Bathroom Redesign for 90' 30P

[pbsled]

Looking forward to getting on with upgrading the bathroom in my Avion. It had the typical rotting disaster from a leaking hot water tank, awning attachments damage, and broken seals around the belt line. All that has been removed, and I have the frame repaired and cleaned up and some sub flooring puzzle work under way. I am looking to redesign and reoriente some of the bathroom components, but will keep toilet and electrical in original place. I have some trial residential shower pans coming in to see if I can custom build / fit a 32" x 32" shower somehow. I am also looking at options for utilizing the storage space (spare tire area) for the bathroom and doing something more creative later on with a continental kit. I have airstream wheels (heresy I know) with 16" tires so they don't fit through the storage door anyway. Today I got the frame repair finished up, black tank reinstalled and started on puzzle work today for the subfloor. Any thoughts and input are welcome, especially if there are others that have done alternatives to the built-in tub and sink arrangements.

[pbsled]

Accomplished a little on the subfloor today. There is so much repair work as you can see with the corroded aluminum from the lower panels that about all I can do is clean them and line the edges with Eterna bond tape to provide some kind of structure that can seal out the water. Making the most of what I have ... but the lower rounded exterior panels have to go in first before any flooring and were quite a mess. I may start another thread with the aspects that involved the exterior side of this project, which is probably more important to keep this kind of damage from occurring again.

[pbsled]

Today marks two weeks since I started the bathroom remodel, and I will most certainly be slowing down on the pace here soon since school starts tomorrow (I teach). I installed the remainder of the lower panels, and the 1st level of subfloor is now done. I feel like the project is moving right along, and I am happy with the progress. It is certainly not like restoring a car or building a new construction house, but these repairs will give me several more years of use. I think I have a good system of flashing around the exterior skin as it drops down into the frame area now. I would say at this point in the remodel / reconstruction I can observe that the sequence of how this trailer was built certainly cut some corners / lowered production time. So many of these leak points could have been prevented with just a little more work / better design to shed the water away from the edge of the floor. I used about 1/2 a roll of Eternalbond tape so far, and I have some black coming in the mail so I can blend the lower part of the corroded steel with the bumper area. Unless I wanted to remake these aluminum panels from scratch, I think the tape on both sides along the edges is a decent fix.

[pbsled]

The subfloor rebuild has certainly been the most tedious part of the process so far. This is mostly because the entire floor over the black water tank was unsupported (without frame crossmembers to support floor) so you have to build some odd "joists" to hold things up. Since its only 1 1/2" thick, it makes for an interesting puzzle if you really want a very stable floor. I have almost all the bracing and floor insulation done except the outer corners, and today I got the drains for the new shower and sink locations finalized. The underside is glued in now, and the top is just a mock up till I get the interior partition walls build. Next big step will be to fit the upper layer of subfloor in that has to be slid in under the upper shell, and then get the vinyl down. I also did a little more work on the outer shell around the bumper making a waterproof barrier to keep it all from getting back under the floor. I got some black Eternabond tape this week that takes care of the flashing layer around the rear frame and bumper nicely, and I ordered some some new belt line material from a marine supplier that should work well enough since the alumimun mess I took off was all but destroyed in the process.

[RISK]

Sure looks handy having the back hatch off, probably much better than all of it being the ‘ol, “in the trailer, out of the trailer” game.

Watching with keen interest...

Ian

[pbsled]

Glad that is done! The last bit of puzzle work is done on bathroom subfloor. If anyone takes on this task (or has already done so) it is not an easy one. This marks the 3-week point since started the demo, so its gone pretty fast. However, it has been very difficult partially because of all the metal work to repair the frame, and a myriad of angle cuts and sanding on the outer bands. Also, thinking through how best to support the toilet flange took some head scratching. I ended up keying the whole floor support off the traverse 2x6 that is bolted in with the factory mounts at the outer edges. I have the camper all sealed back up with A/C and dehumidifier running for a few days to ensure I have everything as dry as possible before I put in top layer of plywood maybe next weekend.

[KYAvion]

Looking really good! How about galvanic corrosion between the aluminum and the treated wood? Did you use Eternabond as a wrap for everything?

[Salty]

To give the toilet support, I used a piece of 2x12, since the 2x12 is actually 1.5" thick and gives the floor/toilet good support. I believe I used a piece that measured 8x8 for the toilet/toilet flange support. You could go 12x12 if you wanted.

[pbsled]

Thank you keeping up with my efforts and the compliment! It feels good to be making progress.

Yes, there is obviously the concern about the copper in the treated wood corroding both fasteners and the aluminum (esp. if it gets wet). So as you suggested getting all the sheet metal wrapped in tape that was touching treated wood was key, and I am also hoping to use a non-metal belt line trim. There will be some unavoidable contact between external screws and the aluminum skin that attached the belt-line trim - but I had to cut my losses and decide what I might want to corrode first. I think if you can minimize the total surface area contact with the skin sheet metal you can min corrosion, which I hope makes the floor being treated worth it. All the wood to frame fasteners are hot-dipped galvanized, and I may use stainless on the belt line.

It will be a good test and I will probably pull some sample fasteners every year or so for inspection to see how it is going. I think I have PTSD with all the wood rot and critters I found in that floor, and just wanted to ward off that particular concern. Of particular worry going forward will be the awning lower mount lag screws that go into the new treated 2x4 subfloor perimeter. There are some marine products to coat the bolts I might try on those - but you bring up a big negative of using treated wood with mixed metals. It begs the question of using a sacrificial anode somewhere like a boat ..... Teak $$$ would have been a nicer wood or the pre 2004 treated wood.

[pbsled]

To give the toilet support, I used a piece of 2x12, since the 2x12 is actually 1.5" thick and gives the floor/toilet good support. I believe I used a piece that measured 8x8 for the toilet/toilet flange support. You could go 12x12 if you wanted.

That is a great idea. Did your toilet flange come off the tank? Mine was bonded and there was no getting it off so I had to build the collar around / under my flange.