Community Forums

GaDawgFan · 05-03-2007, 06:44 AM

I am in the process of replacing my carpet with laminate. I have all the carpet out and am now at the point where I need to remove the Vinyl tiles that are in place in the kitchen area. It appears that the clearance of the slide out over this tile is somewhat limited, while at the other end of the slide (where the sofa is) there is plenty of clearance. Shouldn't the amount of clearance between the bottom of the slide and the floor area be uniform along the length of the slide? From what I am seeing, the slide will not come into contact with the flooring on the couch side, but may not clear the new floor on the other (kitchen)end of the slide. I know this is a confusing post, just wanted to know if anyone has encountered this and if maybe something is out of adjustment with the slide. I would think that the flooring should fit, it is really not much thicker than a layer of carpet with padding.

GaDawgFan · 05-03-2007, 06:44 AM

I am in the process of replacing my carpet with laminate. I have all the carpet out and am now at the point where I need to remove the Vinyl tiles that are in place in the kitchen area. It appears that the clearance of the slide out over this tile is somewhat limited, while at the other end of the slide (where the sofa is) there is plenty of clearance. Shouldn't the amount of clearance between the bottom of the slide and the floor area be uniform along the length of the slide? From what I am seeing, the slide will not come into contact with the flooring on the couch side, but may not clear the new floor on the other (kitchen)end of the slide. I know this is a confusing post, just wanted to know if anyone has encountered this and if maybe something is out of adjustment with the slide. I would think that the flooring should fit, it is really not much thicker than a layer of carpet with padding.

smlranger · 05-03-2007, 08:56 AM

I am pondering doing the same thing...replacing my carpet with laminate...and have been waiting for another person to take the leap.

I talked to Winne about this...in coaches with carpet, the 'skids' on the bottom of the slide are metal. In coaches with vinyl or ceramic tile, the skid on the slide has a fabric covering. If your slide is a 'flat floor' slide (it lowers to coach floor level as it extends), 1/2 the weight of the slide is supported by the coach floor when the slide is in. So, according to Winne, whatever floor you install will have at least half the slide sitting on it when stored. Winne folks suggested I might have to slide a piece of carpet under the slide when it's coming in to protect any laminate floor I might add. When my slide is 'in', it puts a pretty heavy dent in the carpet. Laminate flooring is pretty tough but I've wondered if the bottom of the slide will eventually scratch or mark the laminate.

I'll be anxious to hear how it turns out.

Belgique · 05-04-2007, 03:54 AM

Me too! With 3 dogs and 2 cats, and liking the beach, we have to get rid of the carpet. On the other forum and chap did a nice job on this. I'll try to find the thread and post a link. I recall that he had to rock his slide back to get under it to remove the old carpet. Please keep us posted as you do this...like the chap that has the emoticons pleading for pictures. Thanks. Steve

On edit: Here's what the chap sent me in a PM re this: "To get the old carpet out and laminate in, the slide has to be tilted. Yours may be different than mine, but this is how I was able to do it. After I removed all of the carpet I could, I brought the slide in about 1 1/2', then tilted the slide by pushing up on the top front of the slide and putting wood blocks underneath to hold it there. This barely gave me enough room to pull the rest of the carpet out and get the rest of the staples out. That was the hardest part of the project. On mine, I noticed that when the front was lifted like that, since the slide pivots on the back side, there was even a gap from the outside of the coach, where the slide lifted above the rubber gasket about an inch. This enabled me to get the staples at the outside edge of the floor from the outside, with pliers and screwdriver. If you don't understand what I am saying, I can elaborate on that later. Just make sure that all staples are out before you let the slide back down.
For putting the laminate down, the wood blocks that held the slide tilted would be in the way. So I brought the slide in 1 1/2'again, pushed up on the top of the slide to lift the front once again. This time, instead of blocks, I used long 2x4s to brace from the inside top of the slide to the floor at other side of coach. This held it tilted back long enough for me to get the laminate started. I put 3 rows on laminate together, which was 3'wide, and pushed it underneath the slide to the floors edge. Then let the slide back down on it and finished the laminate. My steel rollers do not scratch the laminate going in and out. But I had one problem. When slide is in, the 2 outside rollers are lifted above the laminate, but the middle one is against the floor for some reason. While traveling, the road motion started to create a small scratch where that middle roller rested on the floor. I cut a piece of scrap linoleum to place there when slide comes in. It rolls onto that and all is OK."

Here's that thread