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I went online to find a way to reinforce/repair weak floor in my '87 Sunrader. I ran into this excellent YouTube site where the process is demonstrated. Essentially it involves drilling holes in the existing flooring, injecting an epoxy every 6", pounding dowels into the holes to compress epoxy, then cutting off dowels. This method worked great! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-LIZN-Dtak Day 1

 

Flooring kit Pro Ebay

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HnK2X1EfF8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HnK2X1EfF8 Day 2

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFvx26P6fFs Drilling the floor 

 

I am very pleased with the outcome!

Iflyfishwithsolidfloors!

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I am at a loss here. The floor your drilling hole into isn't that thick so your injecting epoxy into the foam underneath. I kind of think your floor feels firmer because of the wood floor you put over it.

Linda S

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1 hour ago, linda s said:

I am at a loss here. The floor your drilling hole into isn't that thick so your injecting epoxy into the foam underneath. I kind of think your floor feels firmer because of the wood floor you put over it.

Linda S

Hi Linda, thanks for the response.

Good question.

Notice in pic #9 you will see a stop on the drill. It is set to drill only to the bottom of the foam layer. This allows the epoxy to permeate the "sandwich" so that the center, foam area, and gaps are filled with epoxy, which hardens. I filled obvious rotten areas with filler, then epoxy to the entire floor. The holes are on a 6" grid and some took a lot of epoxy and some very little, depending upon the amount of rot. The parquet floor covering are self adhesive vinyl tiles they add no strength to the floor.  The epoxy essentially creates a solid surface UNDER the top wood panel in the "floor sandwich". 

The entire floor is now very solid, including all areas that were soft. 

The floor is firmer because it has an epoxy filler where there was rot. See video's included in the post.

I looked at many options and this one seemed to be the simplest way to solidify the floor and it turned out that it did. 

Iflyfishwithsolidfooting

 

 

 

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Yeah I get it. So you've got a ton of little posts between the top plywood and the thinner plywood beneath the foam. The usual repair involves adding a 1/2 inch sheet of marine grade plywood over the existing floor with screws and construction glue. Glad it worked for you but I'm still not sold on the idea. I would have to come visit and jump up and down for a while. LOL Or we could just go fishing instead.

Linda S

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I'm happy with the outcome. I have a ton of little posts, cut off at floor level, on a six inch grid with epoxy injected into each hole. The posts force permeation of the epoxy under and around the poles and into rotten areas.   I chose this method for ease and weight. I had concern that I might have to remove cabinets to replace the flooring and did not want to do that and the method used allowed epoxy to also permeate the wood under the cabinets where other rot may have existed..  The solution you describe is a good one too. 

I have no vested interest in others using this method, I just wanted to share my experience with this very group. I really appreciate all the help and feedback I have received from this group, including yours. 

If we meet you can jump up and down on the floor before we wet a fly and hoist a cool one! 

Iflyfishafterjumpingupanddownonmyfloor

 

Edited by Iflyfish
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I appreciate your posts and all methods are good to hear about. It may sound like it sometimes but my way isn't the only way. Man it has been too long since I've been fishing. All my rigs need new line by now. Crazy stupid. I live in view of the ocean and super great rivers close.

Linda S

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, bwolfgti said:

Never seen this done before.  Looks like a good alternative to tearing up all the wood though.

I'm told that this is used by boat owners a lot. I did it in part because I did not want to remove all cabinets etc. It has turned out well. 

Iflyfishsolidly

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Hey Ifly! Super Nice Job. Don't think I'd  cover that beautiful floor with carpet LOL! Didn't your floor add a lot of weight?

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1 hour ago, markwilliam1 said:

Hey Ifly! Super Nice Job. Don't think I'd  cover that beautiful floor with carpet LOL! Didn't your floor add a lot of weight?

The floor cover is self sticking vinyl flooring, it comes in 12" squares. It is lovely but soft, like linoleum. So it weighs very little. 

Thanks for the kudos.

Iflyfishwithmytoyotafriends

 

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks for sharing!  I'm 90% sure I understand this but wanted to pose the question to validate: If I have spongy / rotted plywood, can I use this method to shore up the plywood or is this only made to be injected into the foam 'sandwich' as we're calling it?  

We're in the process of renovating our Sunrader floor and just replaced a roughly 4'x4' section that was particularly bad, but there are spots that could use reinforcement. I was planning on laying down a fiberglass mat and covering with epoxy, but if there's a way to directly reinforce the old plywood I'm all ears. :) 

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hey there, very interesting repair concept. I have been involved with construction/woodworking/homebuilding and cabinet making for close to 50 years. don't really see a down side to this method. if it survives the "test of time", it sure beats all the labor intensive traditional methods of floor reconstruction. I hope this lasts a long time for you. good luck, and great job, thanks for the pics. joe from dover.

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