Delaminated floors What to do & how to do it.
Tombstones Sliding door runners. How to replace them.
Door frames Caravan door frames. Replacing damaged or rotten sections.
The first (below) is from Mel Evans.
The second is from Jim Crawford
There are also comments from Richard Griffith,
...who followed this advice and made a successful repair
1) Lift carpets. (You may have to take out the front seats also, as the carpets may be fitted under the seats) If you lift the carpets, be aware this usually MEANS LIFTING THE WHOLE THING, right through the van, they are often in one piece.
2) If the floor has de-laminated under the front seats, they should be removed anyway.
3) You need about a two inch hole saw, the kind with a centre bit. This you use to take out holes in the TOP LAYER ONLY of the ply floor, so that you expose the layer of insulation underneath, but DO
NOT cut into it. The centre bit should be set so that it drills into the insulation down to the bottom of the insulation layer, but NOT through the bottom ply layer.
4) Do the above on a grid pattern, about every 6 to 9 inches apart.
The material for re-laminating is a two part epoxy type stuff. Mix it and inject it into the holes you have created using the injector in the floor kit. If you can visualise it, the idea is to get the stuff to go down the holes and come "up" the next one as it were.
5) You need to have the floor propped from underneath, use some battens made up into a frame so that the total weight of the van is resting on these props. Raise the van very slightly on the legs
before you inject the gunk, then drop it down to put on pressure from underneath once you’ve got the gunk oozing from the holes ok..
6) Have your drill ready with a suitable bit and some roofing bolts and nuts you have greased with vaseline or petroleum jelly. Have some battens ready drilled to fit the spacing in between the holes you have already drilled for the gunk. Once the floor is supported from underneath as above, drill through the above battens and the floor and up the roofing bolts in place and tighten to place pressure on from the top.
7) At this point, the epoxy should be oozing out of the top of the pre-drilled holes from section 3) above. Make sure it’s NOT getting to the battens you have tightened down, and leave it to set. Minimum usually 24 to 48 hours.
8) Check epoxy has set. Should be brick hard! and slightly domed where it is oozing from the 2 inch holes. Remove the battens and roofing bolts and fill those holes with the epoxy material. Use
masking tape on the bottom to stop it running out and make it up a bit thicker than the first lot. Leave to set as above. You can use countersunk bolts and nuts, countersink the bolt heads into the floor ply and put them in using epoxy round them to seal them as an alternative method if you wish.
9) Remove all battens and props and try the floor. If all ok, then use a floor sander to remove any excess epoxy. Replace carpets and furniture.
Now you know why the dealer wants to charge the above amount, and why he wants to do the complete floor. If you are going to do all this, it makes more sense to take out ALL the furniture and cupboards and do the whole floor at once, even if only part of the floor is showing
de-lamination. If the area of de-lam is more than about 1 sq metre, then it is almost certain that a temporary repair will be the outcome and the whole floor needs doing as above. Many dealers will also add a sheet(s) of new ply over the entire floor area and bond this down after the above repair to provide a smooth surface for re-fitting the carpet.
It is sometimes possible to do a (very) temporary job by drilling holes (8 mm or so) in the floor ply, countersinking these and use the countersunk bolts idea bolted through transverse battens under the van. Inject any type of thin epoxy resin adhesive into the screw holes first, then the bolts and tighten down. This will usually let you get the van sold or traded, but any dealer worth tuppence will check the bottom if he feels the slightest sponginess. If you can, use an epoxy on the battens also so they stick to the bottom of the van when you tighten the bolts.
Mel Evans
NOW FOR JIM’S ACCOUNT.
I was quoted £160 last week to do the area around my fridge/kitchen by Crossley Coachcraft at Darlington, which I thought very reasonable compared to some of the quotes I’ve read about. I am however going to try doing it myself this weekend weather permitting.
If you ring Leisure plus 01889 271692 they will tell you your nearest stockist and also send you some info leaflets.
You start at the edge of the delaminated area and drill a series of holes about 4-5 inches apart
until the whole area is covered. Then mix the chemicals and starting at one end, inject them into the holes with the syringe supplied. When you see the resin coming out of the next hole move forward until all the area has been done. You can then plug the holes with wooden dowel and place a heavy weight over the area and leave 24 hrs. The guy at Crossley told me they just leave the holes open and jack up the floor until resin oozes out then leave it and snap the little pegs off next day. It’s your choice.
28/10/00
Last weekend I repaired our van floor after much deliberation and must say I found it quite easy although a little messy at times. The worst part was removing the carpet with a Stanley knife so that it wouldn’t show when I re-laid it.
I drilled 9mm holes at 15cm intervals and using this massive great syringe that resembled a miniature mastic gun, injected the resin until it flowed out of the next hole. I plugged the holes behind me as I went with pre-cut dowels, then supported the floor from below with 2 jacks and some
packing, wiped the residue from the interior floor and laid a sheet of polythylene over the area( resin doesn’t stick to it) followed by a sheet of plywood then laid bricks on top of it. Left it for 48 hours and it is rock solid now, the carpet looks like it’s not been moved and I saved £100 to boot. Took about 2hours to do.
There was one annoying thing, I needed 2 lots of resin, the first I bought from a caravan dealer at £42, the second from Crossley Coachcraft a caravan repairer, at £23 for the same stuff. I know who gets my trade next time.
Jim Crawford
Following the experiences of both Mel and Jim, Richard was able to complete a repair to his caravan floor. Richard writes.....
I have just completed a repair to a delaminated floor following the advice given in your article from Mel Evans & Jim Crawford, the repair worked well however I think there are 2 bits of inormation to be aware of....
I hope this information is of help.
Richard Griffith. February 2003
David Klyne had to fit new ’tombstones’ to a sliding door
Our Sterling has a sliding door between the living area and the bathroom.
The door is held in a sliding grove by plastic runners which Phil of Nenecourt Caravans calls ’tombstones’. When you look at
them the wrong way up they do indeed look like miniature tombstones.
Now to make everything neat and tidy there is a facial board that covers the top of the door, so how do you remove the door?
The cost of these ’tombstones’ are quite cheap, Phil did comment that he didn’t envy me ! :o)
David Klyne. May 2003
This account of repairing a door frame by Mel Evans
This task is not beyond any capable DIY person! Basically take door off van and cover the hole with plastic! (It’s guaranteed to rain when you do something like this)
You will need Philips and/or standard screwdrivers, and also re-sealing compound. Survey door and take out all screws you can find. The door frame on Adria can be made up from either a "U" section, or two "L" sections fitted inside each other to form a "U", but this should be easy to spot. Gently prize the door out of the frame, take care NOT to damage the alloy skin on the outside. Survey the inner wooden door frame, and replicate the rotted part, make sure you replace MORE than just the rotten part, test by pushing a screwdriver into the wood, if it goes in more than a few mm, then it’s rotten.
Re-assemble the door and inner frame using good quality PVA adhesive, pin the outer skins to the wood where you can where it will NOT show. Place re-sealant into the "U" channel enough so it will squeeze out as you tighten all the screws, but not too much that will prevent you tightening the screws. It should all go back to-gether OK if you measure all the bits you replicate accurately. You might want to renew all the screws with stainless steel if you can get them. They will last better and don’t rust. Use a good quality sealant, waterproof mastic. Have a damp cloth to hand to clean off the surplus sealant immediately, if it gets into the Adria orange peel outer skin, it will take ages to get out again.
Above based on experience and poking about old vans over 23 years of caravanning. Take care and you will be able to make a good job of it.
Mel Evans.
1. The standard resin pack will repair an area of approx 600mm x 600mm so base your usage on this and you will be able to calculate the savings of doing it yourself as against the "Experts".
2. At a room temperature of 21 degrees C I found that when the resin is mixed in accordance with the MFRS instructions the resin stayed workable up to 20 minutes.
One of the runners had become worn and had come out of the track so it was difficult to get the door open. Not an ideal situation. Regardless of whether you were going in or coming out !! :o)
You have to remove the glide on the floor so that the door can swing out at the bottom. Then you have to remove the grooved rail into which the tombstones fit. I eventually got all this unscrewed and was ready to fit new tombstones.
Phil had suggested adding an extra tombstone as two really was the bare minimum. With the new tombstones fitted, the fun and games began, as the rail was a pig to get back in place. Anyway, after about an hour I had everything back in place and all is working OK.
mel@ecosse.net
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