Chinook RV

Last year I took out my old dirty blue original rug in my 1997 Concourse and replaced it with laminate flooring. I had a private company which I found online do the work. We ran into problems with a rotten sub-flooring which was damaged by water and ended up having to remove some of the wood under the refrigerator door. I was ultimately pleased with the result. The wood floor is much easier to keep clean. I keep a throw rug at the sink area and at the top of the step to help catch dirt.

Amy Jo, Gainesville, FL

Beautiful flooring. I was thinking to run the boards side to side rather than long ways. There's no denying this is beautiful though.

Wow, beautiful!

I really like the fore-and-aft layout, but that's just a personal choice. I cannot WAIT to do my rig. The carpet's in nice shape (came to me with the "grandma and grandpa clear plastic dotted covering so it was virgin underneath ), so I didn't put it right at the top of the priority list, but these photos .... I think it just *has* to move up my list. Wow.

I'm going to "tip" a couple of them so they are right-side up. I SO appreciate your going through the hair-tearing so we can see them -- I'm sure others do too.

Edited to add: I decided not to tip the sideways photos because I have a 250kb size limit for photos I can upload here, and I see those are 600kb (hmm, Manitou must have special privileges ). So rather than shrink them way down and take away detail, probably better for folks to save them and then rotate them on their own computers (thus preserving the larger size and more detail).

I have a couple of questions for you:

1) What did you do about any bolt heads you came across?

2) Do you remember the brand/type of flooring?

Although I'm sure you were not thrilled to discover it, good thing you caught and fixed the rot under the refrigerator. Having read about this issue, I took a good look at the compartment behind the refrigerator access door on the outside of the rig. Now there's an area that could use improvement. Geez. I have made some "temporary but they will last awhile until I do something else" improvements to that area but it's definitely a weak point. I've looked at how they handle it on other rigs and come to the conclusion that it's one of those areas with lots of potential for bad ideas and just hoping water doesn't get in on the part of builders (unrealistic). I'm still on the fence about keeping the propane refrigerator or going to a 12/110 only one, so will probably not do anything more involved until that time (electric-only does not need that extensive outside venting).

Back to your flooring... did I say "Wow"!

I hope you will post more mod photos! I really enjoy them, and especially since you have another "late-90's Classic Blue Stripes" Chinook Actually the first Chinook I looked at was a 1997 with a blue interior, but it was a Premier (at that time I ended up buying a different type of rig, but I came back to the Chinook this past January and bought my Concourse). I noticed you have a twin couch/bed layout - don't see those too often. And it also looks as though you did a console upgrade (so did I). I bet your rig came with the late-90's Ford "self launching cupholder" console

My floor, as shown above, is made by Shaw. Style SL224 and the color is King Canyon Cherry. (Thankfully I saved the estimate.)

I didn't have to worry about the bolts since I hired someone else to do the work. The cost was $468.09 for the floor. That includes materials and labor. The company is a small mom and pop operation but I think they did good work.

Amy Jo

Thanks for the info. on the flooring. It really is great looking - what a transformation!

I wonder what the installers did with the bolts? I'm thinking of changing them out for something like elevator bolts (flat heads), perhaps with some epoxy work. I won't know for sure until I get the carpet out and see them, at which point I will devise a plan.

For the price you paid it sounds like you got a great deal. The flooring would have cost something even if you had done the job yourself, and this way you just dropped it off, and then picked it up looking like a million bucks

Mine came with the wood laminate floor, and looks very similar to the pictures posted. In fact, I had to do a double take to make sure it wasn't my rig. One thing I am not please with is the wood trim job done. A future project is going to be to redo all the trim where the floor transitions to the walls.

Well, the trim may need a bit of sprucing up, but how nice that your rig came with the flooring already done! While it wouldn't apply to the walls, one note on trim: It's not much work to remove the lower side panels on the couch, and (at least in the club lounge) the club chair boxes. The flooring could then be run into those areas, so no trim would be needed there. I will do that for sure if/when I change the flooring. I have had them both out already (to do other things, after which I put them back).

The walls and cabinetry would not be quite as simple, so those may get cove molding. Guess I'll have to see how that goes when the time comes.

My '78 has Berber carpeting and although I love hardwood floors, I'll probably keep carpet in my rig because it's a good sound barrier and I walk around in there barefoot and I like to soft feel. I may do the rear step in wood though. This thread gave me a good idea!

A pic of my floor.

'98,

I see what you mean. You do have a twin to AmyJo's rig - right down to the relatively rare twin-bed setup. Your floor looks great too - man, I have GOT to do that soon.

I do see what you mean about the trim - it's a little "chunky." But the main flooring looks really good!

Astrodokk wrote:My '78 has Berber carpeting and although I love hardwood floors, I'll probably keep carpet in my rig because it's a good sound barrier and I walk around in there barefoot and I like to soft feel.

I do hear you on that. I'm thinking some sort of hard floor and then some throw rugs I can easily clean/replace as necessary. I'm leaning toward one of the Lonseal "one piece" type of floors, but haven't totally decided on which one yet (they have the "coin" type, wood look ones, etc.).

Astrodokk wrote: I may do the rear step in wood though. This thread gave me a good idea!

I really like how easy this forum makes it to share and view mods and ideas, with the photos intermingled with the text.