I started day two of demolition by removing the jackknife sofa. It was attached with just a few bolts and came apart in two halves quite easily. This made the whole thing possible to get out the door. Underneath the sofa, I found the water tank. This was also a breeze to remove and I simply cut the lines as we won’t be using or replacing them. Once I removed the tank and stood in the corner where it had been it immediately became clear that much more of the floor was rotten than we realized. This would take a different strategy than patching.
We also discovered why the entire trailer had shifted so badly while we were driving it home yesterday. There are exactly four bolts holding the entire trailer box to the metal frame underneath. Four. The one near the water tank had ripped completely through the floor and I could see daylight shining up through. (See mid right side of dirty floor photo – just between the hoses you can see daylight) I found the other three and realized that only two of them were even holding on to anything, and one of them was just through the linoleum.
I turned to Youtube and Google to try and find anyone who had replaced the entire floor in a trailer like this. I did find a good video where the owner replaced the entire thing in large sections, but then I saw a post by a guy that had a group of people lift the box off and he rolled the trailer out. It seemed a little crazy, especially since with COVID we wouldn’t have a team of friends to help, but if we wanted the floor to be uniformly sturdy, well attached, and waterproofed we figured this was the way to go. We also didn’t know what the condition of the trailer itself would be and figured it would need some care as well. I wasn’t sure exactly how we were going to do it but one thing became clear. I had to gut it.
Gutting the trailer was going to make the entire process more difficult. Wires were running everywhere through the cabinetry and walls, and every cabinet and structure was also glued and stapled to the floor. I walked around the trailer and photographed and removed all the lighting and electrical fixtures. Then I cut them loose as I knew repairing the outside would require this step at some point anyway. It took all day to remove the remaining cabinets and booth.
I used a combination of a putty knife and hammer to cut between the glue and walls and then added a small prybar into the mix to get things detached. This is after removing a million screws with several different heads – from square to Phillips, standard, and star this thing had a little of everything. I also needed a very long drill extension a few times as screws were buried inside cabinets and in small spaces.
At the end of the day, I focused on the rear passenger corner as it was the point where the damage had been done previously. The window in that corner is broken and things are not lined up correctly. It was pretty discouraging to see the level of damage I was dealing with. I decided enough was enough and called it a day..
Sunday mornings are tough when you have a project like this a couple of hours from home. I wanted to work on repairs all day but needed to drive home and get ready for the next week of work. It is also still incredibly hot up here. I removed all of the exterior metal trim along the corners, hinges, and bottom edge so I could see what we would need to do to replace the floor and repair the damaged corner. Once exposed it was clear that the rear passenger corner was in really bad shape and quite rotten. These trailers have walls that are laminated with Aluminum on the exterior, a layer of styrofoam, and then the wood veneer on the inside. There are only a few places where there is actual lumber in the walls and the ends of the side walls are these places. I took the opportunity before we left to paint the rear corner with some wood hardener to try and salvage what is there. I figured a week in 90-100 degree temps would be perfect for the whole thing to dry out and firm up. I spent the rest of the morning collecting the trash, piling up the stuff for the junk hauler, and putting away tools. It was a productive weekend but I realized it would be a long time before anyone could comfortably sleep inside the trailer. There is a short video below that I took from the doorway at the end of the demolition.