Chinook RV

I just removed a tiny section to pull out a broken screw so far. I am tempted to leave the foam padding in place. Is that a dumb idea? (It is kind of dirty... but leaving it there will save me a lot of work...)

I was playing with the click together boards yesterday. It looks to me like the tongue might crack from the flex introduced by the carpet padding underneath. They definitely don't like to bend in the concave direction once they are put together. Also, once they are allowed to flex, you will probably lose your waterproof seal between them.

Just my thoughts.

I used Trafficmaster 3 in 1 Premium Underlayment to help as a sound, temperature and moisture barrier, plus it smooths out the floor.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/TrafficMASTE ... /203956767

It actually cost more than the wood laminate I used

My 13 year old daughter cut it and taped the seams, it's that easy.

I think it is not good to have too much flex, and the existing foam on the Chinook maybe not appropriate for the click-on type, as Blue says. I guess I probably will get the new padding like kdarling did.

My guess is that once you see how much sand, dirt, etc. are under the old padding you'll be glad you're removing it. I've never removed carpet (anywhere) that wasn't an absolute dirtball underneath it all.

You would have thought that my rig spent all of it's time at the beach judging by the amount of sand I vacuumed out from under the padding and carpet.

I know, right?

I couldn't believe how much sand was in my carpet and padding when I removed it. I had expected dirt, but so much sand was just astonishing.

And I had just vacuumed the heck out of it, too.

It helped me decide not to put back in carpet, that's for sure. Throw rugs, yes. They're easy to replace.

I spoke to the Home Depot flooring guy who did recommend the Home Depot LifeProof vinyl plank flooring for RVs. It is a click in place, similar laminates and very solid and thick - I think it is part of the same Allure line, but a bit more expensive. HOWEVER, all of the research I did and videos that I watched warned against laying any of the vinyl planks in rvs because of the wide temperature extremes. Check your warranties - I think they are voided if not installed in a temperature controlled environment.

We have Pergo laminate in our basement kitchen and we just finished installing Pergo laminate in the Premiere. We know it is not totally waterproof, but, short of a flood, they can withstand some small spills if wiped up quickly. We did have a flood in our basement, and the Pergo did indeed swell, but most of it also went back to nearly normal after a few months - not perfect though for sure. It goes down very easily, just click and lock. The previous owner of our fifth wheel also installed Pergo throughout the living and kitchen area, and it looks great and has held up very well. I've spilled more than a few things on it, including dog water bowls, but I have also cleaned up the spills quickly. No noticeable damage that I can see.

But the vinyl planks do look amazing and because they are totally waterproof, we have decided to install the Life Proof vinyl planks in our entire basement this winter.

Colorider wrote: Because of protruding bolt heads, less-than-stellar plywood, holes, seams, humps and other issues, I was forced to install a new subfloor on top of the old one. I used 3/8" particle board made for underlayment. I'm going to seal it with latex Kilz to keep water from puffing it up. Once sealed, my life will get much easier since I can then install just about any floor that I want.

When we removed the carpet from the Premiere, my husband initially wanted to lay a new subfloor, but he later decided against it because he was afraid that the floor would then be too high for the lower floor cabinet hinges (under dinette and fridge area) to function correctly. So, he took a grinder and ground off the part of the bolts protruding from the couch bracket and then cut around. Because we have to bolt the couch bracket back in place, his plan is to simply install a new bolt next to the old bolt - there is enough "wiggle room" in the bracket to do this. For the other bolts, he chiseled out the back side of the Pergo planks with a 1 1/4" round drill bit, not all the way through, just enough to clear the bolts.

Our subfloor looked to be in pretty good shape for a subfloor...

Looks nice!