| Author |
Message |
Bill Baxter (Willum)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 2:41 pm: | |
I have an MCI 102A3 & would like to know the best way to patch holes in plywood subfloor and level the floor in order to put a 2nd layer of plywood over the top of the subfloor. I would like to leave the
chair rails in the floor, as it seems like a lot of
work to take them out.
Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.
Bill |
Ed Jewett (Kristinsgrandpa)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 9:28 pm: | |
I've seen a router used to channel out a groove for clearance. It didn't leave any soft spots in the floor, but the guy that did it was very meticulous about his work and probably took out only enough so the rails touched the plywood.
Ed |
Greg Peterson
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 10:01 pm: | |
When I bought my bus from Mr. MAK he was doing the Moose bus cabins. I think he told me he used tarpaper in order to make up the gap around the chair rails and then laid laminate flooring over the whole thing. You could probably use this trick with plywood instead of laminate flooring.
My wife does not like heat so I thought I would have to insulate the floor or put six AC units on the bus in order to keep her happy.
In the end I went with Fred Hobe’s recommendation of using a layer of insulation with wood spacers and then new plywood on top of that substrate. |
Mark Scott
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 18, 2006 - 5:21 pm: | |
On my 102A3, I replaced the flooring with 3/4" HDO Plywood. I left the the seat rails in place. The original floor is 5/8" thick, so with the new floor your plywood is above the rail edges. You do have to cut the sheets into sections to fit between the rails. Not a big deal. My suggestion is to purchase in 4'x10' sheets, less waste.It took 2 men 1 day to strip the floor out. Another day to clean everything out, replace insulation, inspect structural integrity. It took 2 men 1 day to cut and size and install the plywood floor. Give a couple xtra days to deal with unforseen problems. Its alot of work, but, worth the effort. Use the proper fastners when attaching the plywood. Good luck. Mark |
Brian Brown (Blue_velvet)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 18, 2006 - 8:43 pm: | |
Building up a floor is a good idea to deal with the rails. On the downside, it obviously affects headroom, AND 3/4" plywood also adds about 2.2 pounds per s.f., so roughly 700# for a 40' coach. There might be other ligher-weight solutions, but avoid MDF or particle board... they're much heavier and much less structural.
In fact, I'm certain that the plywood addition to the floor would add considerable strength/ rigitity to the coach, so it's not a bad thing if you can spare the headroom and the weight. Both of my converted busses have had the floor skinned over with 3/4" plywood and I feel good about that.
FWIW,
Brian Brown
4108-216
Longmont, CO |
motorcoach1
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 10:58 pm: | |
This will give you a lot of strength and light weight. i put down a Floor with nylon screen and good old Elmer's glue and a 1/4 ply and another layer of screen and glue and one more 1/4 ply ..it's very strong and light weight . fastened it with a 1/4 inch pneumatic staple gun on 6 inch centers. worked great for me 1/2 inch over all , you wouldn't belive how much strength is in it ,,no bounce.. it went over the old floor cleaned real well |