The Safari floor project is looking good.  I started at my desk around 7 a.m. and things were thankfully quiet, so I edited a couple of articles and shot off a bunch of emails asking people for things needed to complete the Summer magazine, and headed to the Airstream to work on the floor while awaiting responses.

Mike and I were able started laying floor around 9:30.  We found the process fairly straightforward, as long as we were patient with the tricky cuts.  The vinyl plank lays straight & true, and it’s easy to re-position the planks as they are fitted in place.

One of the first problems we encountered was the staples in the bedroom.  These were under the carpet and they bulged up enough to mess up the planks’ adhesion.  Even when hammered into the wood they caused some slight disturbance in the planks, fortunately mostly under the bed where it won’t be noticeable.  In the rest of the trailer where vinyl was originally laid, Airstream used a different sort of metal connector that sits level with the floor, so it wasn’t a problem.

For the most part we have been able to slip the planks under the edges of furniture, which means there has been little trouble fitting the new flooring without visible gaps.  Where we couldn’t go under, it hasn’t been a huge problem to cut around things, and I bought some dark brown silicone caulk to fill in gaps if needed.  We’ll need very little of it, as it turns out.

Some of the planks have taken as much as 20 minutes to properly cut, test-fit, cut again, and finally adhere in place.  It can be a challenge to get one right (and we’ve had to abandon a few attempts), but when it does finally go in, it looks great and feels great.

The tricks are simple:  work from the centerline outward, keep a sharp blade in the knife, cut from the top whenever possible (there’s a thin layer that has to be broken on the top side), keep the floor clean, fit each plank tightly before pressing into place, measure twice & cut once.

Another time-consuming aspect has been planning out the flooring so that we have minimal seams in high-traffic areas.  The planks fit so snugly together that it’s not really a problem to have seams, but we figured it would be nice to have a seamless space under the dinette table (where frequent sweeping is necessary), and in the entry to the bedroom.  So we adjusted the cuts accordingly.  In one of these photos you may be able to see where we collected a lot of cuts together next to the furnace; these will be entirely covered by the dinette seat later.

Today we worked a total of seven hours and managed to lay down about 3/4 of the trailer.  The front bedroom and dining area are done, and half the kitchen.  We’ve got to do the bathroom and a little bit around Emma’s bed tomorrow, which will probably take an hour or two because of some tricky cuts around the bathroom door frame.  Then we’ll caulk a few edges and move on to other incidental fixes in the Airstream before we start to put the furniture back in place.

This was the longest session of the project, and I can definitely feel it.  At the end of the day I had multiple small cuts and scrapes on my hands, I had pulled three small slivers out from under my fingernails (and several more from my fingers), my fingertips were covered with excess glue, and the kneepads were starting to feel like tourniquets.

The floor is nearly done but the work isn’t.  I’ve got to build a new threshold for the entry door, add L-channel supports to some undercabinet areas, re-plumb part of the kitchen, install a few pieces of trim, modify the chase that hides the furnace lines under the dinette, and then put back the dinette, master bed, and some other stuff.  We’ll be busy into the weekend, I think.

Tearing up the Airstream is more fun than we expected.  Today Mike and I started on the Safari in the early afternoon after a trip to the hardware store and tool rental shop.  The original plan was to find a way to smooth the transition from where the old vinyl ended in the bedroom, to the bare plywood floor.  We started on one idea, but then (coincidentally) Colin called.  When he heard what we were up to, he said, “Just cut up the old vinyl. It’s not attached, except at the edges.  Get a sharp carpet knife and just cut it all out.”

So we tried it, and of course he was right.  (He is, after all, a professional at this.)  In about 90 minutes we had the old vinyl floor removed (except some bits under cabinetry).  The staples at the edges were easy to pull out with needle-nose pliers, and the vinyl cut like soft cheese as long as the blade was sharp.  We used two blades in the process, and the Airstream now has bare plywood floors throughout.

What a relief to get rid of that nasty old floor.  It was permanently dirty, meaning that whatever finish it originally had seemed to have worn off, and the debossed “grain” in the pattern just trapped dirt and wouldn’t come clean no matter what we did.  I was glad to slice it up into small pieces and toss it into the trash bin.

Also, removing the floor revealed a few surprises.  In the bathroom we found evidence of a prior water leak.  There are no current plumbing leaks in that area, but there have been in the past, and you can see in the photo how that water discolored the floor.  It seems solid throughout, so I’m not worried about it.  We will need to do a good leak check on the exterior later this season, to be sure rain isn’t seeping in somewhere.

Under the kitchen counter, in an area that was inaccessible until we removed the dinette, we discovered evidence that a leak or spill occurred and black mold grew in a patch measuring about 10″ x 4″.  This is a more serious situation, because some molds can be toxic.  However, I think we’ve been living with this one for a while.  As with the bathroom, it seems to be a very old past leak, perhaps dating back to when we had a bad kitchen faucet in 2005.  [UPDATE:  It appears that this was the result of condensation dripping from the cold water line to the kitchen faucet.]  Disturbingly, the mold was growing just inches from where we store the pots and pans.  The good news is that the floor is fine and the affected area is small, so the job here is just to clean up carefully with bleach.

I’m also going to re-plumb this area slightly so that we have more space for storage, and better access to this spot so we can inspect it again in the future.  It may take a flashlight and a mirror, but we will be able to see in there, just to be sure nothing is happening.  I don’t like inaccessible spots in a travel trailer; that’s where problems get a chance to advance unnoticed.

Along the way I saw a few opportunities for improvement.  I’m going to replace some fairly lame chrome trim around the floor edge with aluminum L-channel.  I also want to make a new wood threshold at the entry door; I’ve never liked the one we have.  The bedroom door has some issues that I hope to fix, and I discovered several furniture screws that have stripped so those will get replaced with larger ones.

The big fix will be re-attaching the kitchen cabinetry and the bath vanity to the walls.  Over time, the screws and brackets work loose. The aluminum stretches and the screws just won’t hold, and then the cabinet is free to go for a walk.  The solution is to make new brackets with aluminum L-channel, which can be made long enough to attach to the trailer’s structural ribs, not just the interior walls.  This isn’t strictly necessary but we’ve long wanted to be ready for rough roads in Alaska or Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and this is what the trailer needs to avoid being shaken apart.

With the floor stripped out and the trailer vacuumed again, we are ready to start the next phase: laying the new floor.  Both Mike and are pumped to get started, so on Wednesday we’ll give it a go.

Although the Caravel is not yet done, time is short so I’ve started the other major Airstream project.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Safari’s floor covering is pretty tired.  We’ve purchased vinyl planks which will overlay the existing vinyl flooring in the living area and bathroom of the trailer.  In the bedroom there’s carpet, which is horribly discolored (after eight years of heavy use) and which we’ve never been fond of anyway.  So that’s coming out, and the entire trailer will have a new look once this job is done.

Mike has agreed to help me out, which is a great relief.  I have to get the Summer magazine in the hands of the layout crew by Friday, so there’s not much time for home projects.  The plan is to start early in the office, knock off in the early afternoon, and thus get in a few hours of work in one or the other Airstream before the sunlight starts to fade.  Today I worked on the magazine from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then we got started on the Safari by removing most of the bed frame and the carpeting.

The bedframe came out fairly easily.  We had it disassembled and stored in the carport in less than an hour, including folding up the blankets.  So then we ripped out the carpet and the carpet pad.  That was quick too, even with the need to locate and remove about thirty staples in the floor.  (In the course of this demolition we of course uncovered numerous souvenirs of this trailer’s time on the assembly line, mostly in the form of discarded rivet stems and the occasional dollop of sawdust-encrusted caulk on the floor. I regarded these artifacts as almost historic.)

Buoyed by all this success, we moved to the dinette, and had that out in even less time.  One of the nice things about working on an Airstream is that just about everything is fastened with a #8 wood screw, even those things that are anchored in the aluminum.  So with a screwdriver, you can disassemble pretty readily. It’s even faster with a cordless drill and screw bit handy.  And if you strip a screw, it’s easy to replace with a small assortment of different-length #8 spares on hand.  I always have a bunch of them in my repair kit.

Of course there are always a few tricks.  The forward bench of the dinette, it turns out, was fastened to the bulkhead (wall) that divides the dining area from the front bedroom.  To get to all the hidden screws, we had to remove the bedroom’s sliding door (about eight more screws and a bit of sleuthing).  Since the furnace is inside that part of the dinette, I now know exactly what will be required to replace it someday.  Hopefully not too soon.

The bedframe was similar—most of it came out but we discovered four screws that could only be accessed from inside the front outside compartment, and six staples that I just had to yank out.  I hate finding staples, and whenever I do I resolve to replace them with something better.

Eventually it was all out and we were left with a lot of dust, a lot of screws in clear plastic baggies, and plenty to think about while cleaning up with the Shop-Vac.  We knocked off at 5 p.m.

The new flooring should be fairly easy to install, once we get started.  But as with everything, there are a few more tricky spots.  The major problem is where the existing vinyl floor ends in the bedroom.  The existing floor is thin, but it’s just thick enough that it will telegraph a slight bump where it ends.  We have a few schemes in mind to hide this problem, and will test some solutions in the next day or two.

Another problem is that we are going to have to trim the new floor around quite a few obstacles, since we aren’t removing the rest of the interior furniture.  For this problem Mike has produced a 50-year-old tool from his father’s workshop that we think will be just the ticket.  I’ll show you that device later.

While all this was happening, the UPS truck came by the final items I need to complete the Caravel.  At least, I think they are the final items.  It’s dangerous to say that, given that every other project has taken many more trips to the hardware store than expected.   I don’t know when I’ll finish the Caravel but I certainly expect to do it this week, perhaps when Mike is busy and unable to help me on the Safari.

In our next session in the Safari, we need to remove one more piece of furniture, and then start prepping the surface for laying down the new material.  That’s for another day.  We got enough done for one Monday.

For the most part I resisted the temptation to work on the Caravel over the weekend.  There were other things to do and the end of the plumbing project is within sight, so it seemed like a good idea to take a break for a little while.

Over the weekend the only major progress was on the last really tricky bit: the plumbing assembly for the water heater bypass and the connections heading off to the two sinks.  I built it in about an hour.  You can see an early draft of it in the picture below, not quite complete but showing all three of the ball valves and some of the major connections.

This piece will stand upright next to the side of the water heater (so the blue line will be at the bottom), and thus tuck in neatly to allow lots of free space under the bathroom sink where we formerly had wild plumbing lines going everywhere and blocking everything.  The draft in the photo doesn’t show two additional tees that I added later.  As with the Dreaded Closet Manifold, it was designed so that access to the three ball valves would be much easier than before, and of course it’s color-coded too.

This was definitely the hardest piece of the project but I wouldn’t call it hard, really.  The whole project has been fairly easy, although time-consuming, and despite the challenges I’ve really appreciated the chance to do this and learn some new skills.

I’ve since completed the assembly with tees for the sinks and swivel fittings for the water heater connections, and test-fitted it for the umpteenth time.  All that remains is to fix couple of under-sink mistakes I made earlier, and then crimp it into place.

The mistakes are going to hold up the project, though, because I need a de-crimping tool.  I had gotten this far without purchasing that tool, which is used to cut off crimps without sacrificing the brass fittings.  Then I made two serious mistakes: one bad crimp, and I rather stupidly put in two tees to connect the cold water side of the bathroom faucet.  Obviously I only need one.

I could correct these mistakes by cutting out and sacrificing a bunch of completed sections, but I decided to go ahead and purchase the de-crimping tool (about $20) so that I will be able to make other repairs or modifications later.  I added this to a final parts order on Friday and probably won’t get it until late this week, so in the meantime not much is going to get done.

Once the parts do arrive, the project list looks like this:

1. Hook up sinks
2. Finish connecting water heater bypass to heater and main lines
3. Install new city water fill
4. Add experimental water hammer arrestor (*)
5. Add foam insulation and pipe clamps for sound dampening and security
6. Pressurize system and check for leaks (first with water pump, then with city water pressure)
7. Test for noise & add insulation as needed.

Notice I haven’t included the item “Fix leaks”.  There won’t be any.  Right?

The water hammer arrestor is a complete experiment. I’m wondering if it will have any effect on the pulsing that the water pump transmits through the entire system.  You can insulate and clamp down the pipes so they don’t move, but the vibration is still transmitted through the water, so the vibration can re-appear in the pipes downstream.

RV stores sell a device called a pressure accumulator which is supposed to smooth out the water flow, but I’ve tried one and found it ineffective.  The water hammer arrestor is designed to stop one heavy “slug” of water pressure rather than a constant series of pulses, but I’m hoping it will have some positive effect anyway.  I’m going to plumb it in on the main line from the water pump and see what happens.

With this project mostly under wraps, and the weather finally warming up here (I know, no pity from the northerners), it’s time to get serious about the Safari floor project.  That’s on my list for later this week.