AIRSTREAM

the Story of the new Cork Floor

This is the plywood floor with a LOT of flling and sanding. For the filling of the really deep holes, I used Min-Wax epoxy filler.
Then I switched to a grey powder stuff ( Henry 547 or something) that you mix with water and schmear on.
Sanding and Sanding. With dry wall screens because
they don't fill up fast . I did it by hand, because I like to. Some folks polish their skins, some folks sand.

These are the two essential tools. A shop vac, ( kinda dinky, used a LOT of filters) and my best new toy
a Honda Ei 2000.  It willl run everything except the AC, but I need it because I don't have power
down at the wood shed.  Gotta vacuum.
 
 

OK, here we  are making lines on the floor to line up the squares. The Directions said to do this.
I decided that the first and most obvious place you see the floor is at the door while you are
trying to find the step to get in. So the first tiles are against the wall there. I was supposed
to make lines everywhere else, but I didn't.  Not too many parallel line in an AS and not a very big space either

Here are the tiles laid out face down, waiting for glue.  The glue provided is a latex based contact cement. If you look
back at the first picture, you can see the area of the floor I did as a first step.

First section down. Note rubber hammer to make a good bond.
It is important to carefully line up the edges to the last piece sort of up in the air, and lean them into
the crack. Most of the time if you are careful, the joint will be invisible.
Trimming the tiles to fit around stuff was not too bad, I used a matte knife, a metal straight edge,
and a piece of old vinyl flooring to cut on.  About at the bathroom, I wished I had knee pads, but being a good (?) catholic girl, I managed.
Sometimes if it was curvey in the end parts, I used scissors. Perhaps I should add that I trimmed before glueing ? And labeled them...

If you look closely, you can see that the dried glue on the floor goes out about 3-4" beyond. For the next section, I started with whole tiles and
butted them up,letting them semi-stick and then worked on the edge pieces that needed trimming.  I did  a few sections a day. I discovered that
in places where I messed up the trimming or the joints , it was easy to cut a sliver and stuff it in. Or the best trick yet,
push caulk that matches into the cracks and wipe off with a damp paper towel.

If you look closely, you can see my repairs below the heater.

Here's what it looks like now, I will do the two coats of 2 part polyurethane in the spring
.


You can see the tambours replaced, the new catalytic heater, and the new sofa.
And also the hole under the sink.

Here is where I bought the cork from:
http://www.corkfloors.com/#

Excellent product, excellent service, silly questions answered cheerfully.
 

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On to a few candids of the last weekend out