Replacing trailer floor

[sausages]

Hi,
Looking for a bit of advice. We are looking at buying a Wessex trailer. It has a bit of a hole in the floor so would need the floor replaced.
We are looking at options for doing so...
1. remove old floor and replace it fully.
2. take out the section of floor and just replace this bit (the rest is sound).
3. put in a new floor on top of the old one.
I am leaning towards option 3 as we would only be looking at travelling one horse in it so the weight issue isn't a huge problem. There appears to be enough room for the doors and ramps etc if we were to put the floor on top.
Does anyone have any experience of putting a floor on top of the old one?
Any advice gratefully received, thanks!

 

[JillA]

I'm interested in replies to this because mine has a small soft area where the wet has ingressed between the jockey door and the breast bar. The rest seems very sound but you don't take risks with floors, although I can't justify spending a lot of money at this stage - I only use it once in a blue moon but can't cope with the idea of not having it available should I need it.

 

[MissTyc]

I had this discussion with a couple of professional horsebox converters last year -- they unanimously recommended replacing the whole floor. For starters, the new floor should then have the same expected lifespan throughout, and all the seals/etc will be new. In lifting a "section" of old floor, one often finds others area are perhaps more compromised than originally thought. Additionally, the process of lifting may of course affect other parts of the structure. Adding new floor on top seems like a bad idea as it is then relying on the old (potentially damaged) sections for support.

I did replace my whole floor and haven't looked back.

For older trailers or boxes, it tends to be the first thing many people do after buying, even if it looks sound, you do need to hoist it up/crawl underneath, check all the seals, etc.

 

[9tails]

Replace the entire floor with the best quality. Don't ever do option 3. You only have one option as you're looking at life threatening or fatal injuries if your floor does fail.