Slightly Soft Spot with a Couple Tears in Floor. Repair?

[holliwood]

I have a slight soft spot in our Roo 232 at the rear in front of the end bunk with a couple tears in the flooring. We've had the camper for 2 years and it's been there the whole time, so it never was a big deal, but we had a lot of rain back in September, and we aquired a small roof leak in that same area. I sent it to the RV repair guys to fix and seal the roof and fix the few things that got wet inside on the roof. Well, now I noticed that one of the tears in the floor is now a hole about 2" diameter, so I want to patch/cover it somehow without having to replaced the laminate in the entire camper. I was thinking about making a piece of 16/18 gauge sheet metal powdercoated brown to lay down in the area and glue it down. Anybody have any other ideas on what to do? We've always just put a rug down over the spot, but if we sell it, the next person may not want to do that.

[razzle408]

I know you prob dont want to hear this but i would recover the floor with a good grade of vinyl tiles. It would not cost very much and that way everything would match if you decide to sell. My wife did our previous camper and it looked factory!

[Indy500]

Is all that from water damage, you said the floor is soft. How much of the floor needs replaced before putting on a new vinyl floor

[holliwood]

Most likely yes. We've had the camper for 2 years now (3rd owners), and that spot (28"X15'') has always been a little soft with the tears. The guy we bought it from said it had a small leak back there from the original owner not closing the back bunk hatch secure enough one time it started raining on him while camping, so some got on the rear deck and floor right there. But, the 2nd owner took and put a new rear deck board on it and checked over everything else, which he said was not bad.
We've never had an issue with it, but back in Sept, it rained really hard for a while in the Houston area, and the sewer exhaust pipe started leaking some. It went down the pipe inside the bathroom wall and down to the floor a little (most moisture was on the inside ceiling). It just spent 3 weeks at the RV shop getting the roof resealed and having the SealTech pressure test performed. They ran the dehumidifier for 3 days in it, and repaired the inside ceiling pieces that got wet. The owner and I discussed the flooring, and he told me at this point, it really wasn't that bad and I shouldn't be too concerned about it yet. That small area is really the only part that is a little soft, so I just wanted to put something down to secure it a little more since my daughter is always in the rear bunk. We're probably going to sell it soon, so I don't really want to replace the entire floor right now.

Originally Posted by Indy500

Is all that from water damage, you said the floor is soft. How much of the floor needs replaced before putting on a new vinyl floor

[Indy500]

Originally Posted by holliwood

Most likely yes. We've had the camper for 2 years now (3rd owners), and that spot (28"X15'') has always been a little soft with the tears. The guy we bought it from said it had a small leak back there from the original owner not closing the back bunk hatch secure enough one time it started raining on him while camping, so some got on the rear deck and floor right there. But, the 2nd owner took and put a new rear deck board on it and checked over everything else, which he said was not bad.
We've never had an issue with it, but back in Sept, it rained really hard for a while in the Houston area, and the sewer exhaust pipe started leaking some. It went down the pipe inside the bathroom wall and down to the floor a little (most moisture was on the inside ceiling). It just spent 3 weeks at the RV shop getting the roof resealed and having the SealTech pressure test performed. They ran the dehumidifier for 3 days in it, and repaired the inside ceiling pieces that got wet. The owner and I discussed the flooring, and he told me at this point, it really wasn't that bad and I shouldn't be too concerned about it yet. That small area is really the only part that is a little soft, so I just wanted to put something down to secure it a little more since my daughter is always in the rear bunk. We're probably going to sell it soon, so I don't really want to replace the entire floor right now.

I know the RV shops dont replace the whole floor , but they usually try to pull up what's down now and use sheetmetal to strengthen the soft wood underneath then lay more vinyl down to hide the metal
Good luck with that, but if someone feels a soft spot in the floor it will be hard to sell

[holliwood]

That's my same idea for using sheet metal. Like I said, the spot isn't very big, but it gets a lot of traffic from my daughter climbing into the rear bunk, so I just wanted to reinforce it some.

Originally Posted by Indy500

I know the RV shops dont replace the whole floor , but they usually try to pull up what's down now and use sheetmetal to strengthen the soft wood underneath then lay more vinyl down to hide the metal
Good luck with that, but if someone feels a soft spot in the floor it will be hard to sell

[RitaB]

Before putting down the sheet metal, I would pull up some of the linoleum to really see how large the soft spot is. That will give you a real idea of how much you need to do. Talking from experience.

[jtesta1]

Best way to fix a soft spot on the floor is to lose 50 pounds from your belly area.