If you had/wanted to replace the flooring in your MH, what would you do? Carpet, Pergo ... any thing else? It there usually a wood sub floor or is it metal?
Thanks again. You guys rock!
The reality of things is that your flooring choice, whether in your home or your motor home, is a reflection of you. In one's home, there are few factors that stand in the way of finding the look that you want, whereas motor home's angled or rounded cuts, dependency on low weight and higher gas milage, and of course, moving parts (i.e., slideouts, floor platforms, etc.), can all be a factor to finding a floor that merely works in one's home of wheels.
When making a selection of the right floor for you, you should first decide what is more important to you, something soft and comfortable (an escape if you will from the cold and rough outdoors) or something durable enough to stand up to whatever is brought in from the outdoors. For our customers, the durability of a hard surface is always attractive, as it cleans up easily and it is resilient to almost anything you can throw at it. Unfortunately, if you have slideouts, many hard surfaces are restrictive to your ability to install such floors all the way under the slideouts (without adjusting the slideout's height totally and completely). If you can squeeze some hard surfaces under your slideout, many manufacturers of hard surface products wouldn't recommend it. Each hard surface floor is attributed to what is called a PSI rating (or the amount of pressure in pounds a floor can sustain before it will dent, chip, splinter, crack, etc.). As such, the mere height of the floor isn't the only factor under a slideout.
We at Route 66 RV caution our customers away from tile and hardwood as a result, and we recommend High Pressure Laminate and Luxury Vinyl Tile to those in need of a hard surface option. Unlike tile and hardwood which are extremely heavy and susceptible to all kinds of problems in a moving coach traveling from one humidity level to another, High Pressure Laminate and Luxury Vinyl Tile won't crack or buckle when installed properly. They are made to expand and contract mildly by comparison to hardwood, and they are much less weight than any other hard surface option.
While there is one particular High Pressure Laminate on the market which is actually warranted for RVs, laminate floors are free-floating, meaning they are clicked together without ever being secured to the subfloor with glue or nails. As such, the only thing holding them in place are trim pieces (Quarter Round, End Caps, T-Moldings, Reducers, Stair Nosing, etc.). When you bring this floor of nearly a 1/2" height up to a slideout, a reducer is needed to cap the edge of this surface. That reducer must cup the top of that floor, increasing the height of that threshold even more. When all is said and done, the height of laminate could be, and usually is, a deal breaker. All other laminate products, outside of the high pressure umbrella, are known as direct pressure (such as nearly every material made by Pergo, Quick Step, Armstrong, Fabrica, Shaw, Mohawk, etc.). The problem with these floors is that the amount of pressure exerted by your slideout will ultimately scratch, scuff, or crack these surfaces. As such, I would not recommend them.
Luxury vinyl tile on the other hand is a great option in that it comes in both hardwood plank forms or stone-like tiles, and best of all, this low-profile floor gets glued directly to the subfloor. As a result, you get the look you want in a durable, "softer hard surface" composed with vinyl that is low-profile enough to be installed under any slideout. If durability is a fear - don't worry about it, as this floor is being installed now in supermarkets, malls, and other high traffic areas due to its ability to stand up to the elements. Unlike laminate though, which rests above the surface of the floors, the only complex part about luxury vinyl is the floor prep it takes to smooth out your staple-ridden and uneven subfloor before gluing this new floor in place.
Lastly, the quality of carpet has radically changed in the past few years as well. In the past, carpet, while soft and comfortable, was detrimental to one's ability to maintain cleanliness in a motor home, soaking up spills and dirt tracked in from outside. Cheaper carpets utilized by RV manufacturers of all qualities in an effort to save money meant fuzzy fiber that couldn't sustain heavy traffic. Today though, carpet is a very practical option. With stain-resistant nylons or inherently stain-resistant polymers now on the market, RV owners can experience the softness they desire with a product that cleans up the way it should. Carpet is now made with a continuous filament construction too. This method doesn't fuzz up, leaving you with carpet that will maintain its fiber content and last longer! The cost of these new polymer fibers are also far less than traditional nylons, as they combine either ethanol or plastic recycling resources to sustain low costs versus crude-oil dependent nylon fiber.
Ultimately, there is never going to be a "perfect floor" for every RV, but the right floor for your needs is out there.
