Trailer floor

mitchell574 · Dec 1, 2005

I have heard that the preasure treated lumber that is being sold now will rust the fastners if they are not stainless or coated. Someone told me that lumber is no longer treated the way it was. They mentioned salt in the treatment process. I need to refloor a stock trailer. I am concerned that I will completely refurbish this trailer only to have the floorboards to rust out the rails in no time.I have even considered the poly boards but the price is out of my range. I wish I could find where Lowes gets the thick material used for the bathroom stall walls.

mudcat · Dec 1, 2005

If all your steel is painted and you use the right kind of fastners, you shouldn't have a problem.

fire72 · Dec 2, 2005

The CCA treated lumber we were used to was phased out recently. There are several new types available, the most common in my area being ACQ. I'm told the higher percentage of copper in the ACQ can cause galvanic corrosion from the contact of dissimilar metals, much like you would get using steel fasteners on aluminum. It's suggested that fasteners either be stainless or hot-dipped galvalized. I have built with ACQ, but haven't had a chance to see the long term effects yet.

Another alternative is to check local lumberyards and sawmills for rough-sawn hardwood. Oak is common for trailer floors around my area, and hickory is also sometimes used.

Willman · Dec 2, 2005

Use stainless steel fasteners and put a layer of heavy mill plastic sheeting between the wood and steel members.
When all wood is bolted down just trim away the overlapping plastic sheeting.
This gives you an "insulator" effect.

mitchell574 · Dec 2, 2005

The trailer is 20 foot long and has a 3in piece of channel every 4 ft. I am going to floor the entire trailer and weld a 20ft piece of angle along the wall on each side with out fasteners. I have used this successfully in the past. This trailer has a metal top so the floor drying is a concern. If you dont wash them out every time it wont last long. I wonder about the lumber leaching chemicals onto even painted metal.Got a coworker that refloored his stock trailer 3yrs ago, the lumber rotted 6in on both ends from not being able to dry. I have a couple rolls of old baler belt could lay down a strip.

Willman · Dec 2, 2005

I dont think the leaching would be of as much concern as the constant contact of wood to metal causing corossive action.
Old baler belt would work great as long as it will hold up to constant wetness.

Thorndike · Dec 2, 2005

The plastic sheeting will work for a while, but why not go down to the bigbox store, and buy a roll of the flashing tape we use for flashing windows and doors? Once you get down to the crossmembers, just peel the backing off, and stick it on. UV rays won't hurt this stuff, and pretty bloody tuff. Then use stainless fasteners. This new junk [ACQ], rots out fasteners bigtime. The lawsuits are already starting against builders that didn't do their homework regarding this stuff.

Lore has it, that some EPA twits brat ate a picnic table made of the good CCA stuff, and died from arsenic poisining. I think the brats parents got the Darwin Award after the funeral wake. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

QRTRHRS · Dec 5, 2005

I see this ad in a farming newspaper I get from a company that redecks trailers. The ad says oak or Apitong. I don't know what Apitong is but you may want to check into it.

I replaced a treated horse trailer floor that had the same issues, the ends were rotten. Using tongue and groove, I actually did not use fasteners except on the last piece in.