Laying Laminate Flooring in a Caravan

Can you put laminate flooring in a caravan? Absolutely. Here’s a little rundown of why we decided to replace caravan floor covering with laminate — plus some before and after pictures.

Is Carpet The Best Caravan Floor Covering?

I’ve never really understood the trend for carpets in a caravan. I know that people like the warmth and grip of carpet — over hard flooring. But the dirt element really puts me off!

Vinyl flooring — even the cheap self adhesive floor tiles — would be so much better.

As our caravan is often parked in festival fields or on grassy campsites, it made no sense to me to replace it with more carpet.

The best solution to muddy boots and grass is hard-flooring, something that can easily be mopped down and wiped clean at the end of the day.

This was pre the brilliant Bosch cordless vacuum that we take everywhere now.

And —as electric hook-up is not available in a festival field (for normal folk anyway) — vacuuming the floor when we were camping was nigh on impossible back then. It’s definitely something that had to be done when you’re back home.

A dustpan and brush, followed by a mopping down is the best way to keep a caravan floor clean when you’re off adventuring.

But not when there’s carpet on the floor.

Changing Carpet To Laminate Flooring

I’ve previously written about Dolly II — our caravan — and how we had performed a caravan makeover, on quite a grand scale.

I’ve painted the caravan cupboards and walls and I have also painted the exterior of the caravan.

In this post I talk about changing the carpet to laminate flooring.

We’d bought Dolly II over the summer to replace our original van; also named Dolly (due to the fact that it was impossible to convince our babies that a caravan could possibly have another name).

When we bought Dolly II home, she was in a sorry state.

Ugly, brown wooden cabinetry, beige walls but the worst offender — in my mind anyway — was the flooring.

I’m not sure whether it was original but the van floor was swathed in the most revolting red carpet.

The kind of carpet that, no matter how may times you vacuum — or VAX it — still looks dirty. A petri-dish for heaven’s knows what — and I’d really rather not dwell on this — the only solution was to replace it.

What Flooring is Used in Caravans?

So — apart from carpet — what flooring is used in caravans? Lino? Vinyl?

Laminate flooring in a caravan is definitely my favourite choice. I wanted something light in colour and easy to maintain. Cue a swift trip to Carpetright.

Despite what their name may suggest, Carpetright also sell a fantastic range of hard-flooring; everything from laminate to on-the-roll vinyl flooring and luxury vinyl tiles.

We decided on a hard-wearing lightweight laminate flooring and after much deliberation, went for Supernatural Classic Aspen Oak; a cool white/grey which would lighten up the van and compliment the fab yellow wallpaper we’d already chosen.

It’s not dissimilar to the laminate that I put in my she-shed.

How To Lay Laminate Flooring in a Caravan

For those of you who have not fitted laminate before, it needs basic DIY skills.

Mr D laid it over a couple of weekends and we decided to use the original underlay — and carpet — as a sub-base,  to give good insulation and keep warmth in the van.

‘Proper’ floor fitter would probably balk at that! But it worked for us.

You cut the lengths, as needed, and simply slot them together — a little like grown up Lego — really simple and very gratifying too, as you can cover a decent space in quite a short space of time.

Once the floor was totally covered, the only thing left to do was add beading around the edges to hide the gaps and give a lovely finish.

We chose white —to tie in with the painted woodwork.

So Would We Recommend Putting Laminate in a Caravan?

In short yes.

One word of warning. Make sure the laminate is lightweight — make sure that it’s not too heavy for the structure of the van. The weight of the flooring should be substracted from the payload.

But, for me, having a paler floor covering in the caravan makes the world of difference. The light has increased ten-fold.

And it looks so much fresher too. No longer a harborer of bacteria and dirt, it can be easily cleaned with a broom and a mop and — even after a long weekend of being stomped all over with muddy boots — looks as good as new in no time.

It just goes to show that laminate flooring doesn’t just need to be restricted to use in the home either — it’s the perfect floor-covering for a caravan or motorhome. Hard-wearing and easy to clean. And it looks fabulous too.

There’s really no need to be stuck with a dated, dirty old carpet when you can cover your caravan floor in something as lovely and contemporary as this!

Some Other Caravan Related Posts You Might Like