RV Flooring Replacement for a Chassis That Twists

What Comes Out Before the Floor Does

Flooring hours are mostly not flooring. On a typical coach the dinette is bolted through the deck, the sofa or theater seats are lagged into blocking, the bed platform is screwed and often stapled, the toilet has to come up off its flange, and every run of base trim has to be pulled without splitting it. On a motorhome add the driver and passenger seat pedestals if the new floor runs forward into the cab area.

Some of that furniture was never designed to come out twice. Coach dinettes are frequently assembled before the wall panels went on at the plant, which means the fasteners you need are behind a panel that is now finished. Theater seating with power recline has wiring routed down through the deck. We plan for those discoveries because they are normal, and they are the main reason a flooring quote carries a range instead of a single number.

We photograph everything before it comes out, bag the hardware by location and label it. Removal and reinstallation are quoted as separate lines on your estimate so you can see both halves of the cost. On a 30 foot coach the two together are typically 8 to 12 hours, roughly a third of the labor. If you are considering new furniture, decide before demolition, because putting the old dinette back and swapping it six months later means paying for the same removal twice.

Slide Rooms and the Floor That Runs Under Them

The floor has to continue under the slide rooms. If it stops at the slide opening you get a visible edge, a lip that catches dirt and toes, and a seal that no longer wipes across a flat surface. Doing it correctly means running the rooms out, flooring the exposed main deck, then bringing each room in partway to lay the covered section and back out to finish the edge. It adds hours, and skipping it is the most common shortcut in low bid flooring work.

Slide room floors are their own job. Most slide boxes have a thin deck, often three eighths or half inch ply, sometimes with a lightweight substrate over it, and they carry a great deal of weight relative to that thickness. The slide floor also sits directly under the seal that fails first on almost every coach, which is why it is where we find rot most often. A soft slide floor gets addressed before any finish material goes down over it.

Floor height under a slide is a hard constraint, not a preference. Add too much thickness and the room drags on the new floor, or the wiper seal loads hard enough to tear itself apart within a season. We measure the clearance under each room at the estimate and pick a material stack that fits it. That is one reason we lean toward 5mm rigid core plank rather than a 12mm laminate on coaches with large rooms.

• Run slides out, floor the main deck, then cycle each room to finish underneath
• Measure slide clearance before committing to any material thickness
• Inspect the slide deck for rot while it is exposed, since seals fail there first
• Keep transitions under the slide box, not at the opening, to avoid a visible edge
• Confirm the wiper seal still contacts flat once the new floor is in
• Reset slide rollers and check topper tension after any change in deck height

Subfloor Rot, Luan and Plywood Decking

Once the old covering is off we probe the deck. An awl and a moisture meter tell you most of what you need within an hour. We check the perimeter first, then every slide opening, then around the toilet flange, the entry step, the water heater bay wall, and anywhere a plumbing line passes through the floor. Soft, dark, or a meter reading above roughly 16 percent means the deck comes out in that area rather than getting covered up.

Decking construction differs by builder. Many towables use five eighths inch plywood over aluminum or steel structure, some use a laminated panel with a foam core between thin skins, and some use luan over a subframe with the finish material bonded straight to it. Luan is the worst case, because it delaminates once it has been wet and cannot be dried and reused. Plywood decking that is only surface damp along one edge can often be dried, treated and kept in place.

Cutting out rot is straightforward carpentry done in an awkward position. We cut back to sound material at a joist or structural member, scarf in matching thickness plywood, block the seams underneath, seal the cut edges and refasten to structure. A 12 square foot patch typically adds 6 to 10 hours of labor at $210 per hour, which is $1,260 to $2,100, plus decking material. A full slide floor is a larger conversation and gets quoted after the room is pulled.

Choosing Between Vinyl Plank, Sheet Vinyl, Laminate and Carpet

Rigid core vinyl plank is what we install most often. It handles flex better than laminate, it is genuinely waterproof at the plank itself, it is light at roughly 1.5 pounds per square foot in 5mm, and a damaged plank in the middle of a room can be replaced later. Its weakness is that a floating plank floor needs a proper perimeter gap and correct transitions, and in a coach that means paying close attention where cabinets and slide rooms land.

Sheet vinyl is the lightest and least expensive option, it has no seams for water to get through, and it is what the factory used on most coaches for good reason. It also shows every irregularity in the deck beneath it, dents under furniture feet, and cannot be repaired invisibly once torn. Laminate is the material we push back on hardest: the core swells when wet, it is heavy at roughly 2.4 pounds per square foot, and it clicks and creaks on a deck that flexes.

Carpet still makes sense in a bedroom and on slide room floors where noise matters. It is light, it is quiet, and it hides deck irregularity that would telegraph through sheet goods. It also absorbs everything, and in a coach that sits closed for weeks at a time it holds odor. Most owners we work with end up with plank through the living area and galley and carpet in the bedroom, which is a sensible split on both weight and comfort.

• Rigid core plank at 5mm: about 1.5 pounds per square foot, waterproof, repairable
• Sheet vinyl: lightest and cheapest, seamless, but telegraphs every deck flaw
• Laminate at 12mm: about 2.4 pounds per square foot and swells at the core if wet
• Carpet: light and quiet, best confined to the bedroom and slide room floors
• Skip tile in any form on a chassis that twists under load
• Match total material thickness to slide clearance before ordering anything

Adhesives, Flex and Heat

A coach body twists. Back one wheel onto a curb and watch a door that used to close cleanly start binding at the top corner. That movement goes straight into the floor, and it is why rigid assemblies fail at the seams. Floating floors handle it better than fully glued ones across open areas, but around the perimeter and under cabinet runs you still need the deck itself to be stiff and properly fastened before any finish material goes down over it.

Adhesive selection matters more here than in a house because of heat. A closed coach parked in Southern California sun runs past 120 degrees at the floor and considerably hotter at a south facing window. Standard pressure sensitive flooring adhesive softens at those temperatures, plank edges creep, and you find gaps at the walls by the end of the first summer. We use adhesives rated for elevated service temperature and we follow the open time on the label rather than rushing a set to save an hour.

Expansion is the other half of the problem. Every floating floor needs a perimeter gap, and in a coach that gap has to be planned around slide openings, cabinet toe kicks and the entry step rather than measured off a wall. Too tight and the floor peaks in July. Too loose and you see daylight under a trim piece cut for a house sized reveal. We scribe trim to fit the actual wall line, which is slower and looks correct for the life of the floor.

Square Footage Math and Real Cost Examples

A 30 foot coach is not 30 feet of floor. Subtract the cab or hitch area, the bathroom, the shower pan, the area under fixed cabinets, and the bed platform if you are not going underneath it. Usable open floor on a 30 foot unit typically lands between 190 and 230 square feet including slide rooms. We measure it room by room at the estimate and order with 10 percent added for cuts, waste and pattern alignment.

Here is a full job on that coach at 210 square feet. Labor: 4 hours furniture removal, 5 hours demolition, 3 hours deck inspection and prep, 12 hours plank installation, 3 hours transitions and trim, 4 hours reinstallation. That is 31 hours at $210 per hour, or $6,510. Material: 231 square feet of plank at $3.10 costs $716.10 and marks up 35 percent to $966.74. Adhesive and underlayment at $240 becomes $324. Transitions at $160 become $216.

Parts total $1,506.74 and tax at 7.75 percent adds $116.77, so the invoice lands at $8,133.51 with a 50 percent deposit of $4,066.76 collected at authorization. A smaller job looks very different. One slide room floor at 42 square feet is 7 hours at $210, or $1,470, plus 46 square feet of plank costing $142.60 marked up to $192.51, and $85 of adhesive marked up to $170. Parts of $362.51 plus $28.09 of tax puts that invoice at $1,860.60, below the deposit threshold.

• Usable floor on a 30 foot coach: roughly 190 to 230 square feet with slides
• Order 10 percent extra material for cuts, waste and pattern alignment
• Furniture removal and reinstallation: typically 8 to 12 hours combined
• Subfloor patching: add 6 to 10 hours per 12 square feet of rotted deck
• Body and paint labor: $210 per hour, with tax applied to material only
• A 50 percent deposit is collected on any authorized job above $2,000