Demolition Day!

We had a beautiful spring day here today and decided to go out and get started on opening up the walls and floor of the Peanut and seeing what we have to do for her.   While there were no real surprises as we got into it, we do have our work cut out for us.  While I say "we" throughout this post, in truth John did the vast majority of the heavy lifting today.  It didn't seem to be all that difficult, though and he only got one splinter.

Rear Wall

We started by removing the trim at the edges of the back panels and the rear window.  We also removed the table and all of the hardware that went with it.  As we pulled off the old paneling we could see how wet it was after the heavy rains from last week.

Trim off from around the rear window.  We've also taken the shelf/upper bunk down to prevent accidents. 

Dropping the table in preparation for removing it. 

Wet and rot around the rear window.

Another view of the same area. 

After the upper bunk fell and almost brained John while he was working under it, it came off too.  It would have had to come out eventually anyway and to be honest I am not entirely sure that I will put it back in.  It would never have been used as a bed, and I quite like how much more open and bright the back of the trailer was without it.  We've set it aside for now until we are sure that we won't need it.  

Demolition continued with the removal of the left and right benches.  We needed to get them out so that we could get to the lower sections of the back wall.  It was apparent that while some of the sections of the benches were original, as evidenced by the stapled construction, they had been rebuilt at some point in the past.  We've kept them aside to put them back when we're done.  I will be buying new foam and making new cushions once we've rebuilt things.  

Once we had the back wall opened up we decided to open up the rear side walls to further expose the wet areas.  We opened them up to probably just a bit less than half way.  We also removed the back ceiling panel that was installed by the previous owner.  I was hoping to keep it intact but it soon became apparent that it had to come down in order for us to properly repair what needed to be fixed.  

Preparing to remove the left bench.

Not too difficult, most of the screws came out easily.

Left bench removed, the power cord pulled through to the outside while we were working.  

Right bench removed and getting ready to pull off the rest of the paneling.  

Once we had everything removed we could assess what was going on.  As we expected the right rear corner was pretty rotten.  The rot is from ceiling to floor and several of the framing beams will need to be replaced.  Also, the large corner board that gives the upper back edge it's curve will need to be re-cut and replaced.  Once we've replaced the beams and supports we will have something to re-attach the aluminum skin to.  There was also some rot on the left rear side of the wall, although not quite as much as on the right.  

Right rear corner, showing rot that will need replaced.

Left rear corner rot, with some rot on the ceiling above the small window.

Right rear upper corner support piece that gives the roof it's curve at the back.

"I Didn't Know That They Made Liquid Flooring"

Along about this time I decided to do a Tim's run for some drinks.  John was still working on getting the ceiling panel off and said that he'd carry on while I was gone.  When I came back the decision on whether or not the checkerboard floor would stay had been made.   The floor overall felt very soft and spongy in most areas and we were pretty sure that at least some of it was going to have to be replaced.  The area in front of the door in particular felt very soft and I was quite hesitant to step too firmly on it.

By the time that I got back John had ripped up the old tiles and a good portion of the rotted wood on the floor.  It was absolutely saturated and John was pulling out handfuls of sopping wet wood rot. Once again it was obvious that someone had made an effort to repair or at least reinforce things at some point in the past.  The original floor was visible in places under the top layer of wood.  The original sheet linoleum was visible in places, as was the wood floor that was original to the camper. John had taken the floor down to the skin in places.  It was pretty stinky and quite nasty looking.  A large portion of the floor will obviously be repaired.  My preference will be to take it all down to the underskin and rebuild from there, adding some additional joists as we go for added strength.  Right now we have it airing out and drying out a bit before we do anything more.  

Taken standing outside in the doorway.  No way was I stepping on that mess. 

Down to the outer skin in front of the door.  This was sopping wet. 

The floor in front of the fridge/closet actually wasn't that bad but will be replaced anyway

Below the back wall, more layers need to come up but it needs to dry out a bit and we want to have the replacement wood ready to go before we get too much more up.

So there you have it.  So far the needs are about what I would have expected, given the age of the camper and the fact that it has been sitting for about three years.   I haven't made the final decision about the floor under the front sink/stove area and under the closet/fridge area yet, but I am leaning towards trying to replace them when we fix the rest of the floor.  

I look forward to your comments and appreciate any suggestions that you may have to offer. 

Mel.