I just revisited this old thread and thought I should update it.
In March, 2012, I found some good looking laminate at Costco, so undertook the carpet area replacement. The laminate I used came in 5"x48" pieces, so it made sense to lay it crossways. This also worked well in the bedroom, which I did in the summer, after we got home to Saltspring Island. Removal of the wood cabinetry that is fastened to the floor presented few problems, but I found that one of hte screws holding the little cabinet below the middle of the dassh was very hard to locate. That screw goes up, from above the gas pedal, through one of hte pits of wood, into the uderside of hte dash. Once located and removed, that unit came out easily. Re-installation didn't get that screw, as it was a tight installation without. Removal of hte little "desk" behind the passenger seat was also problematic, as the Corian desktop is glued in place and needs to be removed to access the screws holding the woodwork to the wall. breaking the glue proved to be implssible, as the Corian broke first, so I had to learn how to repair Corian. That proved to be relatively easy, although time consuming. Crazy glue, followied by wetsanding and polishing, and the result will fool most into believing there never was a break. This break was diagonal across the whole top, making two almost equal sized triangular pieces.
Now a year and a half in, I would do it differently next time. Either by gluing the laminate or choosing something else. The problem relates to changes in the dimenions of the laminate due to changes in humidity. It grows in the damp and shriks back in the dry. This growth exceeds the amount of buffer space that is available when one side has to meed another type of flooring, as mine does, where the edge of the hardwood meets the front flooring in the middle of the coach. I made that join as tight as I could, so have a less than 1/16" gap, sometime down to 0.00". That wouldn't have been a problem if the cabinets could have floated on top of the laminate, but those needed to be securely fastened to the floor, resulting in bulging of th elaminate in teh +90% humidity of fall in BC. When this occurred last fall, before our trek south for the winter, I was hopeful that the bulge would disappear when we drove south and was pleasantly surprised when it was gone completel by the time we arrived in the desert, after only 4 days on the road. Once again, being humid here the bulge has returned, and needs to be explained to any visitors. Luckily, we are only doing tours for people wanting to see the latest improvements, so few in number. I will optimistically predict the disappearance of the bulges once we return south later this fall.
Pictures of my valences have been posted elsewhere and include a view of the front portion of the new flooring.
