It doesn’t matter whether you’re a seasoned tourer or completely new to the world of caravan ownership, there are some problems you should be aware of that can affect your caravan. While not all of these are serious or common, one of the most common issues you can face, is one that you’ve probably never heard of – delamination. Perhaps you didn’t know it had a name and have only ever referred to it as ‘spongy floor’ or have noticed that your carpet seems to make a strange noise.
That is delamination.
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Caravan Floor Delamination
What Actually is it?
To explain it in the easiest way possible, you need to understand that the flooring in a caravan is generally made of different layers, a bottom layer of plywood, a middle layer of Styrofoam insulation and a top layer of plywood. Delamination is when the glue that is bonding those materials together starts to wear off. You will find that it is most noticeable in the areas of the caravan that are frequented more often.
Fixing Delamination – Hire a Professional
There are two options open to you if you have the problem of delamination in your caravan. The first is that you can hire a professional. Obviously, this means that you won’t have to worry about dealing with the problem yourself. You can simply hire a team or individual that is fully trained and has experience dealing with delamination. Which for many people, means a huge weight off their shoulders. However, the downside is that this can be quite expensive. Depending on just how severe your delamination problem is, you could be expecting to pay 50 to 150.
Fixing Delamination – Doing it Yourself
The second option you have then is to deal with the problem yourself. While you are likely to save a considerable amount of money tackling the problem without a professional, we would still recommend that you hire a professional if you are not confident with doing extensive renovation work on your caravan, as that is what is involved.
However, if you want to proceed, we’ve put together a basic overview of what is involved.
You need to remove all the carpeting in the area where there are signs of delamination, storing it somewhere for safe keeping. If it is undamaged, you will want to put it back in place after you’ve finished. You next need to drill small holes, being sure to go through the top two layers, so that the drill bit is just touching the bottom layer.
After you’ve drilled the holes you need to fill them with a special adhesive. Delamination repair kits can be found at any good hardware store or online. It has a gluey consistency and texture that hardens once it has something to bond with, i.e. is in the holes. Before it sets though, you need to take some wooden dowels (that are the same shape and size of the hole) and press them into the holes. Once you have finished, you just need to clear away any excess adhesive there may be, refit the caravan and there you have it, caravan flooring with delamination that is as good as new.