Laminate floor in '01 Suncruiser

[mrschwarz]

I have a 2001 Itasca Suncruiser 34V and am researching replacing all the carpeting and vinyl with a laminate floor. I have a few questions that I hope someone can answer.

1. I spoke with Winnebago service. They told me that there are feet on the slider that rest on the floor when the slider is retracted. The vinyl floor side has a heavy felt covered foor and the carpet side has a hard plastic foot. The carpet side foot will need to be covered with heavy felt to prevent it from scratching the floor. He told me to remove the inner trim of the slider and extend the room. When it was opened, I should tip it back so I could remove the foot and either replace or cover it. I asked a couple of questions about supporting the slider and if it could come out completely. The guy was very condescending and really didn't give me any useful information.

Has anyone done this? Do I need any special tools and are there any special considerations I should make? The alternative is to remove the carpet as far as I can and leave the hard plastic foot on the slider.

2. Do I need to remove the easy chair and captain's chairs, put the floor down and bolt the chairs through the floor? An alternative would be to lay the floor around the bases of the chairs.

3. A guy that quoted the job said that he couldn't put down the floor in the front of the coach because the floor there was metal. Why would that matter? Can't I put the floor over the top of the metal?

I have put in a few laminate floors in my stick house. The first was a glue together type. The others were the snap together type. It's not a big deal to do, but the coach part is new to me.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

[mrschwarz]

I have a 2001 Itasca Suncruiser 34V and am researching replacing all the carpeting and vinyl with a laminate floor. I have a few questions that I hope someone can answer.

1. I spoke with Winnebago service. They told me that there are feet on the slider that rest on the floor when the slider is retracted. The vinyl floor side has a heavy felt covered foor and the carpet side has a hard plastic foot. The carpet side foot will need to be covered with heavy felt to prevent it from scratching the floor. He told me to remove the inner trim of the slider and extend the room. When it was opened, I should tip it back so I could remove the foot and either replace or cover it. I asked a couple of questions about supporting the slider and if it could come out completely. The guy was very condescending and really didn't give me any useful information.

Has anyone done this? Do I need any special tools and are there any special considerations I should make? The alternative is to remove the carpet as far as I can and leave the hard plastic foot on the slider.

2. Do I need to remove the easy chair and captain's chairs, put the floor down and bolt the chairs through the floor? An alternative would be to lay the floor around the bases of the chairs.

3. A guy that quoted the job said that he couldn't put down the floor in the front of the coach because the floor there was metal. Why would that matter? Can't I put the floor over the top of the metal?

I have put in a few laminate floors in my stick house. The first was a glue together type. The others were the snap together type. It's not a big deal to do, but the coach part is new to me.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

[Clay L]

Regarding the flooring project:
I called the factory about what would be needed if I installed laminate flooring and Winnebago advised me that I needed to replace the existing shoes under the slides. The existing ones are made of high density polyethylene.

I made an appointment for a couple of months later and stopped by the factory on our way from NH to CO.
When I got to the factory, they made up the new shoes with carpet on them. The cost for them was going to be about $150. The shoes were 1 X 6 s about 3 feet long with an angle cut on one side and covered (glued on) with the material that is used to cover the floors of the service bay. There were six of them as I recall.

Then when they were supposed to install them they came out and said they were afraid that the material would create too much friction running on the existing carpet and the slides would not function properly. I did not want to remove the carpet until I got to my sister in law's place where I intended to install the Pergo, so I did not have them install the shoes and decided to rethink the whole thing.

I ended up deciding that I was going to install the flooring and see what would happen. I really didn't think the existing shoes would be any worse than the carpet type. It seemed to me that the carpet type could catch dust and small rocks as easily as the old smooth ones.

We used Armstrong's best grade of laminate. We picked it based on some tests that Consumer Reports did that showed it had better wear and scratch resistance than Pergo. It's 3/8 inch thick.

We were surprised to find that a Carpet Time store had much better prices on the best grade than Home Depot or Lowes had on the middle grade which is all Lowes and Home Depot carried. The best grades were special order.

We did the installation of our flooring ourselves. We couldn't find an installer willing to do the job.
It took us about ten day's altogether (we only worked about 4 hours a day though). It wasn't terribly difficult but did require a lot of cutting and trimming because of all of the corners.
There were some challenges involving the front of the slides, around the stairs, underneath the dinette, the transition piece between the driver's area carpet and the laminate, and the trim piece along the back wall.

Before we did the installation we did a test by removing a square of carpet and making sure the slides would ride over a piece of T molding, laminate and underlayment.

Some people try to cut the carpet back under the slide, but we cut the carpet in front of the slides leaving enough carpet to be stapled down. I was afraid the slides would catch the carpet when the slide went back out. A Tee molding covers it so it doesn't show.

There is a metal floor in the front. It extends back behind the captain chairs. We cut the carpet a little too close and it would have been much better to cut about four inches back of the doghouse cover. Attaching the transition molding to metal rather than the plywood floor is not easy.

If you do the job yourself I would recommend a few things to have:
1) Table saw, 2) Chop saw, 3) Good saber saw, 4) Rotozip tool, 5) Air brad nailer, 6) Air stapler, 7) Utility knife and sharp hook blades.

There were two grades of the foam underlayment available. We used the best grade - more expensive but thicker and provides a moisture barrier.
We also used a special waterproof joint glue in areas that are prone to getting wet - like in front of the sink, refrigerator, and around the stairwell. (This is used to glue the joints so spilled water can't get in the joints - not to glue the flooring to the subfloor).
We also used silicon caulk to fill the 1/4 gap at the edges in those areas.
The caulk and waterproof glue are both recommended in the instructions from Armstrong.

The challenge areas mentioned above might deserve more explanation if you actually decide to go ahead with the project.

Regarding the project; we are extremely happy with the results. It is very easy to clean and it looks good.

As far as the slides coming in goes, we have had one problem. The first few times we operated the slides everything was fine. Then we had a scratch show up in front of the dinette. The next time we brought the slide in we put a thin piece of plastic (flexible cutting board) down at that point. When the slide went back out the plastic was badly scratched and it left two paper clips on the plastic.
Apparently Damncat who loves to steal and play with them had batted them under the slide before we got the quarter round fixed to the front of the slide in that area.
Since then we have had no more scratches. We do vacuum carefully before we operate the slides. The good news is that the scratch is not noticeable and if you don't know it's there I don't believe you will see it.

[Harry B]

Thanks for a very informative write up. I was considering doing the same with laminate flooring.

I have one question, can those glider pads or shoes be removed and reinstalled without removing the main slide in the living area?

[Richard 34A]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Clay L:
Regarding the flooring project:
I called the factory about what would be needed if I installed laminate flooring and Winnebago advised me that I needed to replace the existing shoes under the slides. The existing ones are made of high density polyethylene.

I made an appointment for a couple of months later and stopped by the factory on our way from NH to CO.
When I got to the factory, they made up the new shoes with carpet on them. The cost for them was going to be about $150. The shoes were 1 X 6 s about 3 feet long with an angle cut on one side and covered (glued on) with the material that is used to cover the floors of the service bay. There were six of them as I recall.

Then when they were supposed to install them they came out and said they were afraid that the material would create too much friction running on the existing carpet and the slides would not function properly. I did not want to remove the carpet until I got to my sister in law's place where I intended to install the Pergo, so I did not have them install the shoes and decided to rethink the whole thing.

I ended up deciding that I was going to install the flooring and see what would happen. I really didn't think the existing shoes would be any worse than the carpet type. It seemed to me that the carpet type could catch dust and small rocks as easily as the old smooth ones.

We used Armstrong's best grade of laminate. We picked it based on some tests that Consumer Reports did that showed it had better wear and scratch resistance than Pergo. It's 3/8 inch thick.

We were surprised to find that a Carpet Time store had much better prices on the best grade than Home Depot or Lowes had on the middle grade which is all Lowes and Home Depot carried. The best grades were special order.

We did the installation of our flooring ourselves. We couldn't find an installer willing to do the job.
It took us about ten day's altogether (we only worked about 4 hours a day though). It wasn't terribly difficult but did require a lot of cutting and trimming because of all of the corners.
There were some challenges involving the front of the slides, around the stairs, underneath the dinette, the transition piece between the driver's area carpet and the laminate, and the trim piece along the back wall.

Before we did the installation we did a test by removing a square of carpet and making sure the slides would ride over a piece of T molding, laminate and underlayment.

Some people try to cut the carpet back under the slide, but we cut the carpet in front of the slides leaving enough carpet to be stapled down. I was afraid the slides would catch the carpet when the slide went back out. A Tee molding covers it so it doesn't show.

There is a metal floor in the front. It extends back behind the captain chairs. We cut the carpet a little too close and it would have been much better to cut about four inches back of the doghouse cover. Attaching the transition molding to metal rather than the plywood floor is not easy.

If you do the job yourself I would recommend a few things to have:
1) Table saw, 2) Chop saw, 3) Good saber saw, 4) Rotozip tool, 5) Air brad nailer, 6) Air stapler, 7) Utility knife and sharp hook blades.

There were two grades of the foam underlayment available. We used the best grade - more expensive but thicker and provides a moisture barrier.
We also used a special waterproof joint glue in areas that are prone to getting wet - like in front of the sink, refrigerator, and around the stairwell. (This is used to glue the joints so spilled water can't get in the joints - not to glue the flooring to the subfloor).
We also used silicon caulk to fill the 1/4 gap at the edges in those areas.
The caulk and waterproof glue are both recommended in the instructions from Armstrong.

The challenge areas mentioned above might deserve more explanation if you actually decide to go ahead with the project.

Regarding the project; we are extremely happy with the results. It is very easy to clean and it looks good.

As far as the slides coming in goes, we have had one problem. The first few times we operated the slides everything was fine. Then we had a scratch show up in front of the dinette. The next time we brought the slide in we put a thin piece of plastic (flexible cutting board) down at that point. When the slide went back out the plastic was badly scratched and it left two paper clips on the plastic.
Apparently Damncat who loves to steal and play with them had batted them under the slide before we got the quarter round fixed to the front of the slide in that area.
Since then we have had no more scratches. We do vacuum carefully before we operate the slides. The good news is that the scratch is not noticeable and if you don't know it's there I don't believe you will see it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Excellent reply; do you have any pictures of the installation process and and result that you could post?

Thank you,