Comp Trailer Floor Question

Jeremy Moyers

Jeremy Moyers

Knows what a fatty is.
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I am currently totally re-building out the inside of my comp trailer. New interior aluminum walls, new stainless cabinets, new fold out bunks, etc.

My trailer currently has a linoleum type flooring. It is discolored, has a few rips in it, and is just too old and nasty looking to leave in a re-built trailer. So, I purchased a roll of the rubber coin flooring and will be installing it tomorrow if all goes as planned. This being the case, here are my questions:

1) Is it OK to install this on top of the old linoleum flooring? I tried pulling up a small corner of the linoleum and it starting pulling apart immediately. I'm afraid that I am going to get into a bad mess if I try to rip out the linoleum. The old flooring is coming up a bit in a couple of the corners, but I can secure it down where needed.

2) Should I glue the new rubber coin flooring down to the linoleum? I am assuming that I should, but I figured that it is better to ask opinions on this.

3) Are there any other things that I should consider when installing this floor?

I am spending a quite a bit of money to get the trailer interior re-finished, so I definitely want this done right. Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the help!

Jeremy
 
I put in a diamond pattern rubber floor in our trailer last year so I may be able to offer some help.
I installed the rubber floor over the unfinished plywood. First I water sealed the wood so I am not sure about installing the floor over the linoleum. I would say no as if the linoleum starts to come up so will your rubber floor and that would really be a pain to fix especially if the rubber floor is attached to the linoleum. But that is just my opinion.

The rubber floor is very hard to work with when its cold outside. Much easier to cut/trim and install when its warm or hot out. Floor gets stiff and brittle like in cold weather. Its easy to cut and trim if you can leave it in the sun for awhile to heat up.

I installed our floor using the double stick carpet tape from Lowes/HD. It comes in rolls. It is super adhesive and once on, it does not move. I cut strips for the outer edges then strips for the center. I did this in case I wanted to ever remove the rubber floor, it would be easier than having the whole floor glued to the wood. Glue would work great though. So far the strips are great. We did comps last year, no issues with the floor. Plus the floor is a bit heavy so once its in your trailer it will pretty much not move. The glue/carpet tape is added insurance.

My trailer is 8.5' X20' so I bought a roll that was 9' X25'. I cut the size piece I needed, flipped it over to measure and mark the wheeel wells, etc then used scissors to cut it. A razor knife would also work well but I preferred scissors. Took 2 of us to measure, cut, trim and install as its a big piece of rubber floor to handle by yourself.

Once the floor was down, I cut the holes and installed 6 tie downs.

Ours came out really good and I believe I paid $375 for the roll which included shipping and probably another $100 for tape, etc. So about $500.

The floor will last a very long time for sure.

Good Luck!
 
If the old linoleum is attached to the trailer floor well then installing over it is probably fine, but it the linoleum comes up easily, and the new floor is glued to it, then the new floor will come up easily, too. It may be a pain, the removing the linoleum is probably the best thing to do.

BTW, we loved the rubber coin flooring in our old trailer. It gave some cushion and was easy to clean. Our new trailer has a rubber flooring that has a pattern like that on diamond plate and it is much harder to clean.
 
WHen you install the new coin rubber I would definitely glue it. If you don't if the sun shines on any areas that aren't glued it will bubble up as it heats in the sunlight.
 
I have the diamond plate rubber flooring and it isn't as easy to clean as the smooth rubber.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2
 
Thin plywood sheets layed over the linoleum and screwed all the way to the trailer floor will keep the linoleum from coming up and you will have a new base to either glue or tape the rubber flooring to. Don't think you would need to seal the plywood as it would still have linoleum on the bottom and the rubber on top. Good luck with your project.
 
Thanks for all of the replies! Upon further investigation I found that the original manufacturer installed a layer of 1/4" lauan on top of the 3/4" subfloor, so it has been fairly easy to remove the linoleum and 1/4" lauan leaving a clean 3/4" subfloor....

I really like the idea of the using the double sided carpet tape TRS spoke of. Thanks for the idea! If I decide to glue, I think that I would like to put down another layer of 1/4" lauan down as apposed to gluing straight to the sub-floor. I know that it sure made this project much easier and I'm grateful that Forest River did this when they installed this original floor. Has anyone else used the double sided carpet tape like this. I really love this idea, but I do not want to have issues in a couple of years because I did not glue the flooring down.

Thanks again for the help!

Jeremy
 
We put down a rubber floor and I just rolled it out so that I can pull it and run thru the car wash.
 
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