Flooring Torn

[ebarchak]

Had my Solitude in for some warranty work two weeks ago. Bought in November 15 and this is the first time we have brought her back. Doing great so far!

A couple of small things taken care of. The big item was installation of heated theater seats. These we supposed to be in the trailer when we bought it, but for some reason they were not. We paid for the package which included the seats so I contacted GD and they agreed I should have them and would work with the dealer to get them installed.

Looked over the trailer when I picked it up two weeks ago and everything looked fine. No secondary damage due to the install.
We get to the campground this weekend and and I find a gouge in the floor right in front of the theater seats! It is torn completely through and you can see the sheeting underneath. I first thought they installed a bolt too long through the slideout floor and it caused the damage. Nope, the bottom of the slideout floor is nice and smooth.

Then I looked around on the floor and found what appears to be a plastic rivet. I have no idea where this could have come from. I have never seen anything like it before. I looked at the base of of the new seats and could not find anything similar. The grey button head has a shaft and there is a white plastic cap snapped on the end of the shaft.

Does anyone know if this rivet is something GD uses somewhere in the trailers? Has anyone seen anything like this? I am fairly certain this is what got stuck between the slideout and the flooring causing the damage.

Any ideas on a fix? I tried a vinyl repair glue from loctite just to try and keep it from tearing further.

[arhayes]

No idea, but that should be a warranty issue. I'd call the dealer AND GD to get repairs scheduled.


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[luckyar1]

We have had the same thing happen in ours. I did not find any item I could relate to the tear in the floor. Ours happened just out from the far corner of the island and the first theater seat. The tear looked very much like yours. I filled the tear with wood filler that mostly matched the color of the floor.


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[orbiker]

That's sad that the person that did the damage could not own up to his / her mistake.

[brian904]

Had the same thing happen with my 303. A nail was too long and tore the flooring. Mine was in the shop for about 2 months to be fixed.

[ebarchak]

ROOT CAUSE FOUND! Screw tip protruding through underside of slide out floor.

I am looking for your feedback regarding the proposed floor repair for damage caused by the dealer during warranty work.



After some research, I discovered the tip of a screw protruding through the underside of the slide out floor from the theater seating. This screw was contacting the floor and tearing more with every slide actuation. I talked to the dealer, sent pictures and they agreed to repair the flooring.

I found out today, they intend to only patch the torn area and not replace the entire floor. I have concerns with this approach. First, I think you will always be able to tell the floor is patched. Second, I am concerned with the ability of the patch to hold up long term. The fact that the original flooring is floating and the patch area will probably be glued to the subfloor I feel like it will inevitably separate at the patch seam.

The other concern I have is if they replace the entire floor, I assume they would glue down the new floor and it would no longer be floating. There would need to be a seam somewhere to accommodate the island. Again, you will probably notice this seam.

I am not sure which would be the best repair long term, the patch or the entire floor

If I were repairing a vinyl floor in a house, I would patch it, but the entire floor would already be glued down and not floating.

My instinct tells me to push them for the entire floor, but I am not sure. What are your thoughts?

[Rick&Judy]

I had a similar thing happen to our 303rls the day after I brought it home and contacted the dealer. They agreed to get it in and expedite the repairs and determine the cause. The determined the slide was out of adjustment causing it to drag and damaged the floor tearing through the floor covering. Because of the pattern of the floor the dealer was able to cut out a section following the pattern around the tear and replace the floor covering. You can not tell where it was repaired, I was surprised how good of a job they did it looks great. I took it up one day and picked it up the next. Thanks to Colerain RV in Dayton Ohio!

[JCR GD]

Based on living next to a vinyl installer for many years... some vinyl floor brands/types are perimeter glue only. They seem to do better with large swings in temperature and or movement in the floor/subfloor. I have seen repairs that he did that I couldn't even tell until he pointed it out.

If your floor is to be repaired by a real vinyl layer, it may be your best option because they will either do it right or tell you it will not hold up due to it being a perimeter glue product. If the dealer is just gonna find one of their guys that has seen a you tube video or stayed at a Holiday inn, then you might be better off with whole new floor if you can get them to do it (and remove island for proper install.) Of course the more they mess with, the more collateral damage is possible.

Hopefully it will be done right either way.

[Cate&Rob]

The risk of "collateral damage" with a dealer attempting to replace the entire floor would seem HUGE.
The slides would probably have to come out. The flooring is under all the cabinetry and furniture. These would have to be lifted.
You don't say where you are from, but the only way that I would contemplate an entire flooring replacement would be to get the trailer back to the factory repair facility in Indiana.

Rob

[brian904]

We had our floor replaced after having a nail/screw gouge the floor. Our dealer did a great job repairing it so you can not tell that anything was wrong. Hopefully your dealer will fix the issue.