Community Forums

jacwjames · 01-03-2022, 06:39 AM

Tim,
Did you see any affects from the heat of the engine on the flooring. There might not be any as the fiberglass enclosure probably expands and contracts also.

Hopefully mine will turn out was good as yours. I'm pretty good with anything wood, don't do metal or welding

TRH299 · 01-03-2022, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacwjames

Tim,
Did you see any affects from the heat of the engine on the flooring. There might not be any as the fiberglass enclosure probably expands and contracts also.

Hopefully mine will turn out was good as yours. I'm pretty good with anything wood, don't do metal or welding

Nothing has moved or changed thus far after one season of use. Coach has been used in 90+ weather and is presently about 45 degrees in my shop storage this winter.

jacwjames · 01-03-2022, 10:17 AM

That's good to know, hopefully mine will do the same thing.

The laminate flooring I had installed in 2009 held up well, it was not the new fangled water proof stuff but when I installed it I used poly glue on all the joints. When I tore it out some of it came out in large sheets held together with glue. But I'm sure there was gaps in the seal which is what allowed the water to migrate under it.

Hopefully the new waterproof Pergo will do better, the advertise the seams to be water tight. We'll see.

jacwjames · 01-03-2022, 03:10 PM

Slowly but surely I've been making progress on the flooring. FWIW the bedroom is much more work, lots of bits and pieces especially since I decide to do the engine compartment in front of the closet. Took several hours to rip, cut, pull, cuss getting the carpet off the engine compartment. Some pulled off pretty easy, other portions not so much.

I also removed the carpeting from the bed box, I'm guessing they must have paid by the staple because there were overly zealous in the number they used. Yesterday I cut to size and glued vinyl plank on one side of the bed box, used a large scrap piece of plywood and Kreg clamps to apply even pressure after using adhesive and placing the planks.
Yesterday I also glued a couple pieces of the vinyl plank onto the engine hatch cover, using clamps and a piece of wood to evenly apply pressure. This AM I drill a hole through where the latches were located and used a router and trim bit to cut the vinyl the same shape as the hole, this worked really good.

The rest of the day cut and glued vinyl plank to the engine box and other side of the bed box.

Slow going but making progress.

windsorbill · 01-03-2022, 04:16 PM

Jim,

That's looking great. I think the bedroom is nearly as much work as the front of the coach was for me.

I'm pretty sure Monaco hired a high school kid and gave him a staple gun. Told him not to come out until he ran out of staples!

jacwjames · 01-04-2022, 01:57 PM

Got the engine box and hatch cover pretty much done.

I used the router and trim bit to cut out the hole for the hatch cover. Went pretty well other then the two joints for the small access cover for pulling engine, left small indents in the edge. Instead of redoing the whole thing I cut out a ~20" long piece using utility knife and just fit a new piece in. The fix turned out pretty good.

The top edge along the front of the closet is not a straight line/plain, the corner toward the drivers side dips down probably 3/4". Had to scribe the vinyl plank and trim a little until I was satisfied with the fit. My hope was to get a tight enough fit not to have a 1/4 round trim and I think I pretty much accomplished that.

Also installed the metal plates on the bottom of the bed and test fit the bed to be able to mark the rollers. Tried to pull the slide in but without the full weight of the heavy wood bed platform and mattress the top wanted to stay tipped out. Used a jack & 2X4 to keep in up and was able to move the bedframe in ~1 foot. I guess the test will come when I put everything back together. The rollers were mounted on small 1/2" thick plywood pieces, I used the same ones to put it all back together so the floor should align as it was before, if needed I can adjust the rollers up.

TRH299 · 01-05-2022, 05:32 AM

Looks good Jim...
Mine is a bit different design where engine raised cover transitioned up to the closet. To avoid difficult trim, I simply recarpeted my vertical surfaces and was able to avoid using any trim up top.

I did end up applying some more firm sponge rubber trim down in the hatch opening because my hatch sat a bit to low even when latches were set up loose. Once latches were adjusted with the extra material in the seal area, my hatch sits perfectly flush now.

Attached pictures show before and a partial after pic. I don't have any other finished pics here on my computer right now.

jacwjames · 01-05-2022, 06:20 AM

I'll have to do the same thing, add some extra gasket material and play with the latches to get it flush on top.

I decided to go for broke and pull the carpeting off the vertical face in front of the closet. I still have to fill the void across the top but it will be tedious to get the contour right.

There are actually 2 fiberglass boxes that mate together to form the engine box cover. The joint was not caulked and when I pulled the carpeting off the it was black with soot on the underside. I filled the joint with adhesive before I put the vertical piece up.

Still quite a bit of work to do but I think the hardest part is done.

jacwjames · 01-05-2022, 12:00 PM

So with the bottom of the bed box accessible I added the metal runners where the rollers dug into the bottom. I couldn't find long pieces that were thicker then 22 gauge so I used 2 pieces of 16 gauge metal.

I also added a couple pieces under the storage area to help reinforce it. The bottoms always seemed to be pretty flexible, I could not put any of my weight on the bottom if I was trying to work on anything. There was only one support on a ~48" span and it was only popular. So I added a couple extra supports underneath.

Also start putting the front back together. Greased the steering wheel universal joint before putting the plastic shroud back in place. Fastened down the drivers side console and worked on some other items.

Slowly but surely making progress.

TRH299 · 01-05-2022, 12:27 PM

Great idea on the additional support boards! On my rig I wanted to do stainless runners for the rollers to ride on but I did not have any stainless laying around so I ended up using a couple strips of .032" aluminum sheet metal I had laying around from aircraft projects. I figured better having the rollers contacting aluminum than the wood. My wood had roller marks but not as deep as yours.

Timaz · 01-05-2022, 02:04 PM

Jim & Tim,

Your skill level really shows. I don't have those skill sets so I wouldn't even attempt the flooring project.

Tim

jacwjames · 01-05-2022, 02:38 PM

I was afraid to use anything thin since I had fairly deep gouges. I looked locally for a 8"X 32" piece of sheet metal without any luck. Ended up buying 3 pieces of 8"X 24" and adding some extra length. I dropped the bed into place to mark where the rollers should go. When I remove the rollers the first time they were at an angle, when they put them in they weren't to particular. When I set the rollers this time I used a long T-Square and aligned them, this should help the slide movement.

I recently finished building a house do a lot of work my self. My skill set is average but my tolerance for trying something new is pretty high. The internet is a great tool, you can find how to do pretty much anything if you search hard enough. Did lots of research on electrical and plumbing. Luckily the building inspectors saw that I wasn't cutting any corners and passed the inspections with flying colors.

Besides, this is the second time putting in some sort of flooring in my coach. I didn't remove the bed box the last time but decided to just bite the bullet and do that and the engine hatch. The only carpeting that will be left is what is under some of the cabinets, closet (but I may do this down the road), and firewall.

jacwjames · 01-09-2022, 01:39 PM

Made some more progress in the bedroom.

Finished laying the flooring, more cutting and fitting in a small area which took time. I allowed for the 1/4" expansion under the bed, I used a piece of 3/8" OSB where it would be hidden by the bed box, saved me ~$70 in flooring.

Finished the closet transition pieces.
Finished installing the vinyl plank on the bed box.

I still don't have the step corner transition pieces yet which I need for the bedroom engine compartment and also the entry steps, hopefully be here next week.

jacwjames · 01-09-2022, 01:40 PM

I did learn one valuable lesson, when deciding on the flooring check on what is available for all the transition pieces>> Price, Availability, Workability. I was hesitant at first on using the floor transition pieces from Lowes. The first portion I did was in the LR/Kitchen area, it went OK so I bought more. I ended up needing 3 pieces at ~$36 each. I bought one piece at the local Lowes but had to drive to the next town to get 2 more pieces. For some reason the 2 pieces seemed to be brittle. The part that is used to hold the transition down by a friction but I trouble with the piece that you attach to the floor breaking, had to replace it twice and I ran out of long enough pieces an had to piece together.

If I have problems in the future I'll have to glue the transition down.