Bye Bye Carpet, Bye Bye

On By LToddIn Photography, RV Modifications

What’s a traveler to do when stuck at home with no place to go? Jon’s been busy tackling maintenance and renovations on the fifth wheel with dreams of hitting the road again. I’ll let Jon take over from here to tell you about his chore.

Since we are not able to travel right now (due to the pandemic) I decided to finally get rid of the carpet in the Cougar.  The carpet the manufacturer installed looked like it was ten years old after only a few weeks of use, and it was one thing we always hated about the fifth wheel.

The carpeting worked like a magnet, attracting every crumb, piece of sand, pebbles from our shoes, and even Linda’s hair.

Living area before demo

Here’s the area at the foot of the bed, which was so flattened down the vacuum would no longer perk up the carpet strands.

Bedroom before demo

Thirty-seven screws held the dinette in place. Oh, joy.

Dinette partial demo

We wanted to match the existing vinyl flooring as close as possible and this SmartCore Coweta Oak, available at Lowes, was pretty close.

Carpeting stripped and ready for flooring planks

I hoped the manufacturer had installed the original vinyl sheet flooring under the carpet. No luck on that front. The removal of the carpet revealed a bit of a ramp transition I didn’t expect. This was an issue as the vinyl plank required a flat surface. 

Bedroom flooring in process

The room slide also required something to hide the lip that hangs over inside the trailer.

One more flooring strip to go

The solution for both transitions was a “Hide-a-cord” strip along the transition to complete the install. I installed the plank long ways here to avoid making too many cuts, which could have caused the floor to lift.

Bedroom flooring done

As you can see in the photo below, it appears we gained about 18 inches of floor space by getting rid of the carpeting.

Finished living area

The work involved was more than I had thought it would take, but when it was all done, the time it took was worth it. The only place left with carpet in the trailer is the bed area, which is fine because there is less traffic there.

Now all we have to do is wait for the all clear, so we can venture out on the road again.

Stay safe

23 thoughts on “Bye Bye Carpet, Bye Bye”

  4. Looks great! I wish I was that handy. I never liked carpet much, but hard floors take a lot of work to keep clean and they are not kind if you have tender feet like I do. I had throw rugs everywhere and cushioned mats by the work surfaces in the kitchen. 🙂

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  9. Splendid job! I had wanted to do similar in our coach but the slides sat too far proud of the floor level that we could not. Find a trim piece for the junction that we liked. Hang onto that guy, he’s handier than me! 😂

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    1. Thanks, Peter. When the slides are in, there is a gap that the carpeting covered before. With the extra floor space we gained, we don’t think it will be a problem. We’ll see once we’re back on the road.

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      1. I’ll be interested to read how future travels go for you. For our particular situation we were very fortunate to get our coach sold when we did and while there are a few things we miss about RV’ing it was the right choice for us at the time. And so much has changed in such a short time. I have been thinking about our usual way of heading North in the Spring and how that would have been impossible this year. Changes in reservations, and campground availability too have been significant. For us it was right, and my heart goes out to those who are still trying to full-time it. I know there are several couples who have places at the same membership park as the one we bought into last summer who are still “stuck” in AZ because of the pandemic. I feel for them, but nothing in life is without risk, eh? 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      2. It’s good you decided to find a permanent home when you did and are now settled in the apartment and have your second home to visit.

        Like

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