Before learning how to repair water damaged cougar slideout floor, you have to know where the water damage comes from first. Knowing the cause of water damage can inform you what to attend to first before proceeding with the repairs.
Also, it will help prevent future causes of water damage. To learn more about slide-outs and water damage, read until the end of this article.
What Is A Cougar Slide Out?
Cougar is an award-winning travel trailer manufactured by Keystone RV. Since its establishment, it has sold travel trailer units more than the other brands in North America.
They continue to improve their travel trailer’s features, which is why they’re well-loved by travelers and campers alike. The base price for a Cougar camper is around $49,357, but it may go lower depending on the retail store.
Anyway, slide-outs are room extenders that provide you with additional living space in your campers. A slide-out or slide is worth it for those who spend an abundant amount of time in their RVs or if you plan to take a trip with your family.
A slide can be used either as an extra room for closets or as a bedroom. You can also use a slide-out to have extra space for a refrigerator in your kitchen. If you spend so much time in your RV, you can also use your slide out to make space for residential-style furniture.
Having a slide-out is an advantage to avid travelers and family campers. However, along with additional living space are other tasks on maintaining its state.
Despite its apparent advantages, it is not without drawbacks. For your information, slides are prone to misalignment, motor failure, and even leaks.
How do slide floors acquire water damage?
Slide-outs are vulnerable to water damage, and their floors aren’t an exception to that. If your slides do not have flashing on their bottom, that may cause water damage to your slide-out floors.
Without a flashing, water is free to drip down from the sides of the slide-out to your floor. If you leave the water damage unattended, then it may lead to rotting, and your slide flooring will turn spongy.
Here’s an article about repairing water damaged RV walls to protect your flooring.
Cracks in the slides may also lead to water damage due to excessive moisture. Moreover, if your slide windows are not correctly sealed, it can cause leaking.
Another cause of slide-out floor water damage is an improperly sealed roof. Come heavy rains; the rainwater would leak from the ceiling and damage your flooring.
To help you protect your slide floors from ceiling and roof leaks, here’s an article about fixing water damaged camper ceilings.
We have established that it takes effort to maintain a slide-out, but what piece of vehicle doesn’t? We just need to protect your slide-outs so that there is no possibility of leaks happening.
However, if leaks happen and your slides’ flooring gets water damaged, what should you do? Find the answer to that below.
Repairing Water Damaged Cougar Slide Out Floor
Step #1. Remove furniture
Since slide-outs are living spaces, there’s bound to be furniture sitting on top of your flooring. To properly fix your slide-out floors, you have to move them to another part of the RV or outside.
Step #2. Remove damaged area
After moving the furniture away, take out the affected flooring’s staples, nails, and screws.
Step #3. Cut along the subfloor
After removing the affected flooring, cut through the subfloor with a circular saw. Ensure that your cut is clean to avoid gaps in the subfloor. Also, be careful with cutting as you may accidentally cut wires that are below the subfloor.
Step #4. Remove and replace
Use a hammer to pry the affected subfloor. If possible, ensure that the black underbelly cover is intact. Then, use a shop vac to clean debris.
Measure new plywood for your affected flooring, then cut accordingly. To drill pocket holes in the plywood, use a Kreg Jig. Like before, ensure that your cut is clean and square and that it extends up to the wall studs.
After cutting the new flooring, slide it in a way that the underbelly is stretched tight. Apply glue on the seams of the floor and secure the plywood on the original subfloor.
Step #5. Sand and staple
After drying the wood glue, sand it down with 80-grit sandpaper to smoothen everything out. Then, secure the underbelly by stapling it back into place.
Cost of repairing water-damaged cougar slide-out floor
Looking into the insurance coverage and policies is natural when you’re met with a water-damaged RV. This ensures that the costs of repairs get shouldered by the insurance you have instead of your own.
For your reference, a slide-out repair starts at $500 and can reach up to $2000. If the price is too much for you, you better ready your receipts and documents and call your lawyer.
Conclusion
Slide-outs are incredibly useful, but they require effort to maintain. We hope this article about knowing how to repair water damaged cougar slideout floor may help you in the future!