Would Like All of you to view this link and give me your opinions

[first5thwheel]

I was planning on going with hardwood to do my 5th wheel, but I am very concerned about the thickness of the new floor causing issues with the slide. I still am going to try out a test piece of 3/4 inch plywood to see if I have clearance issues before I proceed with expensive hard wood. If the hardwood floor option does not work, I FOUND THIS: Plank vinyl flooring simulating wood. I saw it today at the hardware store and it blew my mind away at how attractive it is. It is a floating floor which I think would be better for movement in the 5th wheel when towing, yet the floor is supposedly durable water proof and very affordable.

Watch this link and tell me what you all think:

YouTube - ‪How to Install Surface Source Floating Vinyl Plank Flooring‬‏

I think I am going to seriously look into installing this in my 5th wheel if my first option will not work.

I wanted to see it already installed in person, so I asked around and found a family who just installed it in their dining room. I made an appointment to see them this afternoon, and I was shocked at how real it looked and when you walked on it, it seemed rather rich. The stuff really looks real.

Anyway if any of you have any comments or warnings I am all ears. I think this may be the answer to not raising the floor to high for fear of having the slide compromised.

How do any of you think it will hold up? It comes with a 25 year warranty, but that is for resedential install. Probably the warranty would be void if installed in a 5th Wheel. I would have to call Armstrong and find out.

Give me your thoughts.

Thanks.

["007"]

The only concern for the wood type is having slide get up the 1/4" rise of floor.
A tapered strip along floor edge could solve this problem.
You may have to do same with vinyl floor also so it does with use not get torn up on the edge.
Does your slide have rollers or just a slide strip on the bottom of it?

[first5thwheel]

My slide does not have rollers that I know of. I was going to put down a rubber backed area rug in front of the slide so that when it would come up onto the vinyl floor it would ride up onto the rubber backed carpet instead of the floor. If I as well put in a metal strip on the leading edge of the vinyl floor, I think it would allow the slide to gain access to the top of the rubber backed area rug and roll onto it. I can always roll the carpet up and store it when the slide is out, but put it back down before each time I pull the slide in. What do you think? By the way this new flooring I am considering is very, very thin. I would say even less than 1/8 inch. It is marvelous stuff. I think I am going to try it. It would be slightly thicker but not by much than the traditional linoleum the manufacturer installed in the 5th "Wheel.

[RVhauler]

I have replaced the orginal hardwood kitchen flooring in my 97 Kountryaire 5er (water heater leaked and water got under hardwood and stained/slightly warped) several years ago using the floating snap together hardwood replacement (Pergo brand-Home Depot). Tho I have rollers on the main slide I have not had any problems. Also installed kitchen and entrance area in a friends 5er with same type flooring. Only difference in installing was that didn't allow the quarter inch gap around the outside of flooring for expansion to to smaller area than what a stick house room would be

[RickO]

I think it looks promising and might even find your slide will ride on it nicely if you make sure to sweep it before bringing them in each time so you don't grind sand, little rocks, etc into the new flooring. Don't ask how i know.

We used Allure to replace all of the non-slide flooring in our coach... both carpet and vinyl tile. I've had some problems with my slides putting scratches in the flooring but I think two problems caused this. First was the fact that I used a 1/4" plywood underlayment where the carpet had been in an attempt to get a "flat floor" look with the new flooring instead of having any sort of transitions. This resulted in the area which had been carpeted having a slightly higher floor than it had before. I didn't use any sort of 1/4 round "ramp" or the metal transition strips you mentioned... I should have. The slides (skids not rollers) caught on the flooring when I first retracted them. I ended up trimming both the Allure and the plywood underlayment at an angle to form a sort of ramp for the skid to ride on but I had to tack the Allure down along those edges so the floor is not floating.

The second problem that contributed to the scratches had to do with the carpeting which was OEM and if you don't have carpet you're lucky. Winnebago uses a real world class glue to hold that stuff down and I didn't get it all out on the first two tries. It attracted little rocks that scratched the floor.

I can replace the damaged planks and will probably install at least a metal transition strip... it on my list of things to do.

Good luck...

Rick

[first5thwheel]

Cool, thanks so much for the info. It looks like this flooring may be my best bet.

[first5thwheel]

Thanks Rick O. I will see how it all goes. I will shoot a post to the forum when I get it all done and test everything out. Hey I had to laugh, I have a Lola too. She is a Cairn terrier identical to Toto from Wizard of Oz, except my Lola is blonde not black. She loves road trips. I think she is really going to love 5th wheeling. Thanks for the input. :O)

[LibbyLA]

ms5thwheel,

Look at Allure or Allure Ultra at Home Depot. We are using Allure Ultra in our Alumascape. HD stocks only a couple of colors of the Allure Ultra, which locks together, but they have samples of lots of the regular Allure.

I think that you cannot use a rubber-backed rug on vinyl, but maybe it's latex. However, your slide may push the rug rather than slide across it. You will definitely want to test your slide, maybe by using inexpensive vinyl (available at Home Depot or Lowe's) first. You may be fortunate and not have any problems with your slide rubbing or scratching your floor; some people don't. We learned the hard way, by ruining several planks, that we weren't that lucky.

The vinyl will definitely be more practical than hardwood.

liz