Replacing flooring underneath bed

[emusicman]

Hello,

I'm new to the community and would like some advice.

I got some water damage from my bedroom slide out and I need to get underneath the bed on the slide out to possibly remove some rotted out plywood. I don't know exactly how to best approach this situation.

I have a 2003 Holiday Rambler endeavor. Any assistance would be much appreciated.

[MSHappyCampers]

Hi ! Welcome to IRV2! We're sure glad you joined the gang!

It's gonna be tough for anyone to advise you without seeing it or having the same rig.

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

[Mr_D]

Without pictures it's hard to give any good advice but I'm thinking you will have to remove the bed and framework which was probably assembled in place.

[ThePowells]

Welcome to the forum!

We're sorry that it took a problem to get you to join, but we hope that you will stay engaged after you have a resolution.

[windsorbill]

Originally Posted by emusicman09

Hello,

I'm new to the community and would like some advice.

I got some water damage from my bedroom slide out and I need to get underneath the bed on the slide out to possibly remove some rotted out plywood. I don't know exactly how to best approach this situation.

I have a 2003 Holiday Rambler endeavor. Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Pictures would help. How bad is the damage? If it's extensive, most will remove slide from coach and replace entire floor.

If not too bad, or maybe just where the rollers are, Talin Manufacturing makes something called guardian plates that might work for you.

Home | TALIN RV

[emusicman]

I appreciate the advice.

We spent the winter on the coast of Oregon where it rained constantly and often had high winds. There was a leak from the bottom of the slide and I replaced the seal. We left the coach for a few weeks and when returned saw the carpet beside the bed where I had spotted the leak was totally wet and had some white foamy growth. I cut out the carpet as the under layer cleaned and dried it.

I have a dehumidifier in the bedroom and my wife and I have felt no ill effects from any of this for the past couple months. However the flooring where I took out the carpet was a bit spongy which tells me this problem had occurred before I bought the coach two years ago and are full time Rving.

I can change the plywood flooring along side the bed near the wall as the rot extends about 6 inches, but my suspicion is that the floor underneath the bed along the slide is probably in a similar condition.

Obviously, the top priority is finding where or how the water is leaking in and correct that first and then address the flooring. What I wanted to know is if anyone here in this forum has ever taken a bed out to look underneath. I'm hoping to not have to remove the entire slide to address this problem.

[l1v3fr33ord1]

emusicman09-

People have completely removed the bed frame to replace the carpet. I can't find the threads, but thee are several with pictures.

The process is (roughly):

- remove the matress
- remove the matress platform
- remove the bed frame

[windsorbill]

Originally Posted by emusicman09

I appreciate the advice.

We spent the winter on the coast of Oregon where it rained constantly and often had high winds. There was a leak from the bottom of the slide and I replaced the seal. We left the coach for a few weeks and when returned saw the carpet beside the bed where I had spotted the leak was totally wet and had some white foamy growth. I cut out the carpet as the under layer cleaned and dried it.

I have a dehumidifier in the bedroom and my wife and I have felt no ill effects from any of this for the past couple months. However the flooring where I took out the carpet was a bit spongy which tells me this problem had occurred before I bought the coach two years ago and are full time Rving.

I can change the plywood flooring along side the bed near the wall as the rot extends about 6 inches, but my suspicion is that the floor underneath the bed along the slide is probably in a similar condition.

Obviously, the top priority is finding where or how the water is leaking in and correct that first and then address the flooring. What I wanted to know is if anyone here in this forum has ever taken a bed out to look underneath. I'm hoping to not have to remove the entire slide to address this problem.

Over on the monaco's owners site, there has been some discussion about bed removals and reinforcing.
It may help you. It's fairly long thread, I believe it's towards the end.

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/quic...yle-17034.html

[PeteandDeb]

After attending the recent Maintenance rally n Goshen IN, I will just echo the thought that you should contact Chris Throgmartin at Talin. He's definitel the expert. The likely spot where water entered is the bottom corner on either side ... Known Monaco issue. Take a look at the bottom and see if the plastic sheet is not secured under the then corner piece ... Fix is Chris' guardian plate and much better dealing.

[Quincy]

I dont believe you need to remove the slide, it depends how handy you are... Remove the mattress and then use a screw gun to remove the bed platform and frame to expose the entire carpet. If yours is different proceed accordingly it should not be that hard.

Take a sharp razor knife or box cutter and cut along the wall from the corner where the most moisture is evident, in both directions so you can grab the corner of the carpet and pull it over itself to expose the padding and then the subfloor. Find the location of the most moisture or damage and that will be where the water is getting under the carpet. There you should see how much of the flooring needs to be replaced. Dont forget to fix the leak. Do not use OSB if you can avoid it use "exterior" plywood. Then put all the parts back together,,, uh you did mark all the pieces didnt you

I do not see why you say that because it is spongy it was there before you bought the coach though. You might be able to get the mfg to help out if you can convince them the leak did start before the warranty was over. You would be surprised what a courteous phone call can accomplis... worth a try.

Good luck and keep us posted

[BeenThereB4]

Sounds like pretty straight forward fix, You'd want to eliminate the cause of your water damage first of all.. I'd store the RV with a tarp over your roof to stop additional water from entering.. Then take action to eliminate the water leak, whatever the cause may be. Then address the water damage asap. The longer the floor material remains damp under your carpet, the more possibilities for mold, along with well known hazards (like "black" mold) you want to avoid for sure. Once bed frame is removed this is sure a great time to put different carpet down anyhow.
Once the rotted flooring is out, and replaced, It would be crazy not to put new carpet down anyhow. You can go get a "remnant" at many carpets stores, or you can go with "Carpet Squares" which are glued down type, rather than stapled. I done this in my RV, just because the old carpet was stained and dated looking.. Will probably put up a post about that some time (in the appropriate section of forums)
Good Luck to you, I hope you will post some photos on the site as your project progresses..

[rlbow43]

emusicman09,

I'm assuming that since you have a HR and it was made by Monaco it is likely similar in construction to my 2002 Monaco. My bedroom slide will leak if the wiper seal around the slide does not flip out when the slide is extended. I'd think all Monaco built coaches have a wiper seal on each slide. It's a soft rubber seal that is supposed to seal the space between the side of the slide and the motor home. On mine, the slide is crooked and the seal gets pinched and will not flip out when the bedroom slide is extended. When it rains, the water runs down the slide and into the bedroom. I've figured out what is going on, so I manually push the seal out so that it can do what it's supposed to.

Can't say that's what's happening to you, but you might want to check. There are other reasons for leaks, but that was what was causing mine.

As for removing the bed, that's not too hard to do. Make sure the slide is out before you start. You will have to do like l1v3fr33ord1 and Quincy already said, remove the mattress, and the bed box cover the mattress lays on, and the panels that are screwed down inside the box. Then you can get to the stuff that holds the bed to the slide. There should be 2 aluminum angle irons holding the sides to the floor of the slide and some screws holding the head of the bed to the wall of the slide. With those removed the box should be loose. Will probably have to loosen some wires and an electrical box so the bed box can be moved out of the way.

While you're at it, look at the bottom of the bed box. You should have 2 adjustable rollers on the floor that the bed moves on when the slide goes in and out. It is not uncommon for the rollers to "eat" into the wood that they roll on for a coach of your age (2003). If that's the case you should deal with that while you've got it apart. There's a good thread in the Monaco owner's site by 10Boomer that describes the process to fix that problem. I'm currently working on new flooring and have made that fix. It's not too hard to do.

As for the Talin Guardian Plates, that's something you should look into. Rotted slide floors in the Monaco built coaches (not the Beaver's) is something that is well documented. When I'm done with my current project I will likely install them on the bedroom slide. I installed them on the living room slide last year. Chris is easy to work with.

As for your leak being stopped by the guardian plates, that may or may not be the case. The guardian plates were designed to stop the dry rot that occurs when the lower corner seams begin to leak and the floor of the slide gets wet. The leaking occurs because Monaco used a poor design (to put it mildly) to protect the lower corners of their slides. Google guardian plates and you can read about them.

I would encourage you to visit the Monaco owner's site. There are oodles of good things there to read about. You never know when you'll find something of interest or relevant to your coach. It's worth visiting on a regular basis.

Good luck with your current leak and flooring issue.

[emusicman]

Thank you all for your extremely valuable advice, it definitely helps orient me on properly addressing this situation.

Sorry for my delay in responding, my wife and I spent a couple days with grandchildren and I did not have my computer.

One of the the side seals on my bedroom slide will not extend out when I open the slide. I had spotted this before and had started to manually help expend it. Thank you for mentioning this as I was not aware that it is a common problem with these slides.

I will also contact Chris at Talin as I suspect that the water is probably coming in from the bottom corners. I will be able to tell better once I remove the bed and see where the greatest concentration of water is and see if I can spot the exact spot it is coming in.

I appreciate the reference to the Monaco forum. I will definitely look there as I'm there will be a lot of good information about many things related to my coach.

Again, thank you much for responding. I will take photos and post as you requested.