MOD Moar (Vinyl) Floor - Removing the carpet in a 2020 Newmar Ventana

[JRS]

Great job! Talented! Really looks good

 

[bpaikman]

Over the weekend, I filled in the portions of the main floor that wrap around the ends of the FWS. To some, it might look scary but its very simple. I cut a scrap of 1/2" birch that I had from building MapWife's larger dinette booth drawers to fit the area, being sure to leave plenty of room for the slide to come in and out as well as adjust left and right as it kind of shimmies slightly when it goes in and out. That left me 1/8" short so again, I glued some scrap vinyl flooring to the top of the wood. Next, I screwed that all down into the subfloor with some 1 1/4" kreg screws and then cut a strip of vinyl to fit the area, and glued it to the now raised subfloor with liquid nails.

Raising the subfloor in this way was done for two reasons:
1. To give me a perfectly flush floor
2. More importantly, to provide support for the vinyl flooring attached to the slide that overlaps and slides over that area, so that if/when someone steps there, the flooring on the slide won't collapse or give in any way.

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Did the same in the front, which was a bit more challenging only because the working space was far more limiting and required bringing in the FWS 1/4 of the way, then contorting myself into a pretzel behind the driver's seat while it was turned 90-degrees. Many choice words were uttered as I struggled to shapeshift my already small 5'10" 150lb frame into a workspace the size of the kitchen pantry. We also decided to lay down a bead of colored caulk to keep the grout line seamless in the front. In the rear, this is hidden by the slide vinyl flooring that moves with the slide but in the front, it was not.
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Today, Newmar's vinyl transition strip showed up. So we unrolled it. In the Newmar store, it appeared to come with a 3M strip attached which would have made for super simple installation. Of course, mine did not. After dry fitting the strip and cutting it to size (it comes in 38' rolls, the slide is only 34' long), I then put a bead of liquid nails down under each of the floorboards on the leading edge of the slide. That thin bead will probably not do much but for whatever reason, it made me feel better.

Next, I grabbed a roll of black 3M double-sided tape and after wiping down the back of the transition strip with isopropyl alcohol, as well as the first 1/2" of each floorboard on the leading edge of the slide, I painstakingly applied the 3M tape to the back of transition strip on the narrow side. Then I had to trim the overlapping tape to width with a razor knife. More choice words...

With this done, it was just a matter of sticking the transition strip to the first row of vinyl planks. Initially, we wondered if we'd done the right thing as the quarter round we were considering earlier gives a matching finish and looks really nice. After giving it some thought thought, we realized slides move and adjust. The flexible transition strip allows for play in the elevation as it will form up or down as needed. A hard piece of quarter round would not do this so if the slide were ever out of alignment and needed adjustment, you'd be fighting the alignment precision to get everything lined up properly again. So in the end, we think the flexible vinyl transition was the right move and it also gives it a stock look, which is something I personally like.

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Love this... now, come do ours. I want ALL flooring replaced, so it should be easy to match.