# Preventive maintenance for floors



## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Are your boards all one-piece to the nose of your trailer?
Looks like you have a tack-room divider wall... You may have to disassemble that wall and remove any and everything from that tack area.
I know my floor is pressure treated lumber.
You sure on a 2 year old trailer you need to remove, sand and reseal it?
The checking of the trailers sub-structure is a great idea for sloppy, cracked or breaking welds, wiring not so greatly attached and so forth...that should be done when your trailer goes in for yearly maintenance, regardless.

Looking at your pictures....
Can I suggest you take a scrub brush, water and some type of cleanser and scrub that rear wall of manure residue.
Manure can be extremely caustic to the paint job if left... yes it dries but over time it can damage the finish of the trailer.
:runninghorse2:....
_jmo...._


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

horselovinguy said:


> Are your boards all one-piece to the nose of your trailer?
> Looks like you have a tack-room divider wall... You may have to disassemble that wall and remove any and everything from that tack area.


Fortunately, no. The treated lumber stops at the bulkhead, so no need to take it out to remove the wood.



horselovinguy said:


> I know my floor is pressure treated lumber.
> You sure on a 2 year old trailer you need to remove, sand and reseal it?


No, I'm not really sure :lol: This is my first trailer and I bought it new. It was something that was suggested to me as a good idea for the longevity of the floor, something I'm possibly over-paranoid about. It's very wet here for 8+ months of the year and the horse area of my trailer can't be closed off from the rain. Do you think it's overkill to pull out the boards and water seal them at this point? What (if any) maintenance would expect to need to be done for a floor kept in these conditions?



horselovinguy said:


> Looking at your pictures....
> Can I suggest you take a scrub brush, water and some type of cleanser and scrub that rear wall of manure residue.
> Manure can be extremely caustic to the paint job if left... yes it dries but over time it can damage the finish of the trailer.


Yeah, that's in the plans, too... I got the bright idea of spraying Never Wet on that area thinking it would make the poo just slide off the wall, and if anything it just made it stick more


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## Mingiz (Jan 29, 2009)

I have an older 95 steel stock. All I have ever done with the wood floor is clean it out after every use and every 6 mos I would pull the mats out and power wash the floor and trailer. The trailer it self is starting to look rough but the floor is in great shape. It is treated lumber and was painted. Also if your not going to be using it roll the mats up so more air gets to the floor.


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

Subbing :>! Good luck!


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## Chevaux (Jun 27, 2012)

I think (and may be wrong here) that at that age you do not need to pull out your floor boards especially since they look in pretty good shape.

Having had to have done this on a couple of occasions, taking out floor boards, while relatively easy, can be tricky. Most of the boards come out easy (or go in easy, for that matter) except the last two or three because by the time you get to them you don't have a lot of room left to move them around within the frame. Also, if the boards are screwed to the metal frame, you need to work precisely to align the board holes and the frame holes or you end up having to drill new holes. I don't like the idea of drilling new holes in the frame as I think it will eventually weaken it if it happens enough times.

Perhaps a better way to go is clean your boards and put sealant on them while they are in place (I use Thomson's water sealant - goes on with a paint brush; have had very good results with it). If you are generous with the application where the boards meet then the sealant will drip down between them providing some coverage of the recesses as well. My husband, bless him, even went so far as to crawl under the trailer and paint the underside of the boards with sealant as well.


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