My question today concerns the interior steps. Ours have begun to delaminate and we’re trying to figure out our next best steps (pun intended).
I thought about recovering with a vinyl wrap as I have some experience with that, but I’m not sure if it would work on the mdf. We’ve discussed replacing all the steps with a hard wood, but no longer have the woodworking tools to accomplish the cutting and shaping.
Has anyone else here had this happen to them as well? Wondering what solutions others have come up with…
I dont have a good recommendation for you but my plan was when mine started to peel I was going to take them out and use them as a template for something solid to replace them.
The older treads (prior to 2022) where thicker and didnt have the peeling issues but the factory where those treads were produced apparently burned to the ground and Vanleigh changed to a new distributor for in 22. The new treads are half as thick and in addition were very prone to the delam issue.
I had the original treads but in one of my stops in Redbay they replaced them with the newer treads so I knew it was only a matter of time.
I too thought about taking them out and using them for templates as there are three different radii in four treads, but as mentioned before, I no longer have the tools - it just irks me that within a week of down sizing to make the switch to full time, I already needed the very tools I thought I wouldn’t need in a fifth wheel - we’ve been full time since August and I’ve been spending more time at Harbor Freight than ever before! Oh geez, there I go again, getting off on a tangent - sorry.
Maybe I could get Home Depot to cut the pieces for me, although I doubt they’d cut the radius - straight cuts only ma’am. Maybe I can rent what I need - that would be nice. I’ll just clamp the wood to the picnic table here in the RV Park and cut away! I also want to use sturdier fasteners, so will need to beef up those flimsy 1 x 2’s the treads are currently attached to… Any suggestions on the type of wood that would work best (excluding oak)? I’d like the grain to match that of the vinyl flooring…
In the meantime, I glued down the laminate with some contact cement, but that MDF absorbed most of it before it dried, so I added another couple of coats while the cement on the laminate pieces were drying. Unfortunately, after just a couple of days, I can hear the sound of it separating under foot. It hasn’t come loose yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
On another note, it’s been like monsoon season here in Northern California for the last week and a half and our rig hasn’t let any of it in! Yeah! Even with 40 mph wind gusts and 15 mph sustained winds. Oh gosh, I hope I didn’t just jinx myself!
I also want to use sturdier fasteners, so will need to beef up those flimsy 1 x 2’s the treads are currently attached to… Any suggestions on the type of wood that would work best (excluding oak)? I’d like the grain to match that of the vinyl flooring…