Flooring Upgrade in the U-haul Camper

New Vinyl Plank Flooring

When we originally got our U-haul camper, the flooring was in bad shape. Nothing more than a piece of green, outdoor turf rug that had been cut to fit and just laid down over the fiberglass. It smelled awful and didn't look great or fit well. So that was a big item on my list to fix first. I did some research on different types of flooring after deciding I wanted to do something like wood instead of carpet. I came across a great product that you can get at Home Depot called Allure flooring. It looks like wood but is actually made of vinyl. It's referred to as vinyl plank flooring and I'm sure you can find other brands as well at other stores.

The thing about the Allure is that it's vinyl and links together to form a waterproof floating floor. It's changing the way bathroom flooring looks in the housing market. There are two types of Allure: regular Allure and the Allure Ultra. The regular uses grip/glue strips to link together. The Ultra version uses interlocking mechanism. The Ultra is more expensive. But I feel like it'll hold up and I love the way it looks. I'm willing to invest in a heavy duty floor. We went with the Durban Oak color. It did take me a little more than a case. So I ended up with two cases and several left over pieces (maybe half a case?). I figure if something happens to a plank at least I have replacements.

After some thin wood strips to help level the floor in a few areas. (Note that the sides where the inner shell meats the outer shell and the middle seam are raised a bit.) I tried to keep it simple and started at the back of the trailer and moved to the front laying planks as I went. The very front under the bench curves up. So that's why I started at the back. I did not yet put down any molding over the edges though I'm thinking about it. As of right now I can take the floor up if I need to since it's interlocking and not the glue strip version. Make sure you leave the case of flooring in the camper for a day or so when you get ready to do this so it adjusts to the temperature of the camper. These floors will expand/contract with the heat/cold that is experienced in the campers throughout the year. So you may want to do it in the summer when expansion is more.

Overall we like the flooring. It is so much easier to sweep out and keep clean with the kids and dogs running in and out. I think it's going to hold up for many years to come.