Replacing our RV Carpet–Part Two…

Continuing the blog about our carpet installation, pulling up the carpet in the cockpit area was tedious since there were more cuts and thus more staples. With patience I eventually freed the old carpet. Interestingly there was only a little carpet padding as most of the area had a large rubber mat which I assume was designed to decrease engine noise and insulate from engine heat. For the cockpit area we chose a lower piled carpet and as I pulled the old carpet out I those pieces as a template to cut the new carpet. Another 100 stales into the floor and the cockpit was nearly done.

I said nearly since there is a hatch in our cockpit for access to our front engine diesel. This is also carpeted and removing the old carpet was a bit harder since this piece had been not only stapled but glued on using Weldwood contact cement. Using a pair of pliers I slowly pulled on an edge of carpet using the carpet knife to cut the glue away. It took a while but it was done. I also used contact adhesive to glue on the new carpet adding only staples all along the edges. Viola – Cockpit done!

Next up was the steps in the entrance area. The sides are where the carpet was and man oh man were they stapled in and glued as well… After pulling out seemingly endless staples I was able to use the pliers and carpet knife to remove the old carpet. Using the old carpet as a template, new pieces of carpet were cut and glued in place. A few additional staples and the step area was done.

All that was left was the large living room/dining room slide. Since it was on a slide the old carpet was fairly easy to remove. No glue and only staples were used so I was able to manhandle off the floor. There was no carpet padding under the slide and I didn’t add any either. Again using the old carpet as a template I cut the slide out carpet which was the lusher, higher piled carpet we also used in the bedroom.

Once it was cut we took it over to Carpet Handlers in Bryan Texas to have the edge of it bound. They charged $3 per running foot to bind it and it took about 4 days to get it back. It needed to be bound as the edge must hang off over the slide to cover up the slide gap. If it wasn’t bound it would have continued to fray and shed carpet fibers.

Final installation of this slide carpet was a snap. I did forget to mention in the removal of the old carpet I also had to take out the sofa which was held down by four bolts. It was easy to remove. Then there were four bolts holding down the seat belts for the sofa which were also easy to remove. I made sure to label where each seat belt went to make it easier to put them back in their rightful spot.

With the new slide carpet bound all I needed to do was measure and mark the place where all the bolts would come through the carpet and cut little slits so they would come through it. With them in place I stapled along the edges near the bolts so I could locate where the couch bolts would go through the carpet. I marked the spots with scotch tape so I could align the couch properly. Placing the couch near the tape and using an ice pick to locate the holes which hold the couch in place I was able to sink the screws into the floor. With the seat belts and couch back to where they belonged I continued stapling the carpet as I used the knee kicker to keep it stretched.

To finish the job I needed to use a coping saw to remove 1/4 of an inch of the trim that the bound carpet would slide under since the new carpet was a bit thicker. With the trim cut I finished the stapling and put everything back in its place.

Now that all of our flooring has been replaced the RV is ready for many more years of travel on the Road of Retirement…

NOTE: We are still in College Station, Texas for the month of April…

Replacing our RV Carpet–Part One

We are still in College Station ticking items off of our to-do list. One item was to take care of my medical appointments and since I am a veteran that meant a few trips over to the VA hospital in Temple Texas. I had a colonoscopy done and went through the normal (and disgusting) protocol necessary for the doctors to have their clear view :) Thankfully I was given a clean bill of health and will not have to do another one for five years.

With that behind me (no pun intended) I can focus on a larger chore which is the removal of our remaining original carpet and replacing it with new carpet. Last spring we began the process of reducing the amount of carpet in our main living space by converting to a Coretech Luxury Vinyl Tile. The plan is to replace the doghouse carpet, the bedroom and the small area on our slide out. Even though there is not much carpet to replace I have discovered that the prep work has been the worst part. Let's just say I learned to really hate staples

.

When removing the existing carpet from the RV there are a few tricks. One thing to know is that when most RV’s are built they already have the carpet laid on the floors before adding any of the cabinets or furniture. That means you either have to remove all the cabinetry or use a carpet cutter to cut around the base of the cabinet to remove the carpet. The other trick is to use pliers to pull the old carpet from the floor freeing it from the staples. Otherwise using bare hands could result in puncture wounds from the many staples.

Once the old carpet was out I had to remove the old carpet pad. It is important not to scrimp on padding as the cushion feel of carpet is mostly due to this pad so upgrading the existing pad can make quite a difference!.. We were lucky in that we did not have to buy any padding since Dan and Merlene (our RV buddies at Betty’s RV Park) had enough left over from their recent carpet replacement. I cut and stapled down the new padding and after cleaning everything up I was ready to cut the new carpet.

We found our carpet in two different locations. We were looking for good durable carpet but didn’t plan to buy super high end carpet for the RV. We focused on having a 10 year warrantied carpet which was durable and fade resistant. We ended up with a Shaw polyester for the bedroom and slide which we purchased for the way low price of 99 cents per square foot at a Surplus Warehouse in Bryan. Then we bought a lower piled carpet remnant to redo the front cockpit flooring for 30 bucks.

Another carpet tip is to remove the old carpet in one piece being careful to cut it out in tact. Doing this allowed me to use it as a template to cut the new carpet to fit. I cut it an inch or so bigger on all sides to ensure a perfect fit. Once the carpet was cut I placed it in the bedroom to staple and trim it to a perfect fit. I worked from one corner by cutting and stapling the corner. Then I worked back slowly using a “knee kicker” to keep the carpet tight. I stapled along the edges using the knee kicker while trimming along the way and before long our new bedroom carpet was in place.We are both very happy with the result as it is so clean and plush. We love it…

I will discuss more in the next blog about the rest of our carpet placement and the process of "pimping our ride". It has been arduous and time consuming but we see light at the end of the tunnel...... 

NOTE: We are still in College Station, Texas for the month of April…