Horsebox floor advice needed !

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Eleanorj4356

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I have a rather elderly 7.5t horsebox 25 yrs old to be exact. She's reliable and suits me just right and really wouldn't be worth that much if I wanted to sell her. Especially now the youngsters can't drive them anymore. Anyhoo the time has come when she needs a new floor. Its ply at the mo with granulated rubber on top. Its gone a bit in one of the back corners and its worse in a spot where two boards meet on a cross strut under where the horses heads are. I think wet haynets in the past have probably caused this bit. I'm in a quandry as to what to do. I've had a quote from a local horse box man just short of £800 for stripping it out and replacing it with a double layer of ply and mats. Others have suggested I just put another sheet of ply on top of the existing floor. I could probably do this myself for about £300. Got to decide soon I'm off the road at the mo. Any comment, experiences and advice much appreciated ! P.s. Forgot to mention the fact that I don't have £800 :) wonder if I could take a mortgage out on the horse !
 
I have heard that if you put the ply ontop it will still rot through but faster, I am buying the ply myself and sealling it then having the floor replaced but a carpenter as I wouldnt trust myself with that bit but it makes it cheaper but I wouldny be puttting ply on top tbh.
 
Don't put good over bad. I've replaced a trailer floor with Gorillaboard then put aluminium chequerplate on top. It wasn't expensive, around £150 for the lot and we did it ourselves.
 
The best thing you can do is strip out all the granulated rubber yourself. That stuff is like the plague and happened to be a fad years ago. Anyone who replaces the floor will be on an hourly rate and trust me it takes some removing!! If you are giving someone a plain wooden floor to replace it will be much cheaper in the long run!
 
Is your lorry a coach built, or a conversion? I've built three horseboxes from lorries that started life as a curtainsider or delivery truck. Each of them had a hardwood plank floor, so a very good base, then I added two extra floors of 1/2" hardwood ply, criss crossing them if you know what I mean. That way, if the floor goes, the others underneath are fine. Mine always have rubber matting that is just nailed or screwed into place. I've never ever had a problem with a floor going, despite the fact I'm a bit lax with cleaning out. I can't think it should cost you anything like £800 to do the replacement, nor even £300 for new ply. You must however have the best hardwood ply with at least 5 layers. A tip I was told was to get an offcut, and submerge it in water for a week to see if the layers were still good. Some of the glue in the ply just gives way, and you don't want that on a horsebox floor. PM if you want any other details. I have a very good supplier of ply near me, but I'm in Suffolk.
 
Ply is expensive and crap ,even marine ply is not quite what you expect. I replaced my ply floor with a double layer of 1" thick Oak boards coated with lashings of bitchumen /tar. A lot cheaper than you might expect if you go to a good old fashioned sawmill.
 
I will only use a double aluminium floor but What ever you use make sure it has drain hole put in round the edges that makes what ever you use last much better.
And get mats much better for the floor too
 
I had my rotten ply floor replaced last year with aluminium planking. It cost £1400 for a very professional job. I had to get a credit card to pay for it but it was well worth it.
Having seen the state of the ply that came out which only showed a very small area of decay I now would only go for aluminium with liftable mats.
I would say forget the cost to your pocket and consider the cost of loosing your horse through the floor by going for budget over safety.
 
Just wanted to add, Ali floors can have there problems too. I went to look at an immaculate well know make of horsebox, got underneath as mats couldnt be lifted and there were several 50p sized holes in the ali planked floor where it had started to corrode.
 
I think the best advice I could give you would be NOT to take it to a "horsebox" firm. The "horsebox" tag at best doubles the price and at worst adds a zero. A reputable coachbuilder is just as good. We have needed a lot of work doing to our box following replacing the old ford chassis and it has gone to a mainly Motorsport firm (they do take in horseboxes too but don't advertise it particularly). We are finding the quality is the same if not better, the necessary expertise and understanding is there, but it is costing a fraction of what we were quoted elsewhere (in fact not much more than the cost of us doing it ourselves).

Our floor is a twin skin aluminium and it was the GRP walls we had to rectify as they had started to go at the base in the horse section before the floor has had any problems at all so the aluminium itself has been good. Whatever floor you decide upon the main thing is to have it accessible and check it regularly, which you obviously do as you found the current fault.
 
Of all things I would want to cut costs on, flooring on a lorry is definitely not one of them.

I had a 3.5T lorry that was only converted about 2 years and the first winter is was completely under cover - the next winter it wasn't. That spring I went to use it and my horse stepped thru the ramp! I pulled up the flooring (matts) to find some soft areas where water was coming in thru a gap between ramp and ceiling. It went straight to the horse box man and it cost me £800 for a new aluminium ramp with alum treads. The entire thing had to be rebuilt. He did an amazing job on it. The floor wasn't too bad - just a few soft areas but structurally sound - but he covered it with alum chequerboard the whole length of the floor. It would have been replaced in a few years.

But as said above, you need to keep inspecting it and maintaining it as over time things can and do rot/corrode and it's just not worth putting your horse on it unless it's 110% safe!
 
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