Floor repairs

One of the characteristic problems that can beset older Airstream trailers is dry rot in the floor plywood. These trailers used 3/4" fir plywood over steel frames; the plywood was typically covered with carpeting. If a leak developed somewhere, the carpeting would both hold the moisture against the wood and conceal the leak from the owner. There were several small areas of dry rot in the Tin Pickle, which were evident once we removed the brown shag carpet.


Small areas of rot that don't extend all the way through the plywood are readily repaired with a penetrating epoxy; more extensive damage - that which one can stick a screwdriver through - necessitates replacement of the affected plywood.

If the trailer has been long neglected, most or all of the floor may need to be replaced - a "shell-off" job .  This is because the shell is supported by the floor, and thus the shell needs to be lifted off the damaged floor if it all needs to be replaced. Fortunately, the Tin Pickle had only small areas of dry rot in front; the rear of the trailer had more issues but we didn't discover that until later.

Typical example of floor rot due to leaking windows.

Poking with screwdriver soon finds weak spots.

You know it's time for a patch when you can stick your finger into the floor.

The rot didn't look as bad as it was; the steel frame rusts and make the problem worse.

Definitely going to need a patch.

I repaired the rotted floor sections by piecing in new sections of 3/4" plywood.   

Cutting a square hole like this is awkward with the frame underneath.

The rivets on the interior panels are gone so I can remove the wood under the wall as well.

3/4" plywood blocking is glued and screwed to sound original sections.

Epoxy & cellulose filler used to patch holes and seams in floor.

Seams filled, flat areas coated with thinned(10% with xylene) epoxy.

mostly finished floor

Floor has coat of Aluthane moisture cured polyurethane.

Useful links:

• http://www.epoxyproducts.com/contact.html yes, the website is totally whacked, but the stuff works.  Both the epoxy and Aluthane worked exactly as advertised.
• http://www.epoxyproducts.com/penetrating4u.html All about thinning epoxy for better pentration.
•  http://www.epoxyproducts.com/aluthane.html Cheaper than POR-15.