Squishy Floors

[RayCameron]

Please let me know what you are doing about the " squishy floor " as our 84 Elandan has that in two spots. Funny thing is when we were looking at a similar aged " but a little worse for the wear " Chieftain it has the loose floor in the exact same areas. I figure it is a Winne thing?

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yep...its a Winnie thing...mostly because the floors are also thermopanels, and the styrofoam compresses over time from foot traffic.  That causes the squishy soft spots even in a rig that has never seen water damage to the floors.

In our 77 Itasca, the squishy spot for us is just as you come in the entry door...right in front of the dinnette bench.  The rest of the floor is solid.

What I'm going to do is crawl under the rig with a drill and drill 4 holes to make a rectangle as close to the frame rails as I can get.  Then I'll use my Roto-Zip to remove the section of floor completely.  Next I'll set the depth of the Roto-Zip to clear the frame rails and cut out the remainder of the hole about half way into the width of the frame rails, so that the hole is now framed by frame rails like a picture frame.  I'll then cut a piece of the thickest plywood I can find to fit tightly in the hole and secure it, and then build it up with other plywood rectangles of the proper thickness to bring its level up to the rest of the floor.  Some floor leveler goes on next to make the floor perfectly level, and then the whole floor gets recovered in linoleum or whatever else we decide to use.

The stair well itself will also get restructured at this time, and the door itself rebuilt with new plywood etc....its pretty shabby from some PO cutting it to add a household doorknob (which we already replaced) so the wood and foam is damaged in the door and its slightly warped.  I was thinking of getting a new door, but the cost isn't worth it, especially since it wouldn't match the rest of the siding!

So yeah, its a Winnie thing because of the thermopanel floors, which they didn't use a thick enough substrate on for heavy foot traffic.

Kev

[Froggy1936]

Hi Ray, & Kevin, I repaired the floor in my rig at the same spot. (picture at my gallery) After cutting out original floor with a circular saw depth set to go thru top layer approx 3/4 in  I thought i had water damage (due to when i repaired bathroom floor there was rot at toilet mounting) But  the spongy problem was, due to compressed Styrofoam there was no water damage. I put in new Styrofoam 1 in thick (original was 3/4) Then the new plywood was just under 3/4 (original was 3/4) Styrofoam compressed to 3/4 upon installation I also added a 2x2 oak brace on top of frame under floor (entire floor pan is steel) It still feels spongy but not as bad. Had i known what the results would be i would not have done it. But it is not very hard to do.  Frank

[Randy_in_Ohio]

My 84 Elandan has a squishy floor too... I was thinking about tackling this issue over the winter months but after reading Froggys post I'm having second thoughts. Floor is fine in the bathroom and bedroom area just really squishy in the high traffic areas.

So Froggy, if you had to do it over again what would you have done?

[sasktrini]

What if you drilled access holes from the bottom until you bottom out at the subfloor, and spray expanding foam insulation from beneath?  Fill the cavity from below?  It would have to be done carefully, as that stuff can cause distortion in panels.  But done right, your repair would be invisible.

[Froggy1936]

Randy , I would use as much plywood as necc (no styerfoam ) But i would not do anything with it had i known there was no water damage . As far as working from below you would have to drill thru the bottom sheet (aluminum on mine) then thru the styerfoam and the luane that is glued to the styerfoam Using the expanding foam might lift the plywood and you would not be able to lower it if it raises ! In the bathroom i used all wood and there is no softness there ..Frank

[Madathlon]

I had the same issues and ended up pulling the carpet and laying down 3/4in thick Hardwood flooring on top of the old floor, Best choice every, Solid as a rock and easy to care for.

[Neil Carrick]

Hello folks!!  we recently bought an 86 Winnebago chieftain and found the floors in the center aisle to be squishy. After stripping out the old carpet, we did a bit of checking to see what the layers underneath were comprised of.  I found it was what appeared to be 7/16ths inch plywood for the floor structure, with styrofoam under it. We then cut to fit some 1/2 inch plywood and laid a full layer over the entire floor area that was showing without removing the dinette seats, sofa or cupboards.
I drilled in holes large enough to allow a decent sized toggle bolt to drop into the floor with a big washer on top. (With a countersink to bury the washer to floor level,) after tightening the toggle bolts up, we now had a floor that was almost an inch thick and very solid once again. Covered it up with Duraceramic tiles that glued down nicely and sure spruced up the looks of the place. We did find that a person had to make a little offset to go in the drill to ream out a bit of the foam under the sides of the hole to allow the toggle bolts to open up. 

Having a great time checking out all of the posts on here and getting some awesome ideas to boot!!
Neil and Shelley

[Neil Carrick]

I should add that we only did the toggle bolts in the area that was spongy, the rest we screwed down with short drywall screws evenly spaced the full length and width of the floor.
Neil and Shelley