Community Forums

AllanK · 01-20-2019, 11:15 AM

Great thread, we are thinking of doing the same thing. We want to include the full slide. I'm not very handy, need to find a person who can help for a fee.

riverat · 01-20-2019, 06:26 PM

We did ours ourselves and it wasn't too bad, as for the staples we used a 4" angle grinder and just ground them off flush it made the job easier. I vote for the luxury vinyl plank as well but I wish I had glued it down.

grindstone01 · 01-20-2019, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by riverat

We did ours ourselves and it wasn't too bad, as for the staples we used a 4" angle grinder and just ground them off flush it made the job easier. I vote for the luxury vinyl plank as well but I wish I had glued it down.

Can you explain the glue benefit? Did you use the snap together planks which should hold the panels tight to each other on all 4 sides? Did you leave a gap along the walls which might allow the entire floor to move (not good)?
Pulling the staples was easy with a needle nose pliers and a pad to sit on.

riverat · 01-21-2019, 07:40 AM

[QUOTE=grindstone01;4598740]Can you explain the glue benefit? Did you use the snap together planks which should hold the panels tight to each other on all 4 sides? Did you leave a gap along the walls which might allow the entire floor to move (not good)?
Pulling the staples was easy with a needle nose pliers and a pad to sit on.[/QUOT

Yes we used the snap together planks and after a short while have two places that have come apart. This is only a small gap but a gap nonetheless, did I fail to snap the board together good? that is possible I'm just saying that looking back I would glue every piece in a vehicle that moves and twist as it goes down the road I am still very happy with our floor.
On a side note we had carpet and tile so when we got ready to replace the carpet we had to add 3/8 plywood where the carpet was installed to bring the floor back to level with the tile. Removing the tile was not an option because the cabinets were all installed over the tile.

grindstone01 · 01-21-2019, 07:53 AM

It sounds like the panel snap feature failed which resulted in the gaps. We wedged our floor panels tight to the walls which prevents the floor from moving and would not allow seams to open between panels if the snap feature was to fail. The thought was that the floor area is so small that expansion/shrinkage should not be a problem like in a large floor.
We left the vinyl flooring in the kitchen area and I was concerned about the 1/8" height difference, but the wood planks just bridged over the step and still can't be detected.

WileyOne · 01-21-2019, 11:36 AM

I've always been advised NOT to put the floor all the way to the wall. Different materials expand and contract at different rates. I had a bathroom with a single sheet of vinyl that developed a ridge down the middle of the room because it had nowhere else to go when it expanded.

A good installer of LVT will leave a 1/4 inch gap near the walls and cover it with shoe-moulding, not quarter-round. Use the glue that is recommended for LVT. It never dries so the floor is allowed to expand and contract nicely. As a side benefit, you can easily replace any plank that gets damaged.

I would rule out ceramic tile because of the weight and thickness. Those are two things that you want to avoid in a motor-home installation.

jmckinley · 01-21-2019, 12:32 PM

I installed my laminate flooring per instructions: gap around the edges, no glue. After I was all done, I found some small print in the instructions that said “If installing in an environment that will experience high and/or low temperatures, this product should be glued down.”

grindstone01 · 01-21-2019, 02:17 PM

Two things to consider when installing a floor in a RV.

1. The floor sq footage is much smaller than in a house and therefor expansion/contraction is measured in 1/8" or 1/16" movement in a RV small room vs a large house room that might have 1/2" movements.
2. A RV will expand/contract with temperature swings along with the flooring. Whereas, a house will not expand/contract and the flooring needs a gap to be able to move within the solid structure.

My actual experience has found to wedge the floor laminate panels in tight and don't use glue in a RV environment.

FatChance · 01-21-2019, 06:55 PM

How can a floated LVP floor with click connections on each edge and a gap around the floor perimeter buckle and/or develop gaps?

rarebear.nm · 01-21-2019, 07:13 PM

I've redone our Minnie flooring and has been great so far. Used solid vinyl planking. One issue to think about is the greater temperature range flooring experiences in an RV vs a S&B. This depends on where you live and travel how much of a swing you'll see. Not so much while in use but in storage. Do not use vinyl with glue joints if you'll be cold climates, only click lock type joints.

Also be aware of how your slides operate. Will they rub on the flooring or not. Many different kinds of slide systems so there's no general answer on that.

Good luck and enjoy...

grindstone01 · 01-21-2019, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatChance

How can a floated LVP floor with click connections on each edge and a gap around the floor perimeter buckle and/or develop gaps?

Gaps develop because the click connections fail or get broken during installation. Floor buckling can happen in a house installation if a gap is not used around the edge, but I have not seen or heard of it happening in a RV. Has anyone reported/seen a RV floor that buckles?