Repairing the Floor

One of the things I learned when I was taking all the other stuff out of the inside of the camper, unfortunately, is there are some punky spots in the floor. One I can show you right here. And this, look at just with hand pressure, look at what's going on there. Then you can imagine how that is when you step off the steps into there. And it's not an uncommon problem around the door. The other one is up here at the nose of the trailer. I'll show you that when we get inside. So, what I'm after on this next step is to get the bad spots out, and then figure out what it's gonna take to get new sound substrate in there. Here inside the camper, what I have found is that up in this front corner, I can actually stick my finger down into the floor. That's not normal. And if I pull a little bit, I can feel that the deck, the sub floor under the linol, under the linoleum, easy for me to say, is punky. So the goal with this is gonna be to get the bad stuff out until we get back to sound material and then patch that in. And right over here, I've got the portable water tank. So initially I was looking at this and I, you know, I'd like to not take anything out I don't have to, but that's gonna be a case where in order to work around in here, it's gonna be easier to just take the tank out than to keep working around it. So again, ah, masking tape and a Sharpie, get all that stuff labeled so that when months from now, or whenever it is time to put everything back in, you know, I know what the right connections are and all that stuff. And actually in the case of the tank, it's nice. It's already labeled. So I think somebody's already done this. And that brings to the head, the question of we can fix the floor, but what caused the problem, and here in the front of the trailer, I really think it had to do with that potable tank, because it looked like the leak originated over there, and that's what affected all the flooring on the substrate, on the nose over here. By the door, I did some poking around. I have done some poking around on the net, and it looks like near doors that's a common problem, which makes sense. I know all it takes is the door getting left open. But that being said, once the floor is out, we'll have a look at that and see, do we need to do some new caulking on the door or something like that to make sure that doesn't happen again. But inside here at the nose, I really feel like it was that potable water tank, but more to be found as we go. And next thing is getting that tank out. When I talk about the floor being bad, of course what I mean is the subfloor. What we're seeing here is that we've got linoleum, which would have been the original floor in the camper. There's actually a little piece of carpet left in the back room where those three bunks were. And then in addition to that, we've got this vinyl stuff. So the owner before me put in the vinyl, so I'm gonna peel that out and I am gonna save it. I'm gonna try to not take all of the flooring out. So if we can salvage that, why waste it? And if maybe if it's caught in pattern too, I can match it back in to come back and refloor everything. Then here with the vinyl. There you go. And boy, at first blush, now I don't wanna jinx myself here, but I'm liking what I'm seeing here, which is that this corner is clearly bad. You know, just even by the sound you can tell that this is gross and punky, and of course, if I start picking away at it, it comes with me, which it shouldn't. But I don't have to get too far from that for the plywood to get solid again. So um, cautious optimism will be the buzzword here. I'm gonna get all this linoleum out. I'm gonna get the vinyl back past the edge of the door, and then really have a good look at how things look. I've got the linoleum, the old linoleum out, and all of that vinyl click floor is out of here. And the bottom line is I don't know exactly what the substructure is gonna look like. So up here in this corner it's punky. It's soft enough that I think with a hammer and a flat bar, I can start tearing some plywood out of there. And what that little exploratory surgery is gonna do is give me a feel for what the system looks like, which will then tell me, you know, I think at some point here, gonna end up running a circular saw, and cutting back to good wood and then replacing the bad stuff. But I want to know what it looks like under the plywood. So like I said, I think I can, I can peel enough of the bad stuff out of there to at least get a feel for what I have. Well, honestly, where I'm at that quickly is enough to give me a good feel for figuring out what I need to do next. We've got, you know, kind of a rim joist here in the building construction world, floor joist here, and then insulation is supposed to be here. So we can replace that as we get the new floor in here too. So what this will let me do, seeing this, I think what I can do next is get a circ saw cut back here someplace, and then peel back to that point. So we'll go from there and just keep, like I said earlier, taking a bad floor out until we get to solid stuff. Back after this floor again. And you know, really this is gonna be a rinse and repeat kind of a thing. I've got that circ saw set so that it's cutting plywood, but not cutting the floor joist. And what I'm gonna do is like I did on the first step, I'm just gonna keep working my way back, removing plywood until I get to solid material. What I'm really looking for is the point where under the plywood, those floor joists become solid, because what I'll need to do eventually is tie back into those. Now it's possible that this is gonna become kind of L-shape, because in the center of the camper over here, that floor seems pretty good, but of course that bad spot is still there by the door, and this has to come out. So currently my agenda is cutting back to a joist here someplace to get to solid wood. And then up at the front of the camper, still gotta kind of see what happens. Now, the other thing I wanna mention is this. When I took that first chunk of plywood out, I did that cutting and I removed the material, and I realized pretty fast, I should've had a mask on. There's a lot going on there. If nothing else, I'm creating a lot of dust in a confined area, so mask. On top of that, I'm working with stuff that's been wet for who knows how long. So the bottom line is it's gross. So from here on out, it's gonna be a mask for me. And really when you're doing this kind of dusty tear out in your camper, you really wanna protect your nose just like you're protecting your eyes and your hearing. So my agenda is get in here and tear plywood out, and hopefully the next time you have to look at this we're looking at the solid wood components, so we know what kind of replacement I need to do. All right, this has been a long and slow process to get to this point. One of the things I do want to point out, I'm being really careful working around the membrane that's under the floor. And the reason is the membrane is actually still intact, and I don't want to suddenly get my foot in the wrong spot and step through it or something and put a big tear in it. I don't want to do anything to put a tear in it. So I'm really carefully working around this by walking only on the joists, the sleepers, and then also just being really, really careful about where I step and where I put cameras and stuff. So here's where I'm at. On this outside of the camper, one of the things that's really good news is that the plates on the bottom of the walls are all in really good shape, which honestly surprised me for the condition of everything else in here. But that's great, because then I don't have to open up the wall and get to that bottom plate. On this particular wall, the joist, the last rim piece that's out here on the outside of the camper is still there and it's in fine shape. But the problem I'm up against is that if I don't sister something alongside it here, when I come in with plywood, I won't have anything to nail the plywood to. So I need to get this piece in alongside the other one so that when the deck comes along, basically I'm just creating a ledge here that's gonna carry it. So simple stuff. I mean, all I'm doing is getting it in place, and then I'm going with screws for everything rather than nails just to make sure I get a good bite, and it stays stuck once it's in there. And more of the same. I'm just going to drive screw after screw after screw to secure these parts together and make sure they stay stuck. Where I'm at now is getting this rim piece, you know, from my building construction background, that's kind of a rim joist. So I'm getting that rim piece in. And one of the things to be cognizant of is that because of the skin on the outside of the trailer, I can't get fasteners through this, the board we just put in and tie it into that. So instead I am using angle irons here. So I'm going to finish driving that together. Talk more about that. But one of the things, one of the things too, that I wanted to mention is that I did a switch, a screw switch, after I got started on that first piece, I was adding back in. I realized that those screws I was using were nowhere near beefy enough for what we were asking of them. So I switched to these lag screws to just to make sure I got a better bite between this board and the existing board that's still under the wall. Now with these, what that angle iron will do is tie these two pieces together. And then the other thing to keep in mind here is that once the deck comes on, once plywood comes on, and that overlays these pieces and all, and gets fastened to them, that also is going to help bridge everything so that it ties these parts together. We want a floor to end up being like one big monolith when it's done. So the angle iron plus the plywood is gonna help with that. And there's nothing, nothing funky about these. Hardware store stuff and that impact driver, vroom, vroom. That's why I keep my hearing protection in, even when all I'm doing is driving screws. It's loud anyway. And in a confined environment like this, you know, again, we want to be safety conscious throughout this. You might notice that the sleepers, the joists, are missing from here. And the reason for that is I used a jigsaw, handheld jigsaw, and I cut them back and they're not necessarily cut back yet to the point where I'm at good wood, and I'm gonna tie into them. We'll get into that yet. But what I wanted to do was cut back where I knew the ends were bad, and I needed to provide some clearance to make it easy to get that rim piece in. So that's set for now, and this is cool. The next step is going to be start bringing those sleepers, the floor joists back in, and then from there insulation and plywood. More floor, floor, floors are us. What I've noticed and you may have seen too, there's a membrane that's under the camper, and it's actually sandwiched. It's above the steel frame and below the sleepers or the wooden joists. And there are a couple of spots where it's a little droopy. And I own a staple gun and I could staple it, but I felt like I want something on that that I know is gonna be a little bit more robust connection is, is definitely gonna keep that fabric tight. So here's my plan with that. I've got a table saw in the building, and we'll talk more about tools here in just a second. And what I did is I went to a home center, and I bought a treated two by four. And I think it's really important that this is treated because it's going to live outside under the camper, not inside the camper. Using the table saw I ripped that into half inch thick strips. So these are one and a half by half. And of course the sleepers, the joists are on edge. So they're the same width as this piece right here. Then using a counter sink in my drill, I've already pre-drilled these, and I did that so that when I start driving screws, I don't take a chance of splitting these. So I'm pretty close to the next step, which is crawl underneath there, and drive screws through the pre-drilled holes. Now we're doing exterior wood. We're getting all set up here. So the screws should also be exterior to make sure that they're gonna not rust away on you. Once you've got these ready now, like I said, we can get underneath there, and be some tricky camera work to get this for you, but we'll get these fastened up in place to the bottom of the sleepers. Now with tools, I'll just mention here in the building, I have brought a benchtop, a portable table saw, and I've also got a miter saw here. And then of course, a selection of hand tools, circ saw, belt sander, jigsaw, saws all. And with the bigger tools, with the miter saw and the table saw, that was important, because as I started to produce those new joists that I was swapping in, I didn't want to have to constantly run to some other shop and cut parts, come back, cut parts, come back. So having a few portable tools on site for your operation is gonna make things go a little bit easier. So next, um, let's crawl under a camper. Well, I'm under the camper now, obviously, and you can see over there, I've already got a couple of battens in place and another one here. So what I'm doing is feeling through the fabric, and then there's a joist right there. So when I put my batten up, I wanna make sure that my screws are gonna go into that joist, that I'm not gonna miss. And then, brr, brr, should be able to just drive some screws. Oh yeah, so it's nice. The batten is just acting like a really big washer to make sure that that fabric doesn't have the opportunity to tear through and come loose. That is definitely going to hold that in place. We know that the ends of some of these joists, the sleepers are shot, but they're not completely shot. So the next thing inside here is to look for a point where we get to good material, and then tie into that with a new piece in a way that structurally is gonna work. And also just is simple enough to do. So, let me get some tools pulled together, and then we'll look at out with the old and in with the new here. Here's where things are at. I've got a bad end, easily identified, because that wood was in really, really bad shape. And then just looking at the remaining lumber here. I'm looking for a part here where it gets sound. Now, the other thing I know is that underneath here, right there is a steel component of the trailer. Now it'd be great, and we can do it in this case, to split this right over that steel so that both the old one and the new one are gonna be resting on that steel. If I had to come back further with the system I'm about to use here, I would be okay with that. If in order to eliminate bad material, I had to cut back here where I'm not over a steel frame component, I would do that. What I've done so far is located the steel. Then I used my square and a pencil and I squared up so that I have a good square line there. And the next thing, let's get that bad spot cut out. Jigsaw is a great tool for that. And what I want to do as I cut is also lift a little bit. I wanna make sure the jigsaw blade doesn't penetrate the membrane down here. That went well. And I've already got a new piece cut. That's gonna fit in there. There we go. And here's the thing. The key to this are pieces of scrap plywood. And the way this is gonna work is we're gonna bridge that seam with those plywood scraps. Plywood is incredibly strong stuff. And coupled with the plywood, we're going to add glue and screws, and that is really gonna make this basically just like having one long piece again when we're done. For the sake of keeping this simple, the width of that plywood is just a little bit less than the width, about an eighth inch less, than the width of the sleeper. The last thing we want is for the plywood to end up standing proud of the two-by material. Then bridge that seam about evenly. I have got in my hot little hands, another piece to go on that side. So I just have to get my platform out of the way here. But the bottom line is, I'm simply gonna glue and screw that to this face so that I'm doubled up like that. And when this is done, that is gonna be a really, really strong system. Here's a big moment. The last piece of plywood is about to get put in, but let's talk about a couple things. Notice the insulation in the floor. I've insulated the floor with what's called mineral wool or rock wool insulation. One of the things I really like about that stuff is it does not hold moisture. So this is a good application for it. Because of using that, that's part of the reason that I wanted to make sure those battens got under the fabric. And the reason being that that mineral wool, it's got some density to it. Now it's not that sitting there, I'm worried about it caving in, especially with the battens that I put underneath, but just be cognizant that if you use that it does have some weight to it, and you wanna make sure that that fabric under the camper is gonna support that. The other thing, as you work with plywood, just a couple of general guidelines are, we wanna keep factory edges whenever possible. So when I'm cutting this piece, the piece that's gonna fill in here, I would like to keep the factory edge on that end butting against the factory edge that's already in place, and then the cut edge goes out here up against the wall. Now, if you have to do a trim, you have to do a trim, and in this case I did. I had to do a trim on the piece that's about to come in in order to get everything to work out just right. So if you gotta do it, you gotta do it, but it in the perfect world, factory edge to factory edge here on the long seams, and on the short seams where pieces are meeting. The other thing is that we want to be half on a joist. So what I mean by that is that this chunk of plywood is half on this joist, and then the next piece of plywood is gonna come on here, so it's got something to be fastened to, and that's just a, you know, a construction guideline that you always follow when you're doing flooring or roofing. Last check I'm doing is just to make sure the insulation is down inside the pockets. There aren't any chunks of insulation laying on top of the framing. I have got, if you look out here, I've got these locations marked on the wall, so that as I come along with a screw gun, more on that in a second, I know that sleeper, that joist is there, center is there, center is there. Gives me a visual to make sure I don't miss. Now, I am, just referenced it a little bit. I'm doing my work with a screw gun. The original floor was stapled, and I don't own a stapler that shoots a long enough staple to accurately secure this stuff. As a general rule, you want to shoot ah, you wanna put in a fastener that's at least twice as long as what you're going through. This is 5/8th plywood. I should have an inch and a quarter staple going into it. I don't have a stapler that'll do that, but I do own a screw gun that I can use to drive long screws. So I'm doing this with a screw gun instead of a stapler. All right, a lot of talking, and let's look at getting the plywood to come in. The official dance step of getting plywood in place, nice. Well, we ended with a lot of screwing around . The whole floor was a lot of screwing around. Just a lot of little fussy things to do to get this right, but definitely worth doing, because obviously there were some bad spots in here that had to go. With those screws, if there's any place where you feel like you might've missed, get a standard cordless screwdriver, back those screws out. You wanna do that now, because sometimes if you do, I don't know what's going to end up in here as a final floor, but if you do say a vinyl or linoleum floor over a screw that isn't actually seated into the joist, it can kind of start to back out, and put a high spot near finished floor. That takes care of this flooring project, and it was interesting, but I will say, I am glad it's done.