Reflooring the RV: The Summary, The Costs, And... Was It Worth The Work?

While I still have some things to do for our remodeling, I am at a point where I can call this reflooring project essentially complete. So, I thought I’d make a nice wrap up post here.

How much did I end up spending on the job?

How long did it take?

And… am I happy I did it? Was it worth all the sweat and effort?

Let’s dive in.

First off, here’s every post I made about this project in sequential order…

How Long Did It Take?

That first video showing the original flooring was recorded in a campground on March 22nd. I began pulling the carpet out on March 31. The final video was recorded on May 16th. So, that’s about a month and a half total on the project.

Mind you, there were delays.

I was primarily working on weekends. I did do some stuff during the week since I run my own business and have that flexibility. However, mostly weekend work.
My wife and I flew to Paris, France in early April and were there for a week. So, I lost a week of working on the RV, but for a very worthy reason. 🙂
I ended up losing another weekend of work because I was waiting for Lowes to ship me the flooring I chose. It was that weekend where I firmed up the washer/dryer and fixed my cruise control.

So, in total, I worked on it for about 4 weekends plus some weekdays here and there. Definitely not a fast job!

How Much Did It End Up Costing?

Well, I went through and tracked down all the charges on my Visa (where I was centralizing expenses so I could track it easier). I wasn’t keeping logs on things and there were a few transactions which probably contained some stuff which wasn’t intended for the RV. All that said…

My final cost for reflooring comes in right around the $1,300 mark.

This is for materials and tools. Any tools I bought I now own, of course, and can use for other stuff later. And obviously, I’m paying retail for materials at Lowes and Home Depot. A professional installer would acquire things at wholesale.

The question is…

How much would this have cost if I had hired the job out?

Well, the answer is one hell of a lot more than $1300! 🙂

I didn’t get any official estimates before I began. I think I did ask a guy I found on Craigslist over a year ago his rough estimate to recarpet the rig. Without seeing it, he estimated in the $3,000 range, if I recall. I don’t remember the exact amount. I remember thinking it was pretty high. Keep in mind, too, that that would have been a direct carpet replacement. No wood flooring. Just replacing original carpet with new carpet.

The issue is that many carpet people simply don’t want a job like this. It is hard and it is a lot of work. It is much easier to make money slapping carpet into stick-and-brick homes. For this reason, carpet installers for RVs charge an arm and a leg for it.

But, my job was tougher. I pulled out the laminate flooring. I re-floored a large chunk with vinyl planks rather than carpet. I installed sound dampening. Also, I found and repaired subfloor damage that definitely would have driven up costs if I hired the job out.

All in all, I’m guessing that this job would have easily been a $6,000-$7,000 job if I had hired it out. One thing is for sure, it would have been expensive.

And, here’s the thing…

Jobs like this have no ROI (return on investment). This is a labor of love, primarily. It is something we do for our own experience when using the rig. New flooring might make the rig easier to sell when the time comes, but is it going to inherently make the motorhome more valuable? Not really. So, I just don’t think I could have brought myself to drop $7,000 on this job for a 2002 motorhome. Doing it myself was much more reasonable.

Plus, I’m already dropping money on new furniture. A total splurge! And likewise, not a lot of ROI to it. I might as well save the money on the floor so I can spend some of the savings on that furniture, right? 😉

So, was it worth it?

Yes.

First off, the rig looks a LOT better. That old carpet was just horrible. The entire appearance of the interior changed with new flooring. The new furniture is going to be the icing on the cake.

Next up, there’s obviously the financials. I really do think that $6,000 is a conservative estimate for what the job would have cost. I spent about $1,300. So, I saved AT LEAST around $4,700 by doing it myself. Likely much more than that.

But, there’s one other factor, too.

This job entailed me doing a lot of things I’ve never done. I acquired and used new tools. I figured things out I never had before. And so there’s definitely a personal confidence factor that comes in to doing a job like this yourself.

My confidence – and competence – tackling larger jobs like this definitely increased substantially.
I acquired several new skills.
I have some new tools to use in the future.

Plus, one other thing…

When you do a job like this on your motorhome, you really get to KNOW the motorhome well. You know the work quality. You know what went into it. You end up becoming much more familiar with the rig. You’re putting a bit of yourself into the motorhome. And I honestly think it runs and works better that way. It is that human factor that helps keep these things in good shape.

So, that’s the wrap up on this reflooring. 🙂

Is the job perfect? Is it equally as good as a pro would have done? No. I mean, as the guy who did it, I see the flaws. But, nobody else would. Overall, I think it came out damn good!

I’ll share a brand new walk-through video of the whole thing once I get the new furniture in and the carpet binding is done. Will be fun to compare to that original walk-through I did in the campground. 🙂