Trailer flooring

...but first, insulate the floor I said the flooring was the next step. Well, yes and no. I wanted to get the underside of the trailer bed insulated and finished off before I would be unable to turn the frame over again. I unbolted the axle from the frame and rigged it up for turning, again. Once the frame was upside-down, I fitted styrofoam insulation in place under the cabin area of the trailer. There was a chance that we might be using this trailer in chilly climates, and so I thought the insulation would be useful. I used a japanese saw for cutting the foam board. The teeth are razor sharp, cut on the pull stroke and the blade is so thin it only has one side. My knives are extremely sharp, too, but the saw is still quicker and less work. When the insulation was all in place, I felt it was important to protect the insulation from sand and gravel that would get thrown up from the road. I found some white, pebble-grained plastic about 3/32" thick at Home Depot that I thought would work fine. I could easily cut it to fit, it was durable, the price was very reasonable and the size of the piece was adequate for my needs. It might have been some bathroom wall material. I didn't care. I used some nails with the big plastic washer under the head, to secure the sheathing and the insulation in place. A 1/16" hole drilled through the plastic simplified the nailing. I also ran a stout bead of caulk around each piece of this sheathing, hoping to keep moisture out of this insulated space. I also caulked any place I could think of, between the trailer bed and the steel framework to keep out moisture. A final touch was to thoroughly spray the whole underside with an undercoating material from the local auto parts store. I used two cans. Satisfied that the frame and bed were done as well as I could do them, I turned the whole works right side up and reattached the axle again. Now, to install the flooring.

Installing the flooring I cut my Marmoleum flooring to the size I wanted, and plotted the location of the trap door. I cut out the trap door opening, saved the cut out piece, and then test-fit the flooring to make sure it was ready for the adhesive. After making one last check for any obvious stupid mistakes of mine, I was ready. I troweled on the flooring adhesive, per the instructions on the can, and then laid out the flooring, smoothing it into place. I had lots of lumber and assorted heavy things laying around to hold the flooring flat and even until the adhesive did its work. The flooring goes to the outside edges of the floor, and from the front edge of the floor to a point towards the rear that will be under the back wall of the cabin. This way, the flooring will be a perfect fit with no layout project except for the trap door hatch. No wrestling a roll of flooring into a snug cabin, and no problems with adhesive fumes or gluing myself into a corner, if I had to install the flooring from inside the trailer, as the plans call for. Further, there is no need to install any kind of trim work inside the cabin to hide the edges where the flooring meets the walls or where the walls and ceiling meet. The next stage will be putting up the shell and fastening it to the floor.

first page  the frame  the floor  the sides  plywood sides  the roof  the flooring  the shell  wiring and insulation  sheet metal  molding   hatch lid  doors  fenders  light fixtures  cabin cabinets  solar panel  tanks  galley  other stuff  some lessons learned  some sources