Chinook RV

Recently had vinyl plank flooring professionally installed in the living area of my dinette model Concourse. I'm really pleased with it, the gray picks up the corian and the gold hilights pickup the cabinets very nicely, and it's light and bright. It is Ezfit in the Earl Grey color, http://ezlayflooring.com/ezfit-vinyl-flooring/

Some history, the original carpet was removed long ago and replaced with cork, which I did like for the sound deadening and look. But, it was a poor install and the tiles edges had shrunk and curled. The installer stripped that out and added ¼ inch plywood as underlayment (in photo below), so that the planks slipped right under the existing base trim. The base was removed and reinstalled when the cork was laid, so don’t know if it had been put back at the original height tho. The carpeting was left under the sofa and in the cabinets, and in the cab area in both installs.

There are bolts sticking up out of the floor that he notched the plywood around and filled the voids, 2 in front of the sofa, 2 behind the driver and passenger seats and 1 under the dinette table. The bolts are longer than the plywood and he did not want to grind them so he also notched the underside of the flooring. It is a floating type floor, but he glued down both the underlayment and planks due to the flexing when underway. He also commented that he did not like the caulk on the rear step, that it turned out too light and that he'll be back to change it to a less-contrasty color.

The void in front of the rear step threshold is covered by a plank that is flush with and tight to the threshold so there must be something solid under that edge but don't know if it needed underlayment or the gap filled. Last year my step got very wet when it rained, re-caulking around the hatch behind the spare tire stopped that leak. On that note, it seems that the dicor tape or whatever the hatch frames were originally set with is failing after 12-15 years. Have had to caulk around the rear hatch, the battery/storage hatch and the refer hatch including the joint between the hatch frame and the hatch floor. Thankfully none of the leaks were long enough to damage under the flooring so no reconstruction needed.

Cheers,
Jeanie K
2000 Concourse

Nice color, Jeanie! Goes well with the light grey interior.

When I got rid of my decades old sand filled carpet, I wanted to divide the cabin into three spaces: carpet for the cockpit, wood for the living area, and stone look vinyl for the kitchen / bath section.
Interestingly, the sound/thermal barrier underlayer cost more than the wood and vinyl combined. The wood was about $40, the vinyl a lucky Lowes scrap piece for $8, and the underlayment about $50. Add in two aluminum transition strips between the front and rear of the wood, plus some trim, and total parts was around $150.

The labor was all mine, and done after work and dinner. Removing the carpet was the hardest part and took a few days. Laying the wood and tile took only a couple of slow evenings. My 13 year old daughter helped laying the wood.
I still haven't figured out what to do with the rear step though. I kept the lighted step trim, but don't know what to put for the step itself... tile, rubber, or whatever.

Kev

I'm enjoying this thread.... as I noodle what to do myself to replace the original carpet.

Jeanie: Your floor looks great. It's fun to see a "color of wood" other than brown - your choice really suits your rig.

Kev: Yours looks good too! Nothing like before/after photos Can you give more detail on the sound/thermal barrier underlayer you used?

Those floors look nice. My Premier has been lightly used and we just topped 20K on the odometer so the carpet isn't too worn but this is an upgrade I'd like to do.

Yeah, my carpet is in great shape because the rig was lightly used and had "grandpa plastic" on everything. But it's still carpet in an RV. Ugh!!! I want to go camping, not vacuuming!

Kev, Very classy & unusual floor & cooktop area, I love it
Jeanie perfect match with the grey seating...nice job.

Blue~Go wrote:I'm enjoying this thread.... as I noodle what to do myself to replace the original carpet.

Warning: a downside of not having carpet, is that every little spec of dust shows up and drives you crazy... unless of course you pick a floor color that hides it

Can you give more detail on the sound/thermal barrier underlayer you used?

I picked TrafficMASTER Premium 3-in-1 Underlayment, because of the great reviews on the Home Depot website.

(Paying attention to material reviews is critical. I had also picked out a vinyl tile that I thought looked great, but the reviews all said it was tissue thin and tore easily just by people walking on it with heels. Ditto for some laminate wood flooring.)

THE WOOD:

The wood picked me more than I picked it. I had taken home a dozen wood samples from Home Depot and Lowes, and laid them down to see which I liked best in the light of the real interior (not just in the store).

I had originally decided on more of a light maple, but at the store I ran across a High Gloss Jatoba flooring, which had two big things going in its favor: second most important, it was less than $30 for an 18+ sq foot case. Which meant, if I didn't like it, it was no big loss to try it out.

But more importantly, each piece is 5-5/8" wide. This meant that three across fit EXACTLY in the aisle space between the foot of the sofa and the bottom of the dinette, at least in my rig. So bonus: no length-wise cuts needed, only simple cross-cuts. (Another benefit of only doing wood in the dinette area, as well.)

As I have mentioned elsewhere, I took care of the bolts in the floor under the dinette, by using a hole saw to cut about 1/2 through from the rear of each affected wood plank... then using a small chisel (screwdriver and hammer!) to easily remove the rest of the material where the bolt head would go, right up to behind the laminate wood topping. Thus I ended up with just tiny hole-saw pilot-holes on the upper visible side, which are easily hidden with a bit of wood filler.

THE VINYL TILE:

The vinyl tile sheet that I used first, was a much lighter color, almost white marble. But that really showed dirt when you walked in, so out it came and in went a slightly darker grey/brown called Pompano stone from Lowes. A side benefit of laying it twice is that I was able to use the first sheet as a template to do a much better outside pre-cut of the second version, which then fit almost perfectly right away, also requiring less wood trim. Side story: At first I couldn't find this pattern in stock at any of several Lowes I went to. Finally at one store a part-timer said, let's check the remnants, which were hidden off to the side. There he found a piece and sadly said he was sorry, but it's only 4 feet long by 12 feet wide. Ha! But looking at it sideways, four feet wide by eight feet long is all I needed, so it was perfect! And only $8 as a remnant. Score!

Concourse St Tropez wrote:Kev, Very classy & unusual floor & cooktop area, I love it

Thanks for noticing! Yeah, we actually love separating the kitchen from the sofa/dinette section. I plan to add some kind of wrought iron scrollwork perhaps on the sink side, as well.

For the stove side, I bought a beveled and frosted glass pane from eBay for about $35. Then I got a 1" wood sheet and used a router to round off the sides, and to cut a groove inside that holds the glass pane perfectly.

The biggest surprise while doing this, was finding out how much the walls curve in as you go up on that side. I had to cut much more of a curve in the wall-facing board that I had imagined it would take. I think it came in almost 2" from bottom to top. I then took apart the existing low factory divider, and used its trim pieces to help place the new partition. It looks pretty nice (although I still want to add some trim around the glass), and I think it makes the stove area feel safer too

Thanks for all the great info. Great ideas, as always!

Funny, but I'm doing something vaguely similar for my stove area. I've eliminated the microwave and microwave cabinet (don't use microwave and don't like "limboing" to cook, which at least in my era Chinook, was necessary due to how low and how far out the microwave box projected - looks like it might have been a bit less obtrusive on older rigs). So after I had the new height (ahhhh!), I felt I wanted a bit of separation (and a place for my window curtain to "land"), and so when I made the new bulkhead at the forward end of the stove cabinet, I made it with a "thicker" vertical piece (as opposed to no vertical piece before). In other words, there is now a section that runs up the wall where the stove wall turns into the living room wall, and projects out around 11" or so. So now I have a "corner" there.

BTW, side note, but I HUGELY prefer the curtains I've rigged up to replace the original blinds. I only made them as tester versions (cheap fleece and instant curtain rings), but oh what a difference! Why do I prefer them?

1) They are actually private - no holes to peek through, and you can't see through them (the blinds, even on "night" could still be seen through from outside).

2) They open in the same "plane" as the windows, so I can open a window a few inches, and a curtain a few inches (blinds opened in opposite plane).

3) If I for some reason want to take a peek outside, I actually can (vs. not really being able to pull a wee bit of blind to the side).

4) I can get settled into bed and then if I want to, just easily open the curtains to look out at the stars (and quickly re-close them if I want to) (without even getting up ).

5) In the morning, just a simple tug and curtains are open. No more leaning over the furniture and lifting the blinds (mine were kind of stiff).

6) They can't bang on the window frame when I'm driving.

I made them with an amount of fabric that lies pretty flat when they are closed, so there is not that much fabric to "find a place for" when they are open. With the slanted Concourse windows, it makes it even easier as they can sort of "tuck into" the wall part of the slopes (I hate curtains that block the window during the day).

I'm also not going to be putting back the big (deep) valances. I'll make shorter ones that just cover the curtain tracks. Bonus is I'll be able to see out better when curtains are open (the valances hid a good inch or more of window at the top).

I imagine the blinds are preferable for some. I just ended up liking the curtains a lot better for this use. Funny, because I was never the "curtain type" in houses and *always* preferred blinds.

Hmm, that ended up a bit of a tangent. Somehow I got from floors to window treatments! Well eventually I'll make a thread, but for now, my mockups are not that much to look at, although I'm really liking the function.

Just finished an interior refurb on my 2003 Premier - included flooring, reupholstery, and MCD blinds

A few pics below - more at http://chinookers.blogspot.com/2015/12/ ... art-3.html