Soft floor
2018 ACE 30.4 owned since new, about 4 years. Never had any water damage or intrusion. Stored indoors, and we live in very arid northern California.
While out camping this weekend I noticed a soft section of flooring just inside the entryway, inboard of the steps. Not too bad, but enough you could feel it in bare feet. Fearing the dreaded water damage I began investigating.
Knocking on the area with my knuckles it feels firm, but hollow. Kind of like when you’re looking for a wall stud. Not the dull thud of water-soaked plywood, so that’s good.
I jacked up the MH, installed jackstands and crawled underneath. This area is in the transmission alley just inboard of the steps. Looks like there’s material with a thin layer of seal coat sprayed on the underside. I’m assuming this is osb? Doesn’t look like there’s any foam in this section at all. Pushing up on the material I can feel it flex much like it did from the top. No sign of water anywhere.
Going back inside I removed the plastic edge molding from around the stairs and pulled the carpeting on the stair riser back to get a look at the flooring material. I pulled the vinyl flooring up (it’s not even glued down) and the osb is nice and dry, clean with no water stains anywhere. That’s a relief.
Underneath I noticed that there’s about 5-6’ between the steel frames, a fairly long run for the osb to handle, so now I’m wondering if the osb is just wearing out and flexing a bit? Anybody ever seen this?
To fix the flexing, I’m planning to install a section of subfloor underneath the section with no foam and support it with floor joists hung from the steel frames? Anybody see any problems with this?
Thanks,
Tim
__________________
Tim Smith
former USN Aviator
|