Community Forums

Flyerone · 10-16-2020, 10:39 AM

I am going to be replacing the carpet with an engineered wood flooring, how do you deal with the flush slide out. Right now there is a piece of rubber under the carpet but I am afraid if I install the wood on top it will break if somebody steps on it with the slide in? Any pictures of what people did would be great.

TRH299 · 10-16-2020, 10:54 AM

Flyerone, I am installing vinyl plank flooring in my rig now in which one of the 4 slides is a flush side also. I decided to just put new carpet back on that slide as I don't want to have my grandkids stepping on that unsupported flap when the slide is in. I considered adding a hinge there, but with my chairs at my table, it just is not a good idea in my opinion.

Flyerone · 10-16-2020, 10:58 AM

I may just do that also, what did you do with the edge of the carpet, I need some sort of outside edge?

MSHappyCampers · 10-16-2020, 11:15 AM

Several years ago we replaced the carpet with 12" squares of premium vinyl tile laid in a diamond pattern. We chose to put new carpet on the slides and and cockpit area! Look at post #75 in the link below. The carpet is not green as it appears in the photos, it is beige.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f258/ano...-213472-6.html

Flyerone · 10-16-2020, 11:36 AM

Has anybody tried using binding tape to edge the carpet?

MSHappyCampers · 10-16-2020, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyerone

Has anybody tried using binding tape to edge the carpet?

I had the store where I bought the new carpet do the binding. They have a special machine that does it. It was kind of pricey, $2 per foot if I remember correctly, but looks really nice. I wouldn't want to try it myself!

l1v3fr33ord1 · 10-16-2020, 02:28 PM

Flyerone-

My wife and I are wrapping up a flooring replacement project. We chose wood-look vinyl "tile" for the bedroom and living room, with new carpet for the slide and the area around the driver and passenger seats. The living room slide is a flush-floor, like yours, with the plastic flaps.

The original flooring stack up:

- linoleum (about 1/8")
- carpet pad (about 3/8")
- carpet (about 3/8")
- "protection" carpet (about 1/8")
- total is about 1"

When the slide was in, the bottom rested on the protection carpet. When the slide was out, the flap (and slide carpet) rested on the living room carpet.

The new flooring stack up:

- underlayment (1/4")
- vinyl (1/8")
- total about 3/8"

That "missing" 5/8" has two major effects:

1) The slide never touches the vinyl going in or out. No scratches. Yea!
2) The carpet on the slide does not touch the top of the new floor when the slide is out. There's both a visual gap and a "don't want to step on the unsupported edge" gap. Boo!

We knew this could be an issue when planning the installation and choosing the products.

There are some things we could do to reduce the gap between carpet flap and hard floor. Most of them involve some permanent modifications to the slide carpet, the pad under it or to the flaps. My wife and I have decided to live with the gap for now. We have a nice area rug with pad that makes up the difference, which we'll place close to the gap or perhaps a little under it, where it will provide support. After we live with that "solution" for a while we'll decide if we should make one of those permanent modifications.

It's worth this bit of uncertainty for the big improvement in appearance and cleanliness we get from the hard flooring and new carpet!

The owner of the flooring shop has done the binding on the slide carpet and will do it for three other pieces, using a portable machine.

Flyerone · 10-16-2020, 04:27 PM

Did you glue down the carpet, or use the million staple method?

l1v3fr33ord1 · 10-16-2020, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyerone

Did you glue down the carpet, or use the million staple method?

The hard flooring is glued down.

The slide carpet is stapled along 3 edges. At the moment, the flap edge is free. The installers have proposed gluing that edge down to the flap as a way of decreasing the gap between the slide carpet edge and the hard floor.

The carpet on the doghouse will be bound and glued down. The carpet in the front, under the seats, will be bound and tacked down with just a few staples. That way, should the leak recur, or the carpet get damaged, it can be removed with little effort and cleaned, repaired or replaced.

These installers are very competent. I suspect they haven't overdone the staples.