Laminate flooring questions

[bddadles]

Good morning everyone,
This may get rather long so please bear with me especially if you have done this job before. I’m in the process of gathering all the information (I hope) so I can put a laminate floor in our 2008 Champagne. Here is what I have found out from NUWA, various forums and watching Youtube. I’m just throwing this stuff out and hoping someone has already done this and will confirm I’m doing things correctly or can warn me if I’m not (I’m always willing to learn new things..
1) I have a floating floor in the kitchen and there is a 99% chance we can’t match it. So we will do the kitchen and the living room.
2) Any material I use should acclimate for 48 – 72 hours before starting to install.
3) The material they use at NUWA says .32” thick on the box and the underlayment is separate. Now according to the internet conversion tables8MM = .314961“ or 5/16”. 7MM = .275591” or 9/32”.
4) The kitchen floor is under one side of the base cabinets and the stairs and floating on the other end. I intend to loosen the screws holding the base cabinets and the stairs and ease the old stuff out and ease the new stuff back in like it is now. This starts me at the frig slide directly across from the door. I have to start here because the floor runs under the frig slide for about 6” and has a molding against the wall which says floating to me.
5) When I get out as far as the edge of the island (and where the carpet starts I will extend into the living room and when I clear the island I will have to work backwards toward the starting wall and easing the laminate under the island along the side where I removed the carpet.
6) Then complete the room working towards the door.
I have read ‘Don’t go cheap. You will regret it’ so I’m trying to heed this advice. Now my questions :
A) Do I leave some carpet along the edge of the slides for the slides to ride on? I will put new carpet on the slides so it would cover the edge.If so how much should I leave?
B) How do I secure the laminate at the slide edge?
C) Can you recommend a brand that will stand up well or do I just go to Lowes and get some Perrigo? We have 3 small dogs that like to play.
D) What do you do to protect from scratches when the slides are retracted?
E) Back to acclimating for a minute. We spend winters in Texas and it gets a bit humid. I was thinking about waiting until next winter to do this. However, we are spending the summer in UT, OR, WA, MT and across the top of the country and then back down to TX. It is much drier in those areas (at least in UT) and I was wondering if when I install it will make a difference OR if I do it correctly and leave enough space (1/4 – 3/8”) that will take care of the expansion and contraction properly? Really curious about this one.
I guess that is it for now. Please feel free to extend any advice or words of warning.
Thanks.
Brad

[jelag]

Every one that I know who had done this has loved it... BUT each of them has had to put up with the scratches from the slide when it's retracted and the unit moves down the road... the bounce will cause the 2 surfaces to vibrate and will scratch the flooring... I can only assume on a new unit they have something under the slide that is different than what I have under mine... Mine rests well on the carpet but I know that plastic fabric on the bottom of my slide would scratch the wood laminate flooring..

We've found a happy medium for us... we use our unit 4 months a year.. we use a piece of artificial turf floor mat outside... 3 ft wide x 7 ft long... we carry a Dyson battery pack vacuum, (WE LOVE IT, HATED THE PRICE) and shampoo 2 times a year..

We shake and hose the artificial turf about once a week....

[dayle1]

I suggest 100% vinyl planks rather than wood laminate. Will not absorb moisture or swell if there is a water leak. Anything over 5 mm should have strong enough tongue and groove. My Rustic Acacia from Lumber Liquidators doesn't need an accumulation time, less expansion than wood based yet just as durable. Also it will flex easier as the RV frame twists. In the small area of an RV, 1/8 inch gaps will work. I avoided trim by just filling the gap with a matching color caulk.

[TheOldMan76]

I installed Allure vinyl laminate in my previous 5th wheel, and really liked it, although it did open up some small cracks where the pieces butted together.
I had almost a full case left, so when I started the remodel on the present 5th wheel, I opted to use the same brand, pattern, etc. I then read the blurb about letting it acclimate before installation. I bought it and stacked it in the unit. As fate would have it, I got side tracked, and it sat there for about 4 months. Come time to do the installation,(I like it laid on the bias), I pulled a couple of cases and laid them on a work table, under the awning, to facilitate cutting all those 45's. It got unseasonably hot. The first day we worked on it, the joints were so sticky from the heat, that we only put down a couple of cases, and quit for the day. Next day we continued. Joints looked pretty good from the day before. We did the whole 5th wheel. Came back a few days later, and we have butt end cracks all over the entire floor, not only where we laid the hot pieces, some up to a 1/4" wide. I hoped that when summer came, the stuff would expand again. No such luck! Over $400 in materials, and I'm not going to rip it up, Gonna try caulking it with brown caulk, and just live with it. I would never consider this product again. By the way, just talked to the owner of the old 5th wheel, and his is as bad as mine after a year.

[rarebear.nm]

I have not yet tried it, but my plans are use Alure Ultra from Home Depot. This a thicker material, 100% vinyl. Opposed to the standard Alure product which uses a factory adhesive lap joint between strips, the Ultra product line uses snap joints. I've read many threads where people have loved the Alure Ultra in there RVs and have loved it. I've used it in two S&B homes and still love it. A problem in RVs which you don't normally encounter in a S&B house is the extreme temperature and other environmental variations encounter in a year. I would be cautious about a wood product, it might work fine and I'm sure others have used it fine. We'll probably here.

A side note, IF I recall correctly, the standard Alure product should be rolled with like a 400 lb roller over all joints to get a proper bond. ALso I think there's a fairly narrow temperature range for installation. Not needed at all with Alure Ultra. I think I'd try using some silicone caulk as an adhesive along the strips next to the slides. Yes, it should free floating. However, with the narrow dimensions and flexibility of silicone I "think" the horizontal expansion should be OK.

There are multiple methods slides travel, some touch the lower surface and some don't. Our slides never touch the lower floor surface when re-tracked. All depends on your make and age

[bddadles]

I have to admit that I had not even thought about vinyl planks (truthfully did not know they existed) and I have now heard from a friend on another forum the same thing and he has some left over from his job and will bring them to our rally in about a month. Who knows maybe we will have a seminar about it. He has connections. I will keep you all informed. I'll have to check into these now instead of laminate.

Brad

[bddadles]

Originally Posted by bddadles

I have to admit that I had not even thought about vinyl planks (truthfully did not know they existed) and I have now heard from a friend on another forum the same thing and he has some left over from his job and will bring them to our rally in about a month. Who knows maybe we will have a seminar about it. He has connections. I will keep you all informed. I'll have to check into these now instead of laminate.

Brad

My biggest question seems to be how do you attach the edge of the last board? Mine will be under the carpeting from the slide but don't know yet how to attach that last edge.

Brad

[Yosemite77]

Wouldn't choosing a snap joint type of flooring solve that problem?

[rarebear.nm]

My plan when I do this job is to use either silicone caulk as an adhesive along the bottom edge of the last row or a few staples/nails. Since the width of the main portion of the flooring is only about 5-6 ft I do not think there would be enough expansion.contraction to really matter. I have used construction adhesive in a S&B house application with much larger floors to secure edges that were not going to under a base board. After several years never see any issue from that technique. Just my ideas-

[dayle1]

Use about a 2 inch wide area of construction adhesive like clear PowerGrab. The vinyl planking I used could be used with a 1 mm underlayment with the option of gluing the planks to the underlayment. In an RV locking down one side and letting the other side float should not be an issue.

[bddadles]

A friend on another forum said that the installer used staples on his. So I guess we have 2 solutions now.

Brad

[dayle1]

Originally Posted by bddadles

A friend on another forum said that the installer used staples on his. So I guess we have 2 solutions now.

Brad

That is the fast way , but sometimes you can't get the staples close to the edge