I currently have indoor-outdoor carpeting over the factory (?sprayed on?) liner. We get a lot of sand which is relatively easy to sweep out for the most part, but between the kids, dogs and occasional mud it''s starting to get a bit ugly.
Instead of replacing the carpet I'm looking at some bamboo laminate at Home-Depot. It looks like it would go nicely with the beige interior and will be much easier to keep clean during trips and after-trip clean up.
Has anyone swapped out their flooring? Would it be as easy as pulling the carpet, cleaning the floor surface and gluing down the new material? Are there other options for installation besides adhesive?
We ran into a Westfalia in Baja over the new year with something similar but I didnt think to ask him about the install.
Any water that gets onto laminate needs to be cleaned immediately, if it sits even for 1 night it will start to delaminate. I'd look for some sort of rubber mat, while it won't look as good, the practicality wins.
Some laminates (the pricier ones) have a real wood substrate; I'd expect these to be more durable and robust in a moist environment than laminates that have MDF cores.
Like everything, you get what you pay for...from a vinyl photograph of a wood species stuck to MDF to thick veneers stuck to real wood.
They make laninate flooring out of PVC now. Looks like wood or tile but since it is made out of PVC it is water proof. I would look into that. I am looking into putting this in my bathroom. From the little I researched it so far it looks like many manufacturers are making this now.
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1998 E350 4x4 7.3l Club Wagon Chateau with SMB top
My experience with laminate is that water can seep through the joints to the sub straight underneath. It is not pretty when it gets removed. QuadsBC is right that water must be mopped up as soon as possible.
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Larrie
Read detailed trip reports, see photos and videos on my travel blog, luinil.com.
Current van: 2002 Ford E350 extended body camper with Colorado Camper Van pop top and Agile Offroad 4WD conversion.