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Topic: how are walls attached to floors?

slowly_does_it

01/6/2010 at 10:36pm
Location: Wetherby Yorks
Outfit: ABI Award Northstar 1995

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I have a 1995 ABI Award Northstar. In one patch near the wall, the floor is rotten and will need replacing. The wall is the usual bonded sandwich (in the process of being repaired as all the woodwork had gone west). The floor is also the usual bonded sandwich.

How are such floors attached to such walls?

And, if anyone has experience of such a repair, how do I put a new patch of floor in place of the old? In this particular patch of floor the wood both above and below the polystyrene layer has gone. I can't think of a way of doing a repair that would bear the load of people walking on it, without them stubbing thier toes on some kind of raised plank......

Thanks
nigel

Rune Caster

01/6/2010 at 11:29pm
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Walls are usually screwed into the side of the floor, the end walls would depend on construction - grp or abs plastic are screwed to the floor also and then screwed to the walls each side as the sides are fitted. traditional aluminium ends are a continuation of the roof with cross spars fitted after the side walls have been fitted.

Re: your floor repair - as it's near the wall will people actually be walking on it?

If it is between the chassis and the wall there will be a bearer resting on the chassis and cross bearers between this and the wall bearer.

Cut out the rotten floor ply, the rotten bearers, back to good wood line the hole you have made with new wood (floor thickness is usually 25mm and you can buy 25mm thick stripwood in B&Q in a number of widths) glue and screw the new wood into place lining the holes (use a polyurethane type glue) Cut a piece of ply to fill the hole on the bottom (the floor ply is normally 6mm thick top and bottom) glue and screw into place.
Cut and dry fit 25mm thick polystyrene insulation (Wilks) Cut top sheet of ply glue and screw ply making sure polystyrene has plenty of glue on both sides as well.

Joining lengths of wood new to old: this is known as scarfing - cut an shallow angle on the original wood running from top to bottom, cut the opposite angle on the new wood then join both together with glue and screws.

NOTE:

The glue is the strength in all joins the screws are just there to apply pressure while the glue dries.

Polyurethane glue can be bought with a working time of 5 or 30 minutes, but might take a few hours to gain full strength, it has to have at least one porous surface and will foam up as it cures, this last point makes it important to add additional wood cross members to screw in to over large areas of flooring to stop the ply from swelling up

Good luck and have fun

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Caravanning is a way of getting a cheap holiday out of an expensive hobby

rune@tabbytha.com

slowly_does_it

03/6/2010 at 5:41pm
Location: Wetherby Yorks
Outfit: ABI Award Northstar 1995

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Thanks Rune. Lots of good advice here and it will take me some weeks to work through the steps you have described. It sounds possible, which is the main thing!

One thing I didn't understand - at the stage of "Cut a piece of ply to fill the hole on the bottom"... What is stopping the new ply from just dropping through the hole I have just lined? Are you hoping there is a bearer under there? If not, maybe I need to put a bearer under there? I can't see any sign of bearers underneath the van - it looks like the floor sandwich rests straight on the metal chassis members. Does this mean there are no bearers in my case, or just that I haven't opened anything up to reveal them yet?

The rot is against a side wall and its a place where people don't walk [though I have noticed a nasty sagging feeling in the floor just inside the door that I haven't investigated yet].

Many thanks
Nigel
Wetherby, Yorkshire

mobile12

03/6/2010 at 6:56pm
Location: castleford Westyorkshire
Outfit: nordstar 8 berth static

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hi Nigel get a copy of haynes the caravan manual fourth edition by john wickersham cost can be from 14.99 to 17.99 youll find it very help full i know i did have a look on ebay

hopes this will help you

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life on the open road
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Rune Caster

03/6/2010 at 8:46pm
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Re: lining a hole - make sure the wood you put in spans both the old flooring and the new flooring like this:

In the above photo the hole was where a Truma heater was, I scraped out enough of the insulation to fit the lining wood in (the same amount as showing is sandwiched between the old ply flooring), the underneath piece of ply is in place, the insulation is glued in place and all ready for the top coating of glue and ply.

At this time I was still using PVA, before I discovered the benefits of polyurethane glue

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Caravanning is a way of getting a cheap holiday out of an expensive hobby

rune@tabbytha.com

slowly_does_it

10/6/2010 at 11:17pm
Location: Wetherby Yorks
Outfit: ABI Award Northstar 1995

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Thank you. I think I get the idea now. I'll have a go.

slowly_does_it

14/6/2010 at 11:02pm
Location: Wetherby Yorks
Outfit: ABI Award Northstar 1995

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On the subject of glue you say, "At this time I was still using PVA, before I discovered the benefits of polyurethane glue".

What about glue for the wood battens in sandwich walls (in the vicinity of polystyrene)? Are you now using polyurethane glue for that too? Its wood to metal most of the time, as well as wood to polystyrene.

So far I've been using Evogrip (non-solvent type) but I don't think its brilliant.

Thanks
Nigel

Spc333

10/2/2019 at 9:12pm
Location: None Entered
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Hi all i have been reading through these old posts great
advise.

I have myself got to replace the front floor section of my fleetwood, and advice on the notched out sections that hold the wall to the floor?

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