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I like to share the journey of repairing a water damaged floor in a 1999 Western Alpine 40fds. My friend who is a home builder and general contractor was shocked at the lack of support beams through the coach. Not what you'd expect from a Motorhome that was nearly 300k in 1999. Once he got into it he quickly realised the current 16in square tile floor wasn't the original floor. It seems someone solution to fixing a soggy soft floor was by throwing another layer of wonder board and tile over it.i had areas so soft I really expected to end up in the basement one day..the tiles were so shattered I had to put mats over a couple areas where you were in danger of cutting your feet on the broken tile. I am a very large guy.maybe a 150-175 lb person wouldn't be bothered.but to us it was very annoying
Here is the first area coming up in front of the bathroom. You can see in the background where someone had put in 2 inch tiles as a patch when the large 16 inch ones cracked
The red circles and lines are locating the original 2in aluminum square tube suppled by manufacturer (or should say lacking being supplied). There were some areas that were over 30inches with no support. And in the living room up to 60 inches between "joists". Original osb plywood was only 5/8 with sheet linoleum in some areas and carpet in others..my friend added 2 inch angle iron as seen in the pictures and relocated the toilet to where you see it now. In one of the pictures you can see wherethe original toilet mounting was it was off to the right mounted on an angle(no idea why they mounted it that way)
WOW--that is a lot of work--looks like you are doing a first rate job of fixing everything. Just like our "stick-built" homes, water intrusion is a major issue for RVs, especially if it goes unnoticed for some period of time. Like most issues on this forum, different years and models of Alpines have different vulnerabilities to water intrusion.
Over the years, I have seen several themes on this issue, and the impact on Alpines. There are several common themes that emerge: 1-Roof: the front and rear cap seams need to be checked/recaulked on a recurring basis, so should the AC roof gaskets, the radius seams along the sides between the roof and sidewalls seem to be less of an issue; 2- Sidewall beltline: the horizonal seam between the bottom of the sidewalls and the basements doors--top seams need to be checking/re-caulked; 3-Window frames: vertical post structures in large windows, along with frame perimeters, these posts may not be properly calked at bottom intersection with window frame; and 4-Slides and slide corners--lots of discussion on re-caulking and modifying how slide gaskets seal leaks--especially the main slide.
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Old Scout
2015 IH45 Foretravel
2003 Alpine 40' MDTS [Sold]
New Braunfels, Texas