The MAIN reason we chose to upgrade our RV from carpet to vinyl wood was because it stunk. We have 2 dogs, a shih tzu and a siberian husky. PLUS I workout within our RV home daily. #sweatyballs So being face first in push-ups, planks or downward dogs on the carpet floor regularly, I got to know it pretty well. Probably like 6 months ago, I noticed it started to smell pretty funky like dirt, sweat and pups.

It was a dark blue/black color – so I was constantly vacuuming all of the visible dog hair. I am pretty sure we dramatically improved our air quality by like 90% because when we tore it up, SO MUCH gunk was in the air – shit we had just been breathing in that was LIVING in the carpet since 2005. #GAG

Anyway, here is our process and some photos. SUPER happy with how it came out. Opens and brightens up our little space. SO much more room for activities!!! Basically (to keep it simple) we just ripped ALL the carpet out first, then smoothed the floors by scraping off any imperfections with a putty knife and pulling the copious amounts of staples out of everything. The carpet on the slide was a bitch because for ours it was basically underneath the walls. So we pulled it out with needle nose pliers like a couple of tweakers late into the night. #teamNoSleep
–>Read our previous RV BLOG here: “The Pros and Cons of RV Living“

After we pulled up all the carpet we found linoleum under it. Probably would have gotten rid of the carpet 2 year ago had we known. Made it easy to lay the floor down. We didn’t use glue and the floor panels are snap together vinyl wood planks! They are waterproof! SO far they haven’t scratched either.

Here is the exact brand in the grey Stony Oak color from Home Depot. We used about 5 boxes for the floors, followed the directions on how to lay it pattern wise – via youtube – 6th box was used to fully cover the stairs. (which were super weird and a total pain in the ass) $45+tax per box. Click the link for da coverage of space sq. ft. details.

The cool thing about these vinyl planks is that if you cut them the shape you need with an xacto knife, they break apart really easy and almost always evenly. We did burn a couple pieces due to incorrect measurements around the kitchen sink edges. Life happens.

 

This was the seal where the slide comes to the main flooring. We debated using wood to cover it, but it would stick up. We found metal but that didn’t seem appropriate so we ended up finding a white rubber garage door seal (bought 2) and we drilled them down/made it work. Good for now and it keeps stuff out of the slide crevice. The slide was actually the easiest part to cover because there weren’t any angles to deal with. We laid most of the flooring out first to see where it would hit before we officially started laying it. This was super helpful in avoiding surprises and awkward small pieces in obvious areas.

It’s not everyday we travel home from our coach success club trip at an all inclusive resort in the Dominican tropics and decide we want to fully remodel our RV flooring… but when we do, we SLAYYYY. [insert shit eating grin] **disclaimer: Husband did ALL the work. I was basically the tool getter/floor “layer outer”/stupervisor, xo

–>Stay tuned for our next RV BLOG

**WE ARE NOT RV EXPERTS BY ANY MEANS AND CAN ONLY SPEAK FROM PERSONAL PREFERENCE AND EXPERIENCE.