New Beaver look/ MCD Shades

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Keith,
Thx for the info. I glued my laminate down in the Contessa. It worked fine. We live in the desert but most of our travels are back to the humid SE US for months at a time and we had no issues with buckling. I'm trying to decide what to use in our Marquis as the carpet is in only fair shape and we don't like the existing tile in the galley or head. Laminate would be easiest but I'm a little concerned about its use due to water in the head area with the shower, etc.
Steve

[Keith Oliver]

We have original hardwood in the shower area, with no issues after 15 years.  The occasional wetting gets wiped up right away, but with a few coats of varnish it is pretty impervious to that amount of water.  I wouldn't trust laminate in that area, as the mdf under the plastic surface is just a soft sponge, and the joints expose it all to any spills.  If you go with hardwood, you will be able to get the part that goes on the closeout cover planed down by 1/4" and it will all fit nicely.  For the inspection port, you will need to cut the hardwood to fit, and if you leave it a loose fit, you can pull it up with a big suction cup (window suction cups are $5.00 at Harbour freight).  If you go with new tile, you will need to add 1/4" subflooring everywhere, as there will be no way to reduce the thickness of the tile flooring.

I have seen a new vinyl flooring that is about the same thickness as laminate, and looks like hardwood.  Installation is easy, it comes in "planks" and it is heavy enough that it just lays there.  Use the suction cup for the inspection port.

[Edward Buker]

Very nice job Keith, especially the angle surround treatments for the driver side front window. That surround is not straight forward.  Enjoy the new shades.

later Ed

[Keith Oliver]

Ed:

Thanks.  I enjoyed making the valences, and now will get to enjoy the fresh appearance of the old girl.  

[Todd Brunner]

Keith,
Could you upload any pictures of how you used the Blue Skin to seal the windows? I'm going to have to pull two windows on the passenger side of my coach and reseal them. My '94 Patriot has the same damage but it is extensive. The PO left it stored outside and both AC's and a couple of windows leaked. I will be replacing quite a bit of Ceiling, wall, and flooring materials before all is said and done.

[Keith Oliver]

Todd:

No pictures, sorry about that.  

I had recently put new windows in my house, so i was able to observe how the blueskin was used there.  It is simply a very sticky piece of butyl with a blue plastic backing.  I first cut it to the width that would cover the opening and fold over the fiberglass on the outside and the plywood on the inside, each by about 1/2".  Once the windows were installed over that, I had to trim a few places so  the blue didn't show.

At the corners, a few cuts were necessary to stretch it around the corner and still have full contact.

I don't think using blueskin is the only way to seal up the opening, but as it works so well in household applications I thought I would try it here.

Good luck with your repairs.  Let us know how it all works out.

[John Hennessey]

I'm thinking out adding MCD shades to the rest of our coach having added them to the windshield last year. Can you have them motorized like the roman shades our Marquis came with?  I hate the manual roll up shades. They never seem to work for long

[Keith Oliver]

motorized are available.  The local installer guy discouraged us from using them, for the high cost of running/hiding the wiring.

[Mike Humble]

We have installed some top down bottom up blinds in neutral colors in both of our coaches and find them to be nice looking and functional.
Mike and Donna