Trailer Floor Replacement: Wood, Aluminum and Rubber Composite

A trailer floor gets replaced when the boards go soft, the aluminum corrodes through, or the crossmembers underneath give out. Typical prices around Ocala: treated wood about $9 to $13 per square foot installed, which comes to roughly $600 to $900 for a typical two-horse floor; aluminum floor work about $12 to $20 per square foot; rubber composite floors about $14 to $25 per square foot. We pull the mats and check every crossmember before we quote, because a new floor on a rotten frame is money wasted.

The three floors, compared

Flooring cost guides put a typical two-horse wood floor at $600 to $900. Our per-square-foot ranges are built from a published shop price of about $290 labor per 4 by 8 foot section plus material; the pricing page shows the build. For your size, use the floor calculator.

Why floors fail

Urine. Horse urine is acidic, and it rots wood and corrodes aluminum over time. The worst of it is the urine that sits under rubber mats, where nothing dries. That is why every aluminum horse trailer maker we cover has a mats-out schedule in its manual:

Exiss adds a useful trick: treat the dry floor with an anti-acidic such as baking soda to reduce the effect of urine between cleanings.

Standing water. A trailer parked nose-down in a pasture holds water against the floor. Exiss specifically says to raise the front so the floor drains.

Acid washing done wrong. Sundowner’s manual warns that mats must be removed before acid-washing and the trailer rinsed thoroughly before mats go back, or the warranty is void.

How we replace a floor

1. Mats out, floor inspected from above and below. We probe boards, look for white powder and pinholes in aluminum, and check every crossmember.
2. Quote by area and material, with any crossmember work as its own line.
3. Old floor out. Wood boards unbolted; aluminum sections cut out where corroded.
4. Crossmembers repaired if needed. See trailer welding and frame repair.
5. New floor in, fastened to the crossmembers, with drainage gaps on wood. One flooring guide recommends 1/4 inch spacing between wood boards for ventilation.
6. Mats back in, or new mats if the old ones are cracked.

Patch or replace?

A forum thread among horse trailer owners makes a fair point: if aluminum corrosion is local, patching or plating over just the damaged area may be enough instead of a full floor. We will tell you which you have. One soft board in a sound floor is a section repair. A floor where a screwdriver sinks in everywhere is a full replacement.

Horse trailers, utility trailers, equipment trailers

The same work applies to wood-deck utility, landscape and equipment trailers, where the deck boards carry mowers, skid steers and pallets instead of horses. Those decks fail at the wheel tracks and where loads are chained down. See horse trailer repair for the rest of what goes on a horse trailer, and soft or spongy trailer floor for the check you can do today.