Flashback : Carpet Tiles

This one is a flashback to an old project.  I was 7 months pregnant, and totally nesting.  We were living in the 5th Wheel – yep, you read that correctly.  Our “home” had a garage that was designed to pull a four wheeler or motorcycle into, but since it was 1/3 of the space we had, we wanted to make it more “livable.”

We tracked down carpet tiles on craigslist.  Have you heard of them?  Think hospitals and  other carpeted high-traffic areas.  They don’t have wall-to-wall, roll-out carpets.  They generally have tiles.  this is so that if a stain occurs, the square can be removed and replaced instead of a costly repair being completed.  We purchased a few boxes of discontinued carpet tiles and I got to work with Gorilla Tape.  That stuff is AMAZING!  I tore it into strips and made “X”s at each corner of a tile.  By pressing down once tiles were aligned, I was able to lay our carpet without glue or any permanent modifications.  This was crucial for us to be able to resell the trailer.

Hubby came up with a backwards – ramp to level the back floor.  The back of the camper dropped down to become a ramp for ATVs, and the first 1/4 of the floor followed the angle. By dropping his ramp-subfloor-things into the dip, we made the floor flush.  I used our circular saw while he was at work to finish the trim work and get it installed.  That was exciting!  I recall having to ask for assistance from a neighbor to get the saw blade out of it’s packaging.  We determined that, perhaps, a person who cannot get the blade out of the package should not be operating the saw.  I got it out eventually.  I’m stubborn like that.  Hormones are something to reckon with, I guess.

I had to cut tiles to fit interesting angles for the rest of the trailer.  We had half carpet and half false wood flooring.  One of our dogs would not walk on the wood and we didn’t like the amount of dirt that seemed to gather on it.  I cut out around our shower, our heat vents, counters, stairs… it was a challenge.  But once it was done, it was heavenly.  And what a treat once our Baby Boy arrived.  It was so nice for him learning to crawl and for my late night dancing (he was tough to get to sleep.)

I think that carpet tiles are definitely the way to go for small spaces or high traffic areas.  Can’t speak highly enough of it.  Oh… and there was that time that I flooded the camper.  Came in handy to remove the tiles and let them dry outside and then re-install.  Can’t do that with regular carpet and padding!