Demolition Day 2

John decided to get back out to the trailer yesterday and work some more on removing the old flooring while I was sleeping after night shift.  Spring has definitely caught up with us finally and it's so nice to be out in the fresh air and sun shine.

Things had dried up a little bit in the Peanut since Sunday's demolition session but things are still pretty wet.  John started by working on pulling up more of the floor towards the back wall of the camper.  Turns out that many of the joists are either partially or completely rotted away.  They were providing no support for the floor at all.  I am starting to think those black and white tiles were made out of Kryptonite because they were all that was preventing us from going through the floor.  :) At some point someone had made an effort to reinforce the floor with 1" x4" boards, which were also pretty much destroyed.

Left rear corner.  The insulation will be coming out as we go, too.

Taken from the front area looking at back wall at those lovely 1"x4" 's

At least they tried, I guess?

This is the floor in front of the kitchenette area.  The door is to the right and the fridge/closet is to the left. 

 John also took some pictures of the under side of the trailer to see if there was any obvious concerns that he could see.  Over all I think it looks pretty good, considering it is almost 40.  I plan to spray the frame with one of the rust retardant sprays and then paint it.  I probably should take things down to the bare frame and redo it as well but I think that is more than we can get into.  The white pipe is the outlet for the sink.  Presumably the intent is to just put your grey water tank underneath while you're parked.

Shot of the under frame.  I see some rotten wood just in front of the tire that I will have to address. 

Overall doesn't look bad for being almost 40.

Pipes and hoses that we will have to sort out.  The white drain pipe is visible as well. 

The last thing that John did was to get a little more into the front kitchen area, specifically the lower cabinet.  His preference is to remove the propane cook top, even though it is original to the trailer, and replace it with a convection cook top.  They run on 110 power and are much safer than propane.

We had noticed a pump arrangement under the cabinet.  After poking around a bit he realised that there is a water tank under the cabinet at the front of the trailer.  The fill valve is outside on the front right side.   John is thinking that we should remove that as well, given that it's unlikely we/I will be needing to carry water in a tank.  I must admit that from the pictures, I think the tank looks a bit nasty too and I would be hesitant to use it.  I am pretty sure that we are going to go ahead and take out the front counter and fridge/closet cabinets so that we can just replace the floor front to back.  Given the extent of the damage to the rest of the floor I find it hard to believe that there wouldn't be rot under these areas as well.  

View of under the kitchenette cabinet

Floor of cabinet removed to expose water tank

Other half of water tank and pump arrangement.

Pipes from sink and from water tank.  The tank to me just looks nasty.  

That's about it for today, a bit of a shorter post than I usually make.  We're planning to go back out tomorrow and get the cabinets and cupboards off and the rest of the floor up.  Once we've done that the rebuilding process begins.  We want to rebuild the floor stronger than it was when it was new so we'll be re-framing and installing new joists and making sure everything is well supported before we move onto insulating and installing the floor.

We're enjoying the process so far, but I must admit that there have been a few times when I have looked at the scope of the needs for this little cutie and wondered what I have gotten myself into.  We're taking it one step at a time and I am sure that once this heavy work is done and we have the walls repaired, insulated and covered it will go a lot faster.

Thanks for stopping by, 

Mel.