Replacing carpet

[LSC9901]

Because our first attempt at RV'ing is being done with an older RV we are giving serious consideration to removing the worn carpeting and installing a laminate flooring that is usually purchased from Lowes or Home Depot types of stores. Has anyone attempted this and what are the pro's and con's ? Our RV also has a couple of extra tables. We do not have the dinette. If you have gone to a laminate or similar type flooring what did you do where the table poles go into the floor ? Pictures would be great if you have them.

Thanks

[W4MBG]

we are going to do something similar. we have a few boxes of vinyl "wood" planks that will look good in the rv. the front end is carpeted, the center area (galley and head) has vinyl sheeting, and the rear (bedroom) has carpet. we plan to do just the front end. that will make cleaning the high-traffic areas easy to keep clean, and the bedroom nice for bare feet.

[two2go]

This forum is a good resource for help, but you need to do your homework, too. There are dozens of threads under various categories from folks who have replaced carpet. Use the "search" tool with keywords like carpet, flooring, allure, and similar floor-related words, and you will have enough reading and pictures to keep you up all night.

[Theberrys]

We replaced most of our carpet with laminate flooring from Home Depot. It's a ambitious project but well worth the effort.
Here are some pictures.
http://cid-ae67fff392766057.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/RV%20Mods/Floor%20Project

Here is a link to the DuPont Stuff we used. A lot of choices.
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Navigation?storeId=10051&N=+502057+502057+4215+904 01&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&locStoreNum=3511&marketID=87

We didn't have any table poles so I can't help you there.

Dick

[RickO]

Ditto on using the search function to find all the info on this you could want.

Many of us have done what you're contemplating and I haven't heard anyone say they wish they hadn't. We used Allure which can be cut with hand shears and comes in 1x3' planks which lock together along an adhesive edge. We're 100% happy with the Allure but we've had problems with the flat floor slides scratching it because we still need to change out the skids which the slide rides on... but this is not a fault of the Allure. If I had a relatively straight forward installation and didn't have flat floor slides to fight with I would use a "Pergo" type of hard laminate.

You're going to have to decide how you want to deal with the pole for the table. Most of these floors are supposed to be "floating" and not attached to the floor but I would think just removing the mounting plate for the pole and remounting it on top of the new flooring and through to the sub floor. To keep the floor "floating" you could carefully cut a hole around the pole mount and leave 1/4" clearance for a bit of movement but I doubt that's necessary and won't look as good.

Good Luck

Rick

[Hocky]

Wow, great job. After looking at what needs to be done to accomplish those great results, I've decided that the job is beyond the my effort & expertise, of which I have little. Thanks for posting the pics, great results.
Hocky

[ksg5000]

We took out the old carpet/vinyl and put down allure.

Positive - looks great and install was pretty easy.

Negative - every bit of dirt you bring into the rig is now visible so if your coming/going a lot be prepared for lots of sweeping. Throw rugs help.