36 TK3 refloor bedroom

[stanleyz]

I started this an hour or so ago. I had written a good bit and tried to insert a picture and lost everything. So, the pictures will be at the end. Last year I re-floored my downstairs. We are happy with it so this year I did the bedroom. I used the same product from Home depot, Traffic Master grip strip flooring in teak. Last year it had a different name but is the same stuff. When I read the box it said not for use ion RV trailers. Well, problem, we already did the downstairs in the same stuff. I do not recall reading no camping trailer use on last year's package but I may have just missed it. Anyway, besides voiding my warranty they said that it expands and contracts with temperature so presumably if it gets real cold I guess it could expand and bulge. But I guess it would come back when it warmed up. With that in mind I did leave some expansion room in areas where it can't be seen or where I could cover with molding. So here goes:

Turn off water and remove the toilet and heat vent in the bathroom. Cover the toilet hole or it will stink. Mine is empty and well cleaned but still has an order.

Empty the washer dryer room. (closet)

Raise the bed and remove everything under there and then remove the false floor.

Remove the drawers from the dresser. Pull the drawer out and on the outside of each slide there is a small plastic lever, push one up and the other down and pull the drawer out of the slide. I labeled them so as to put back in same place.

Remove the dresser. On the top of each side of the dresser there are two sliding hangers. Each one has a white plastic lock on it. Push the lock to the open position and you will be able to see how the hanger removes from the dresser. Disengage each one and take the dresser somewhere.

Go around the entire room and remove all the molding that is at floor level.

Cut and remove all the linoleum from the floor. Save one big square to use later to make templates for cutting the flooring. Now remove the carpet you wish to replace. I choose to remove only what was on the floor and just enough from under the bed to make room for the flooring. See the pictures later. I did not mess with the elevated stuff by the sink or by the double doors. It just wasn't worth the effort to me.

Once every thing was cleaned from the floor I began by laying a chalk line 30 inches from the bottom of the passenger (door) side wall. My chalk did not work and I ended up using a taunt string which worked better anyway. (If you are gonna use chalk make the line at 31 inches to account for the strips on the last row. (see the picture) That gave me a line the length of the room so I could lay the bathroom, the closet and the area under the dresser and have them all come out even.

Starting with the bathroom I laid flooring from the wall to the 30 inch line. You will have to cut around a bunch of small stuff. You can avoid some tricky cuts bu using a molding saw to trim the bottom of the vertical molding around the doors. I used pieces of linoleum to make templates and then marked and cut the flooring. Make sure all your boards are staggered to the next line. Do not try to join a cut end out in the open. All joints should be the factory ends. I did it a couple times down stairs and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Also make sure to have the last piece in the closet mate to the last piece in the bathroom at the 30 inch line. To get all this done there will be a couple places where you will have to slide the mating board under the grip strip. It's no big deal just lift one and slide the other under then press together.

Once you get to the 30 inch line there are a few rows of really easy sailing. Then you have to start dealing with the bed and the round bottom of the shower aand the night stand. Look at the pictures it will save me 1000 words. I chose to cut away about 18 inches of carpet under the sink side of the bed and 12 inches by the glass doors. You can cut away as much or as little as you like, it really makes no difference.

The rest is cutting and laying. I was very careful around the bottom of the shower because I couldn't figure any way to apply a molding there. I may pay a price for that if it gets really cold. I also chose to use some glue on the small pieces by the mirror. Nobody ever sees that and truth is I considered just leaving the carpet there.

Once all that is done it's time for molding. I chose a chocolate brown paint for that. It is the same as I did down stairs and makes a nice transition between the teak floor and the maple furniture. So you need a miter saw, and a tape measure. I reused some of the old quarter round by sanding and painting but I did have to get some new. I ripped a piece of 4 inch molding to about 2.5 inches to go at the bottom by the glass doors and screwed that down to hold the carpet firmly.

The last act was to use carpet tacks and apply to the edges of the carpet under the bed.

Reinstall all the stuff you took out and you're done.

I'll try to add the pictures in the order they occurred. I will have to do a second post to get them in. Hope this helps someone,