Wecome To RVs and OHVs

This blog is all about RVs (recreational vehicles) and OHVs (Off Highway Vehicles), camping, sailing, and survival
and how they work together to provide wholesome family fun and great learning opportunities.
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Thursday, March 26, 2015

RV Flooring

You will find lots of different types of flooring in RVs.  For many years most motorhomes were mostly carpeted throughout.  While this provides extra insulation to keep the floor cool in summer and warm in winter and helps suppress road noise, carpet isn't always the optimal floor covering in galley and bathroom areas where it can become easily (and often permanently) soiled and stained.  Light weight laminate flooring and vinyl are good options for these areas.  Some high end RVs are even opting for ceramic tile.  Sure, it looks very good and adds a touch of class, but it is quite heavy and brittle.  I haven't seen enough of it yet to decide how it will stand up to the stress of vibration and tweaking during travel.  Vinyl and laminates are flexible enough that it isn't a problem.

If you have worn or faded carpeting in your RV, you can replace it.  You may want to have it professionally installed to ensure it is properly stretched so it fits snugly although you may be able to fit it your self in small areas.  If your carpet is still in fairly good shape but merely stained or faded or you want to change the color, you may be able to have it dyed.  If you end up replacing your carpet, you may want to consider whether you still want carpet throughout the RV or if you'd like to switch to vinyl or laminate in the kitchen and bathroom areas.  You will probably want to retain the carpet in the bedroom and over the engine compartment where it provides extra insulation against both engine noise and heat.  Carpet in the entry and main traffic lanes can be be hard to keep clean, but, if you switch from carpet to a hard surface flooring in the main aisle you may have to deal with cold floors during the cooler months and might have increased road noise.  If you really want the easier-to-clean floors, consider adding insulation under the flooring to mitigate these temperature and noise problems.  

Old carpet is one of the most obvious features that make an RV appear dated.   Replacing it with a more modern floor covering or even a more up to date carpet pattern will do wonders to make your RV appear newer and could even improve its appeal and resale value to future buyers should you decide to sell it.

If you have hard surface floors that get uncomfortably cold on cooler nights, you can always add rugs or runners as a buffer for bare feet.  Rugs and runners have an advantage over permanently installed carpet in that you can remove them as needed for cleaning or roll them up when you don't need them.  Runners and area rugs can be used over carpet too, to help keep it clean and they can be removed and cleaned as needed.  They are usually less expensive to replace than carpet if they do get soiled or worn.

RV floors are one of the common places you may find dry rot.  I've always found it interesting that dry rot is caused by wetness.   A plumbing leak or a leak around a vent, door, or window, or even a long term drip from an ice chest can allow water to seep under the flooring where it rots the sub-floor.  The primary symptom of this type of damage are areas where the floor feels spongy when you walk on it.  There may also be a musty odor that is difficult to get rid of.  If  you suspect you have damaged sub-floor you will need to remove the flooring and inspect the underlayment.  Any rotted or damaged sections should be carefully cut out and replaced before reinstalling the flooring.  Depending on how long the leak has been around, the damage may be limited to the underlayment or could have affected structural components like joists below.  When repairing this kind of water damage always replaced ALL the damaged components.  For my money, I would replace anything that is even in doubt to avoid having to do it all again before too long.  Anytime you have the floor open is a good time to assess the insulation and perhaps increase it for more comfort and better temperature and sound control inside your RV.

Protect your RV floors from premature wear by keeping them clean.  Use an awning mat or at least a welcome mat to trap mud and dirt before you track it inside.  A handy "rug" to wipe your feet on is an old burlap bag.  It's cheap and its coarse material helps scrape off stubborn deposits and you can hose if off or even toss in the the washer between trips to keep it clean and functional.  Sweep and/or vacuum floors often to remove loose grit that can scratch hard surface and actually cut off carpet fibers.   Clean up spills quickly so they don't stain flooring or seep beneath it.

Keep all your floors clean to avoid premature wear and tear.  Grime and grit quickly dull shiny floors and grit will cut the fibers in carpet.  Hard surfaces can be swept with a broom or dust mop and wet-mopped as necessary.  Carpets need to be thoroughly vacuumed on a regular basis.  Large upright vacuum cleaners don't always fit well in RVs.  Use a canister vac or a small, cordless unit in camp and do a thorough cleaning with the upright when you get home from every trip.  BTW, a learned from a vacuum cleaner salesman that moving the vacuum head quickly over carpet does a better job of getting out the grit than going slowly.

Don't be floored by flooring!

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