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Scott
Trip Date 04/05/2024 Posted On 09/02/2024 10:15:00 |
Camping | RV | Slide | Slide Floor Board | Rain | Water Damage | Leak | Rotten Wood | Damage | Repair | DIY
Camping in an RV is always an adventure - in one way or another. If you've ever been in your RV when there's rain coming down, you've probably checked to see if you have a leak anywhere inside so that you can prevent damage from occurring. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to see water damage - especially when it is rotten wood that's covered by laminate flooring in your slide. The longer water damage sits, the worse it gets and you'll eventually realize that you have a problem on your hands! If you prefer the DIY repair route, this article will provide the details on how we repaired / replaced an RV slide floor board.
A Rotten Floor, But How Did it Happen?
Our RV suffered the dreaded rotten floor board! We purchased our travel trailer which has two opposing slides in the summer of 2017. A few years ago we noticed that the floor of the slide that houses the entertainment center and fireplace was getting spongy - but did not know how it was happening.
I tried to investigate and do a simple repair which helped for a while. I took off the trim in front of the fireplace and found that the edge of the slide's floor board was just regular plywood that was not sealed in any way. Consequently, moisture caused the layers of the plywood to separate and absorb water. I sealed as much as I could access with wood glue and silicone caulk before reattaching the trim.
Over a few more years, the slide floor board continued to get worse (wetter) and started expanding. From what I could determine, the rotten area was only on the side of the slide with the entertainment center. The damage did not seem to go beyond the middle of the slide where our pantry is located. Fortunately, beyond the pantry toward the stove and refrigerator, the floor board seemed to still be solid wood.
Eventually, after more travel and some rainstorm encounters, I was able to determine how the water was getting inside the RV and causing the rotting. The RV, which has a very shallowly sloped ceiling, is not always parked on the level. When both slides are extended (and even when closed), the roof of the slides are sometimes not at a good angle - they slope inward. For example, when parked in front of our home (where the street has a crown), the roof of the slide slopes inward. Additionally, when parked in various campsites that aren't level, the roofs of the slides also sometimes slope toward the RV center. When this happens, water can run to the inner edge of the slide, down the side wall of the slide, and then run underneath the slide on the inside due to surface tension. Water droplets can accumulate along the inner edge of the unsealed slide floor. Bad news!
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Since discovering this, we have been much more attentive in making sure the RV is level when parked. I even use a short level on the inside of the slide roofs to determine if they are sloping away from the RV after we've parked and setup. If there is a chance of rain, we try to level the RV so that the slide roofs both slope outwards. The main reason that we are more focused on leveling now is to make sure the slides don't leak!
Related Article: RV Leveling Magic
Understanding the Situation
Now that I better understood how the water was getting in, I tried to figure out how it could be repaired. I read some articles on repairing the slide and also watched some YouTube videos. I even had the occasion to talk to a professional RV repairman who was onsite at an RV park. He looked at the slide and told us that it would be expensive to fix. He said that it would probably cost about $3,000 and recommended not messing with it. He actually suggested that we just sell the RV!
Since we did not want to sell our RV, I committed to fixing it myself. I started by deciding that I could replace half of the floor without too much grief. I already knew that the area behind the fireplace was just empty space, and the floor of the pantry was empty space that was easily accessed. After looking under the floor, I realized that there are several rollers that help support the floor and allow it to glide easily.
I learned from a Google search that there are two types of slides: one slides in-out straight on rails and the other angles back before sliding and is supported from below. Our rotten slide was the straight in-out style which supports more weight and is not as deep. (Ours is just 24.5 inches deep.) The shallower slides typically contain kitchen stuff, while the deeper slides have tables and seating. After carefully studying our slide, I decided that the weight of the entertainment center and pantry was not being supported by the slide floor, but rather by the wall.
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Creating a Plan
I observed that our slide had a metal frame with a slotted ledge which the floor board slides in and rests on. I imagined that if I cut the board, it would still slide in and out again. I decided exactly where I wanted to cut the floor board so that I could replace about half of the slide floor and could easily work on it. (The cut would be nearby a roller which supports the floor.)
I drew a line on the floor where I intended to make the big cut. I used a drill to put two small holes along the line through the floor, making sure not to intersect anything else below. (This allowed me to see exactly where my line was when I was on the outside below the RV floor board.) I then drew another line on the bottom. I took precise measurements of exactly where I wanted to cut the floor.
I decided to purchase regular plywood (cheaper than treated lumber) of the same thickness that was there before. I was then going to paint the board with an external enamel paint, and also seal the plywood edges with silicone caulk after cutting them to the desired shape. Additionally, I planned to reuse the old black plastic panel layer on the bottom of the slide and reattach it to the new floor board with a spray-on adhesive. I would then add a few screws with washers to ensure that it stays attached.
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Time to Begin
A few days before demo day, I purchased the plywood and had Home Depot cut it (mostly) to the desired size. (I just had to cut a small notch out myself.) I decided to just work around the existing wiring that goes through the floor board in the corner. Before bringing our RV from our storage lot to our home, I prepared the new floor board as described above.
Once we brought our RV home, I began the dismantling process. I knew there were screws underneath the lip on the exterior skirt that attached into the wall and floor board edge. By using a large pair of pliers, I was able to lift the lip to see the screws. I did not want the skirt to be connected to the floor board during replacement, so I disconnected the skirting only from the end of the slide to the middle where I was going to remove the floor. Inside the RV, I removed both the edging of the slide floor and the fireplace so that all the empty space behind was exposed.
I used a combination of an electric jigsaw and a hand drywall saw to cut along my line from underneath the floor. My wife watched from inside to make sure that I didn't cut through any of the wires which were just laying there. (She held a scrap board between the cut and the wires to ensure there was no accidental damage.) In order to cut out the entire bad section of the slide floor, I had to fiddle a bit with the area where the slide floor goes over the main RV floor by using a hand drywall saw.
I also cut a notch out of the corner to avoid interfering with any wiring.
I removed the bad wood and cleaned up the remaining rotten pieces. (The old floor was attached to the wall of the RV with a few deck screws, which I also had to remove.) I reused the black plastic panel and reattached it to the new piece of wood as planned.
Fixing the Bad Areas
After removing the bad floor, I put a temporary support under the slide's inside wall to make sure that it didn't sag while I was working on the repair project. (I had read that I needed to support the slide frame from the outside.) After studying my situation, I was pretty sure that the slide itself was already self-supporting and the floor wasn't providing any support. The front of the entertainment center wall had a short wall between it and the panty which did need some support.
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I knew that the remaining notch (where the wiring was) would still have some rot on it. After cutting the board, I realized that while the inner side of the pantry floor was still good, the outer side still had some rot on it - it was dry but damaged. I sealed and enclosed both areas where the rotten floor would remain with silicone and black Gorilla tape.
Reinstalling the Replacement Floor Board
Next it was time to reinstall the new floor piece that was painted, had sealed edges with the black plastic panel on the bottom and flooring on the top. I wanted to insert the new floor piece into the slot at the end of the slide frame from the inside. I had some difficulty getting it to fit, so I took the top side flooring off and was able to get the board into the slot. With my wife's help, we sat on the main RV floor and used our feet to slowly push the replacement slide floor into place. It fit in the slot and aligned with the remaining parts of the old floor. I then got underneath the floor and put a few deck screws through the floor and up into the wall of the RV to secure it.
After securing the floor into place, I used a metal clip to secure the inside edge of the new slide floor to the adjacent old slide floor to make sure they remained aligned and supported. (The roller was right there supporting the old floor.) The clip allowed it to also support the new segment of slide floor. (I fashioned the clip by using a corner bracket from the decking department which I then hammered into the desired shape.)
I sealed the black plastic panel around all of the edges underneath the RV slide (like it originally was) with Gorilla tape on the outside.
I then cut pieces of the flooring laminate from the old floor so that they would cover the exposed area of the slide floor board in front of the fireplace and inside the pantry. Once I reinstalled the fireplace and the edging, it all looked good. The old flooring laminate still has some discoloration from the water damage, however, it now has good wood below it.
To complete the project, I just needed to secure and reseal the skirting on the exterior with silicone caulk all the way around.
Reflecting Back on this DIY Project
After completing this project, our "new" floor should last much longer than my initial simple repair. I was able to complete both the demo and reinstallation of the new flooring piece in just a day and a half. (I probably could have finished it in a day if I had worked faster at the end. I deferred reattaching the skirting, caulking the skirt and attaching the interior edging until the following day.)
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The supplies that I purchased included screws, a metal clip, some spray adhesive and the plywood plus a saw blade which I can use again in the future. Excluding labor, my total cost was less than $100.00 - much less than what the professionals would have charged!
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Related Wordy Explorers Original Posts:
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