FNG question on flooring.

[Scooter141]

I bought a 97 Thomas short bus.
I am in the process of converting it to a camper. I am making overhead cabnets now.

I wanted carpet, wife wants the snap together wood floor. Im worried about body flex ruining the wood floor. Ideas suggestions??..??
Thanks, Todd S.

Picture of it when i first got it. Pulling my rockcrawler.

[JakeC]

Nice rock crawler!! Lots here have used laminate flooring. I have a floating, snap together, laminate floor in mine and am very happy with it. Pics of the floor may start on page 2 or so. I'm not sure...

[Malkieri]

Originally Posted by Scooter141

I wanted carpet, wife wants the snap together wood floor. Im worried about body flex ruining the wood floor. Ideas suggestions??..??
Thanks, Todd S.

In order to correctly answer your question we need to know if you are looking for "support" for or against the bus ruining the wood floor. In other words do you want the truth or are you looking for a reason to install carpet?

I personally have seen an older conversion with carpeting in it this helped us decide to go with a more woodlike floor... still looking at options. She is leaning toward a bamboo snap together. Accordion's laminate floor looks to have taken a beating from his dogs (I have 3) so I won't go that route (unless I find some for free). The bamboo is solid though and should survive the "beasts" running around. Home depot sells it if you want to go have a look... I think it is about $2 a square foot.

[bansil]

I kept stock floor for now and just roll out "runner" carpet

[Scooter141]

Originally Posted by bansil

I kept stock floor for now and just roll out "runner" carpet

That was just suggested to me by a friend... Lol
I would like some extra sound/heat insulation also or the rug idea would work.

Originally Posted by Malkieri

In order to correctly answer your question we need to know if you are looking for "support" for or against the bus ruining the wood floor. In other words do you want the truth or are you looking for a reason to install carpet?

I personally have seen an older conversion with carpeting in it this helped us decide to go with a more woodlike floor... still looking at options. She is leaning toward a bamboo snap together. Accordion's laminate floor looks to have taken a beating from his dogs (I have 3) so I won't go that route (unless I find some for free). The bamboo is solid though and should survive the "beasts" running around. Home depot sells it if you want to go have a look... I think it is about $2 a square foot.

Ahhhhh. Hadnt thought about dog toe nails destroing it!!!
We have two Huskys, and they shed like no other..... Shes wanting wood for ease of cleanup (dirt and dog hair).

Originally Posted by JakeC

Nice rock crawler!! Lots here have used laminate flooring. I have a floating, snap together, laminate floor in mine and am very happy with it. Pics of the floor may start on page 2 or so. I'm not sure...

Thanks!! Its a big ugly home made monster. Its heavy as heck, buy i built it to not break.

I looked at your build (and others) before i posted. I searched quite a bit, thats how i found this forum.

[Malkieri]

Originally Posted by Scooter141

We have two Huskys, and they shed like no other.....

I don't know man, we have a Husky (grey and white) a German Shepherd, and a little runty mutt (brown with dark muzzle) maybe a bit of pitbull and or pug in him. Anyway I am not sure who sheds more around here.... the husky has the champs title for a couple weeks a year but I think the Shepherd sheds more year round. And of course the runt doesn't even compete..lol. To be completely honest the my bus is really going to be a big rolling dog crate. It is quite expensive to leave town when you have 3 dogs that require care... Kennels are not cheap and highly stressful. Having a house/dog sitter is like paying for another hotel room every night. This way we can take them with us, just need to make sure A/C and generator are bullet proof!

[Accordion]

I would not use carpet. If I had to do it over, I would lay down a plywood backer and use vinyl or linoleum. I had a vinyl floor in my Dodge class C camper. I had the dogs in there for three years. The floor held up well.

I put the (expensive) pre-finished 3/4 inch wood floor in my bus. In two years, the combination of my dog's nails and their bringing in dirt to the bus resulted in the finish on the wood becoming worn.

The wood is still thick, but it now looks 50 years old. I don't mind, though.

Here is what it looks like now.




Here is what it looked like when it was freshly installed.

[bansil]

I saw your title and said.....sounds like Pirate before the wenzel thread

[JakeC]

Originally Posted by bansil

I saw your title and said.....sounds like Pirate before the wenzel thread

Hahaha!! I read through that thread for entertainment once! Pirate can be hilarious.

You may actually find that laminate holds up much better than a hardwood floor. The stuff is incredibly hard. I installed it in a house and it survived a couple years of dogs, rollerblades, and skateboards. Yes, I let my daughter skateboard in the house. The floor looked like new when we moved out.

[lornaschinske]

We installed the clik-lok type laminate flooring. But we installed ours on the walls. You MUST make sure the boards lock together on the entire length. David had a little difficulty with the boards locking together. Apparently the side walls in our bus are not perfectly flat. Anyway, we have two spots where David could not get the boards to lock together on the full length. They have opened up in the dry desert. Both places are hidden (one behind a chair and the other is inside the clothes closet), we will wait until we leave NM for more humid climes before we caulk the open seam. They make a special caulk just for filling seams that open up on laminate floors. This tells me is is a pretty common problem.


We will be installing a commercial vinyl composition tile in our bus. We used this same tile on the floor of our old popup. It held up beautifully to the dirt, clay, gravel, dogs, cats, kids and general abuse we dished out. It was easy to take care of. Important to me since I am most definately not a domestic diva. To combat the boring looks of the tile,I will be using seversl different colours to create an inlay based on an old design I drew up a few years back for a stained glass window. I also do not care for rugs either, so it's mostly bare floors for us.