I recently ripped out my carpet and replaced it with vinyl tiles. I was on a super tight budget so this was a do-it-yourself job. The fancy laminate flooring, or floating wood floors, was out of my budget. Still, the new vinyl flooring looks terrific. I used peel and stick tile. I wanted rid of my wall-to-wall carpet for health reasons. Also, I like a clean home and there just is not room for me to haul around a big heavy duty carpet vacuum cleaner. Now I can just sweep up in minutes, mop with a paper towel as needed, and it looks beautiful.
Friends volunteered to help with the job, so I wasn't by my lonesome. Initially they tried to convince me to lay down new carpet, even called their carpet layer buddy to come over and try to beat it into my head that I needed to replace with carpet. He was pretty adamant that vinyl tile was a huge mistake, so I gave it another 24 hours to mull over, but I still chose the vinyl.
I am completely happy with this choice.
Here's how we did it:
First we ripped out all the old carpet and underpadding. While the original carpet was one piece with just staples around the edges, the padding was multiple sections, apparently laid down by a staple-happy installer.
We left the small bathroom (toilet and sink) carpeted (for now) and the small cockpit area, which is an inch lower than the rest of the motorhome flooring anyhow and has all those angles and curves. (I have a 28 foot Class C, with the van type front end.) The bathroom is a split type, and it appeared the commode might have to be removed to get the carpet out, so it's left there for now. Another project, another day.
Before we ripped out the carpet, I borrowed a heavy duty carpet vac, the kind with the beaters on it, and vacuumed four times. Ha! We still had an incredible dust storm, as we ripped out the carpet. Of course we were pulling out OEM 16 year old carpet, but how or why the carpet vac left that much crap behind, is amazing, probably because it just couldn't do the edges properly.
We cut up the carpet and it often ripped on it's own as it came out in multiple faded sections. I was parked in a friend's driveway and the trash haulers required that we roll it all up and tie it nicely with string, before they would haul it off. I ended up with about two dozen rolls of the mess, all tied in bows with string and they kept their word, and hauled it off with the garbage pickup.
Next I had a zillion staples to yank out of the subflooring, while learning a whole new, unprintable vocabulary. The staples were like zits, the more I ripped out, the more they seemed to pop up. Mostly, I sat on a small step stool (my knee is wrecked) with a pair of vice grips and used an ashtray to hold the removed staples. A magnet in the ashtray would have been a huge bonus.
Luckily my subflooring was in great shape except for the carriage bolts that poked through in some places. We bought some goop, I am sorry I can't tell you WHAT it was, as my friend kept the leftovers at his house. Anyhow, we used this goop to smooth over the carriage bolts, making them more like a gentle plane, than a humpy carriage bolt.
Picking out the actual tile took a long time. The first store had nothing I liked. I was carrying a swatch of material from the Motorhome, of the colors it is decorated in. I always carry this swatch around, as having a pleasing overall color scheme is very important to me. (I live in my Class C full-time, with no stick home to go to.) I couldn't take a swatch of the OEM wallboard, but I studied it carefully, it's pretty neutral, a whitish background with abstract pale pink and light tan colors, all very subtle. Some of the walls are paneling and some are the wallboard that resembles wallpaper.
When I finally settled on a tile I liked, there wasn't enough inventory in the store. We debated whether to head to a 3rd store or to reconsider another tile. Finally I found one that would work for me.We bought at least 20% more than we thought we needed. In the end, we returned two whole boxes and still had a nearly full box leftover for the bathroom and possible future boo-boos.
What I settled on finally, is like a faux marble with white, tan, and gray hues. I purposely stayed away from any tiles with lines, boxes or angles in the design. I didn't like the faux wood ones either, as I have plenty of wood already in the cabinetry and some of the paneling. The motorhome has so many angles already, I didn't want the lines in the floor design to compete (and possibly make one dizzy or seasick). Too much of a good thing can drive one batty. This definitely worked in my favor, as not all the angles in the motorhome are perfectly square and a vinyl design with additional lines and squares in the design, would have looked ridiculous, in my sized motorhome, with my not so straight lines.
The subflooring was rough plywood, and it didn't appear to need sanding. We swept and vacuumed it before laying tile. We also used one of those newfangled dusters to pick up errant dust before each tile went down. Because the entrance is where you notice the floor first, we centered out first tile based on the entry way (across) and the hallway (fore and aft). Less than two dozen whole tiles went down, and the rest had to all be custom cuts.
My dining/office table booth area is raised about an inch higher than the rest of the floor, so I did that small area in the diamond pattern and I am pleased that I did so.
When all the tile was laid down, we used a pale gray caulk, to seal the edges all around, believe me this looks far superior than using basic white and compliments the flooring, blending right in. It gave it a professional look and hid any slight irregularities in the custom cuts. (I'm nerdy and wanted it near perfect.)
Anyhow, the caulking neatly hid any irregularities, you don't even see them now. To smooth out a caulking job, wear plastic gloves, and use a teeny tiny bit of Joy dish soap on your finger, you'll be amazed how beautiful this turns out.
My 1994 motorhome has all brass and gold-tone hardware, so we bought the metal angle stock that is gold tone, to install where the step-up is inside the motorhome entrance and the step-up to the dining area and the step down to the cockpit. I plan to lay a neat bead of caulk on the edge of that too, as I've noticed when sweeping, that some of the dust wants to sneak up under there.
Overall, it took us about 6 days or so to do the entire job, start to finish, but we weren't working hard and fast. We did lots of goofing off and only worked a few hours here and there on it.
Installing vinyl tile doesn't mean you have to give up carpet, I have throw rugs. Actually, I had been cruising the Dollar General stores often. They get in eclectic camping gear and other bargain priced stuff. One day they had washable rubber backed rugs in this heavy duty commercial grade carpet. At the time I bought 6 rugs, in 2 coordinating colors because I was trying to hide all the awful OEM carpet that was worn out years ago, long before I bought this motorhome, in December past.
The new tile really bounces off the light, making the motorhome appear larger. I love the clean look as I was sick of that nasty faded filthy wall-to-wall carpeting that never came clean. Also, my sinuses and breathing is so much better. Bye-bye allergens and germs.
But now since it's summer, I only use two throw rugs, one at the entrance and one by the bed. The other four were washed and are rolled up in the basement. I've discovered that they also clean up nicely with just a garden hose and some soap, as well as in the washing machine. I don't use a dryer on them, as I want the rubber to last.
I've discovered in some campgrounds where the picnic table is in rough shape, I can use the extra rugs to lay out across the picnic benches. This makes the picnic table look and feel 100% better and no worry about splinters in your derriere.
If I end up in cooler weather, I can always lay down all six rugs again, to have lots of carpet. The beauty of this system, is I don't have to haul around a big heavy-duty carpet sucker. The throw rugs shake out nicely or can be washed with hose or machine.
I am THRILLED with the vinyl tile. The nice clean look, is impressive enough for me. Since the rest of the interior is in near excellent shape, this completes the look. 8)
, extremely durable, and is definitely easier to manage during installation. Plus, fewer gaps!
