes and two or three boards out of a 6th. I had recorded another segment about that as well as the exterior roof/wall repairs, but the footage disappeared off of my SD card (which usually means I accidentally deleted it). I meant to annotate all of that info in part two but completely forgot during editing. Thanks for watching!
It looks like the water damage is in the wall, shelf, and carpet too.
To a lesser extent, yes. The wall dried out nicely, as did the carpet and the corner of the shelf. Unfortunately most of these trailers are built with VERY inexpensive materials. Tearing all of that out would have literally tripled the workload because the entire wall would have had to be replaced, and it really wasn't necessary once it all dried. I'm actually working on the trailer right now as I'm typing this (servicing wheel bearings and replacing burned out running lights), and after being used all year up on the mountain it still looks great. It's about to be sent off to California for a few months.
How did you fastened the 2x4
A generous coating of TiteBond wood glue and some 3" screws driven into the existing floor joists. They were slightly damp when I started the project, but not rotted at all. After drying them out they were sound enough to screw the new 2x4s into.
The boxes of flooring should have been laid flat. Bet money that's why you couldn't get it together. It warped.
No, it wasn't warped. Less than 12 hours sitting upright wouldnt have warped it anyway; some of the boxes of the replacement flooring sat upright for 2 weeks and it went together just fine. The tongue and groove setup on the first batch was completely different than any other LifeProof product I've ever used. Even the folks at home depot made comments about it when I brought it back.
Some RV Travel trailers don’t have studs or anything to nail too just free floating floor 1/4 inch veneer my 2004 forest river is junk the roof is made a thin layer of rubber which is like inner tube it’s real jewel the company should be sued
Yeah, my 2018 Forest river is a piece of shit with a rotten floor. Even the small trailers are crap.
Bleach will not cure the mild. Need something else