TheSamba.com :: View topic - Damp Sub-floor

Fri Sep 23, 2011 6:28 pm

When my rear heater leaked this summer (as seen in my video) coolant ran under the floor and dripped out near the front of the sliding door.
When I had it fixed I took out as much of the flooring as I could and mopped up whatever I could see. From time to time I would still find some coolant being squeezed out between the floor and the metal threshold. Today I took out the thresholds and and cleaned up a little bit more coolant residue but noticed the plywood sub-floor is still a bit damp in the front corner. The wood is a bit soft and the screws were rusty. There is a bit of surface rust on the threshold pieces and even a little on the painted metal body underneath.
So, will this ever dry out or should I replace the whole sub-floor? How corrosive is the residual coolant that seems to be soaked in the wood?
Thanks!

Fri Sep 23, 2011 6:59 pm

My Van has a foam rubber carpet underpad that soaked up most of the coolant when the rear heater sprung a leak.....

It took days of laying in the sun to get rid of the mess.

Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:08 am

I used pounds of baking soda to neutralize any potential acidity and lots of sunshine to get the moisture level lower. I still had the original sub flooring. Then a very thorough shampooing of the carpet was performed. A faint odor of coolant persisted for a while

Sat Sep 24, 2011 7:56 am

When this happened to me I removed everything, seat, cabinets and replaced the fiber board shims under the cabinets and seat. Good luck.

Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:02 pm

Still wondering if the coolant can do any permanent damage while it's seeping through the floor?
There is still some weeping out now and again but can't take out the floor any time soon since I don't have any garage space.
Just wondering if there's anything I can do to mitigate possible damage until I can get the floor out.

Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:10 pm

photogdave wrote: Still wondering if the coolant can do any permanent damage while it's seeping through the floor?
There is still some weeping out now and again but can't take out the floor any time soon since I don't have any garage space.
Just wondering if there's anything I can do to mitigate possible damage until I can get the floor out.
When I redid my 85 Westy, the heater had leaked before. It happened long before I got the van. BUT, BUT, BUT in the heat of Summer is smelled REALLY bad in the van. I took the flooring out. Sprayed Fabreeze on the bare painted floor and wiped up the goo. (Plus all the ancient French Fries, etc....) I did not notice any rust or anything bad after wiping up. BUT, BUT, BUT, I did put new floor material in from my parts van. NO bad smells any more some 5+ years later.

Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:46 pm

The first thing I do to a new to me van is pull all the factory insulation out :!:

Sun Oct 16, 2011 4:20 pm

r39o wrote: photogdave wrote: Still wondering if the coolant can do any permanent damage while it's seeping through the floor?
There is still some weeping out now and again but can't take out the floor any time soon since I don't have any garage space.
Just wondering if there's anything I can do to mitigate possible damage until I can get the floor out.
When I redid my 85 Westy, the heater had leaked before. It happened long before I got the van. BUT, BUT, BUT in the heat of Summer is smelled REALLY bad in the van. I took the flooring out. Sprayed Fabreeze on the bare painted floor and wiped up the goo. (Plus all the ancient French Fries, etc....) I did not notice any rust or anything bad after wiping up. BUT, BUT, BUT, I did put new floor material in from my parts van. NO bad smells any more some 5+ years later.

That makes me feel better - thanks!
Incidentally, I haven't had any smell from the coolant. The leak happened in May and I drove it all summer like this so maybe it's not as bad as I think.

Sun Oct 16, 2011 5:31 pm

I have had to deal with this problem several times, on mine and friends Vans. Most recently twice this summer on Vanagons that I was working on. What I hate most about the sneaky Rear Heater leak is that it's like a snake that creeps up on you and most of us just keep adding coolant as it slowly disapears as it seeps into the carpet etc. The part that really gets me is my slimmy wet Knees of my jeans and the kids pants etc that won't dry or go away and sometimes gets tracked onto the seats etc, etc.
What I found to work best was simply to take the time to remove the rear carpet, and sub Matting. Wipe the entire metal floor down with Simple Green, and hose the chit out of the carpet, and Matt. Between the Matt and Carpet they can easily hold a gallon or so of antifreeze / coolant. You would be surprised at how much foam / anti-freeze washes out of the carpet etc. After hosing everything down well, I wash the carpet with Simple Green and a car wheel scrub brush. Hang it over something like the rail of your deck etc, and let it drip dry, remember to turn the carpet several times so that the sun can hit both sides, inside, and out. For the Matt I do the same but the Matt takes the most drying time, so for that I simply try to stand it on edge with small 2x4's under it so that the water can drip off of it. If you do decide to take the time to clean the gritty grimmy anti-freeze out of your carpets, start early in the day and be sure to leave your carpets and Matt out till your sure that they are sun dried. Another option would be to find a way to hang them in your garage and let a Fan blow on them till there dry but this will take much longer, as the heat of the sun dries best.
I realize that this may sould like a lot of work but it's actualy much less work then forever trying to blot dry your carpets with towels etc. Once done in the end your have carpets, and a Van that will thank you, not to mention stay clean and not collect dirt and grim from your feet everytime you step on the forever wet anti-freeze carpet. Remember.. Anti-freeze is made from oil, so it will forever be messy.
Just do it right and clean it and forget "About-ttttttttt-it"
Good Luck.

Sun Oct 16, 2011 5:40 pm

Good advice OhChit, but in my case it's a newer van with the rubber floor panels under the removable carpet.
The coolant didn't get in the carpet or even on the rubber. It ran between the metal and the wooden subfloor. The rubber panels are attached to the plywood and the wood is glued to the metal. If I put something heavy on the floor I can see coolant ooze out from the wooden plies!
I was hoping there was a way to dry out the wood without removing the floor entirely but that doesn't seem to be possible. I have a feeling the only solution will be completely new floor panels. :evil:

Sun Oct 16, 2011 6:01 pm

Whoops Missed the part that you had hard wood floors gluded down.. Sorry about that. WoW, you do have a delemia at hand. Perhaps you can wedge it up a little and try to reach in there with some dry towels etc on a long stiff wire etc to try to sopp up any wetness. Then maybe try to leave the floor slightly elivated and face some fans towards the floor to try to dry up what may? One thing good in your favor is that the wood will only absorb so much and the anti-freeze shouldn't really rot or rust the floors. Maybe someone else can chime in who knows anti-freeze long term damages to wood.

Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:45 pm

Update: I have a small space heater plugged in running at medium and placed in the middle of the floor almost right against the sliding door. Rest of the van is closed up. THis is my attempt at drying out the subfloor.
Someone please tell me this isn't a stupid idea or I'm going to do some damage.

Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:56 pm

Quote: Rest of the van is closed up. THis is my attempt at drying out the subfloor.

Probably need some airflow thru the van to get rid of the glycol moisture otherwise the glycol moisture is just going to relocate from the wet subfloor to the entire van interior.

Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:56 pm

sc1out wrote: Quote: Rest of the van is closed up. THis is my attempt at drying out the subfloor.

Probably need some airflow thru the van to get rid of the glycol moisture otherwise the glycol moisture is just going to relocate from the wet subfloor to the entire van interior.

Thanks! I'll crack a window.

Sun Oct 23, 2011 3:14 pm

a strong fan directed properly will do more than just heat.

My laminate floor is floating, so I can take it out. I also took out the rear heater due to this common problem (I've kept it for future owners) as it is only myself and my 4 legged munchkin. I took it out before laying the floor. I have a 12V blanket insert if I need to take the chill out of my bed before I get in, plus I have a furnace if I ever learn to use it.

A fan directed UNDER the wood (with the thresholds off) will help.

Sun Oct 23, 2011 6:20 pm

DAIZEE wrote: I have a 12V blanket insert if I need to take the chill out of my bed before I get in

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but I'm curious about that blanket insert, Daizee! Sounds dee-lightful!

Mon Oct 24, 2011 7:17 am

Schlapette, I have to go out but later I'll look up the thread re all the 12V bed heaters etc....

Back to original programming :wink:

Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:03 am

Check a marine store for a dehumidifier. With the windows opened and a heater going you're just going to be wasting power. The dehumidifiers do a good job of pulling moisture out of the air on very little power.

Or you may just want to scrap the wood floor and start again.

Antifreeze is resistant to evaporation so it's a real pain to clean up. When my front heater core started leaking, I drained all the antifreeze and just ran water until I got around to fixing it. It isn't great for the cooling system but it's easier on the interior.

Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:26 am

Good tip Vango. I ended up running the heater most of the day yesterday with the slider cracked open and dare I say it- it seems to have helped.
I will evaluate it later and if need be look into a dehumidifier.
Thanks.

Mon Oct 24, 2011 2:18 pm

For a dehumidifier try the ice-cream bucket sized Damp-Rid. They have it at most of the hardware giants.

Fits right in the sink, I leave it there year round with another ice-cream bucket below it to use for grey water.

Damp-rid changed my winters from swampy to super in Seattle. Granted, it's the warehouse size, but it does an unbelievable job of mopping up moisture from the air. Plus the big one has kittylitter in it, and a membrane across the top so it never leaks. Put it in there and only think about it when you're not wet and cold in the morning.

http://www.damprid.com/product/hi-capacity-moisture-absorber-4lbs-fg50t