Thickness of Wood on Interior Walls

[khantroll]

Hi All,


So, I've been making a snails pace toward repairing the Wiley Winnebago. There have been many reasons for this, but admittedly some of it was discouragement. I thought I had one roughly 2' by 4' area to patch and repair on the inside, but instead it appears I'm going to be redoing 90% of the interior.


At any rate, my fiance and my dad finally pushed me to get it back on track, so I've been stripping wood. I've found that the best thing is an electric hand planer. A few passes takes the wood right off, wthout damaging the foam backing.


This leads me to my question: the wood I've been taking off appears to be luan with a veneer or paneling (I think luan, because it comes off like plywood and has a nice pattern on the it). But there is a pretty big gap where the walls meet the floor (about 1/4 inch), and I can see screws beneath the floor that look they were intended to go through the wood and into the wall.  i??


So, I guess my question is, how is this actually supposed to be, and what do I do from here?

[Zoomin4joy]

I've spent the last week taking off all the luan in Harmony. I tried chisels, putty knives and anything I could think of. An electric hand planer. Aren't you a genius? I'm almost finished but now that I know what to use, I will complete that task tomorrow. Thanks.


Now to your question. Along the top and bottom of the wall, you should see a 1x2, or a 1x1. Mine has a 1x2 at the floor. If you go outside and look at your trim, this will line up with the piece of trim that separates the wavy aluminum from the accent piece at the bottom. Check to see that your floor hasn't pulled away from the screws. If you can see a gap, it has.


I am removing the trim along the top one side at a time. Then going inside and cutting out the 1x piece at the top. Then cutting out the top section of foam so I can reinstall a new 1x4. This will be glued and screwed by running new screws back through the trim. I need to do the same thing at the floor level after I replace some of the rotted flooring and replace the 1x1s in every corner.


Hope this makes sense.

[khantroll]

I hear you Zoomin! I tried chisels and flat bladed screw drivers first, and then for a while I was using a router with the bit set to the correct dept. I would mark off a section, then take the router, outline the edges, and then criss/cross it with the router, and then chip those sections away. It was during this process that I thought of using a planer.


A word of caution: set your depth shallow to start until you have it set right. In my case, I have the Harbor Freight 4.5amp electric planer, so at max depth it takes two good passes (or 3/4 if I'm applying lighter pressure) to take it down to the foam. A bigger/better planer though might cut deeper though.


I haven't seen any trim at the floor level, but I'll crawl under it check. When speaking about the top, do you mean the 1x2 that makes the frame around the top of the rig?

[Zoomin4joy]

Yes. The 1x2 sits on top of the walls. When you pull it out, you will see screws through the siding from the outside. The trim at the bottom has screws that go through angle iron and into the flooring. In some areas where the bed or dinette were, you may also have another 1x2.


Just be sure when you cut out or add material to the sides from the inside, you are keeping the frame square.

[khantroll]

I'm doing my best. Right this second it's just a matter of sanding. This weekend I'll get the back corner finished, and then next weekend I think we'll be ready to start replacing the wood there. We'll see how that goes.

[khantroll]

Hi Zoomin,


Have you come up with a good way to get the wood at the floor line off the wall?


Thanks!