NL plywood floor

[sisu]

I am going thru the camper fixing this & that. I have several dry rot spots in the floor. I was thinking of removing the entire plywood floor, leaving the blue foam alone

Does the plywood provide any strenght? Is that honeycomb sandwich material act the same as the plywood? I believe the honeycomb stuff is called nida core.

[herm]

I am sure the layer of ply does add some strength. what is under the blue foam? is it just the outside sheeting or is there another layer of ply?

what is the thickness of the ply you are thinking of replacing?

nida core would be way overkill for your NL. It will also be much harder to integrate into the structure.
i would find a similar thickness of exterior grade ply and use that. i recently insulated and sheeted the floor of my woodframe camper with celotex, pink foam and a sheet of 1/2 in exterior ply applied with construction glue and screws. seemed to stiffen the entire camper up a bit and the floor a lot.

[Dale]

Take a look at www.nyloboard.com, under sheeting. They also sell their sheeting with a layer of fiberglass but I don't see it mentioned anywhere on their web site.

[sisu]

Herm and Dale,
I think I'll repair it temporarily, in other words cut out the rot in the specific places and then patch it. I plan on being home soon and then I can take it off the truck for a longer period of time under cover to strip out the entire thing properly and then replace the floor. If I do this it will either be marine grade ply or some synthetic.

From what I can see the blue foam has open areas in it where there are sections of wood below to screw the ply into. the mounting sections may be fiber glassed in place. I just don't know until I get that far.

I am glad of one thing though. I am glad I bought an old camper so I can see that I would NEVER invest big bills into one. There is so much to go wrong that I am surprised no one has not come up with a more modern approach to these monsters. I think Hallmark is the closest to being in tune with using modern synthetics materials than anyone out there.

Herm what did you mean by over kill using the nida core? From what I read there is a lot of strength in the panels especially for the floor and I do know the price of the stuff!!!! But if it works better than ply then the expense is worth it.

Dale, thanks for the nyloboard link. I will use that for research.

Thanks again guys this site is always a pleasure to deal with as there are REAL experts here that have done the actual work and not just blowing hot gas out of their fundament.

[herm]

well, i would not call me an expert, just a lot of experience fixing up junk!

the nida core is a great product, i have not actually worked with that particular product but have with other synthetic and foam core sheets.

it is just my opinion and very small amount of experience that the structure of an object like a wood frame camper should keep the same sort of flexibility throughout. the nidacore may be hard to keep integrated into the structure over time as the rest of the structure flexes. keeping it all wood products will keep the same flexible qualities.