I haven't used WERM before but what is the advantage over Rumber? 

Bartley Heath
bartley@DoubleDTrailers.com
Buy Factory Direct at DoubleDTrailers.com

My understanding (and I am probably wrong), is that rumber is a composite material that is actually the floor, much like permanent decking for your house.

 A Werm coating may reduce the occurrence of corrosion on the floor's top surface, but it will not eliminate the moisture from entering through any orifice from below. Most truthful Werm dealers, will explain how some of their installations have had partial adhesion problems, with spot repairs of delaminations not being uncommon.

When the Werm delaminates, moisture can enter between the spaces and become trapped. If this is urine, its corrosive affects will be severe as the fluid can't be flushed, and it will not be able to dry out. A delamination can be caused by a pawing horse over an area of poor bonding.

If the werm is applied over a used floor, the preparation before the Werm installation is critical. Not only should the area be spotless, but the flooring should be acid washed to stop any present corrosion. Werm can hide these flaws, until the metal starts to manifest small spots that grow into holes. These will form through the metal, visible on the bottom of the flooring, not perceptive from above, but nevertheless, very present.

Werm is installed over a specialized primer. How well that primer adheres to the aluminum, will depend on how long lasting your flooring will be. The Werm product is very good. The quality of the installation will determine its life span.

Gard

I know I've posted on this subject before, and agree with Gard.  I like the thinner coatings on the floor, so you can see if it chips off.  I had a cheaper sundowner bedliner material lay unbonded on my trailer for years.  The trapped urine corroded my aluminum floor.  I still like to be able to actually see the floor, through a thin coating and repair myself if necessary.  Just like the Sundowner problem, loose thick unbonded coating traps chemicals (urine,salt) underneath them hiding the problem and you don't know it until it is too late.  I do NOT have a werm floor in my trailer, so can not tell you from first hand experience. 

From an installers website....

"WERM makes your trailer a safer place for your horses. It makes cleanup a snap and comes with a 2 year limited warranty.

Installed, by appointment, here at our location. Typical pricing is approximately $1,150 for a three horse trailer and $1,450 for a four horse trailer. To set up an appointment or for more details, contact us at ..............."

Sounds like a lot of money to me, for a 2 year limited warranty.  Almost any coating I've heard of does NOT warranty wear, only adhesion.  If the werm product is soft enough not to use mats, it will be prone to wear.  If the werm floor is hard enough to withstand pawing horseshoes, it will still need mats to cushion the horse.

I am not an expert, but believe that nothing on a horse trailer is maintanace free.  Sometimes pulling mats and washing a trailer floor, inspecting them, is necessary.  I like having the option of doing that, instead of hiding the floor.

Bartley,

Rumber is recycled tires. So it is a rubber product.  The tires are ground up and re-processed into planks and sheets. It is an option in several makes of trailers.  They use Rumber planks ( basically 2x6 planks) for the floors and Rumber sheets ( 1/4" thick) for the walls.  When they use it for the floor. They screw it down to the joist just like you would a lumber plank. Usually with a small gap between planks for expansion and to allow the urine to run out. Rumber has a 20 year warranty. The trailers that I have bought with it. Did not come with mats. The manufacture boast that the rumber does not need mats to protect it, It's not slick and offers some deadening of the road vibration due to its make up of rubber.

I had one trailer for 5 years with the rumber floor. I used it a LOT. After 5 years the material looked the same as when I bought the trailer. So it does hold up well. You can learn more about Rumber at their website.

As far as WERM, I have no experience with it and will defer to others who have used it.

My first 2 trailers had rumbar floors and I loved it.  The first trailer didn't have a DR, so I sold it after one year and recently saw it on a trail ride.  It's a '95 model and the floor still looks great as does the whole trailer which is a fiberglass composite (kevlar)

The 2nd trailer same brand, but a '97, I kept for 10 years with constant use and the floor still looked great, no gouges, no holes, nothing wrong with it when I sold it.

Rumbar is the BEST flooring you can get.  I wish my current trailer had it....

• A WERM floor is basically a permenantly installed rubber mat. This mat will bond with the floor and should not allow anything to become between it & the flooring material (assumed to be aluminum). If there is a hole in the aluminum floor, it will have been patched/sealed/filled before the WERM is installed, as WERM is installed in a liquid form and would thus run through a hole.
• We've installed a fair amount of WERM. It is not meant to be "better" than anything else- except that there will be no more rubber mats to pull out. This makes it an ideal addition to a higher end unit that has all of the bells and whistles, or those like Retento has- that take a PhD in Muscles & Mattery to pull and clean their mats (yes- please drop by next time you're in the Boro. We'd love to meet you.). But as a mat, it is not lifetime. While many, many folks have had theirs and use it regularly- if you have a Nervous Nellie who has pawed through her mat, she can paw through WERM also. It can however, be repaired by cleaning & adding an additional amount to the hole. It bonds to itself very well. But for it to give the rubber-like cushioning that you need, it will have some wearability. And yes- installation cleanliness is next to Godliness. Most installers prefer to install in a new trailer.
• Next often comes up the idea of Rumber. We sell a line of trailers that have Rumber flooring and their owners like them. However, Rumber must generally be designed into a trailer from the ground up, and it takes more structure to support it than wood does. Thus it has generally been used as an upgrade to a wood floor, rather than a substitute for aluminum. I may be corrected here, but I don't recall offhand a premium aluminum manufacturer offering Rumber flooring. And I have had some customers who had slickness issues with barefooted broodmares and thus used a mat. So maybe nothing's perfect. But there are many who very much like it.
• Spray in liner- I know that Gard likes his, and I'm sure that given his prep and attention to detail it is working well. However, most of our experience has been more like the poster above where the liner that Sundowner installed delaminated and allowed unattended urine to collect on the aluminum floor. It doesn't take long to make holes in a floor given that circumstance. Their supplier did not approve its use on aluminum, and the Sundowner warranty didn't cover it. Given the floors we've repaired, we will not install such a product- but that's just our choice. Personally, before I took the risk, I'd just clean it out the traditional way twice a year.
• Please, take all these notes as strictly my opinion, tossed out to hopefully shed light on these differing options, formed after many years in the business.

RTSmith

http://www.selecttrailer.com/

RTSmith - I am neither 'older' or 'infirmed', but those darn mats weigh nearly as much as I do and are awkward to boot!!!!  I actually ended up cutting my mats in half so that I could handle them. If you can't move 'em, you won't clean under them. Not the best solution, but it works for me.

You ought to try dragging those mats up the trailer ramp while maneuvering a manual wheelchair!!!!!

I think there is some confusion over trying to make a direct comparison between a Werm flooring, and the application of a bed liner material, which is a protective coating. The Werm coating which Richard and others has described, is a hard rubber surface, typically a little over half an inch in thickness. Two part, hot sprayed in bed liner materials are typically 1/4" - 3/8" thick. The single part, cold applied product that I use, is a few MM thick, depending on the number of coats that are applied. The Werm offers some padding because it is a rubber product, and it is applied in a thicker coating. Neither of the bed liner products offers any cushioning, as they are hard surface coatings developed in test tubes.

The two part hot sprayed in products of many brands are very durable, as proven by the longevity of the truck beds they routinely protect. This is also true of the single part liners, whose roller installation is within the grasp of most DIYers. However, neither type of coating was designed to withstand the abrasion of a pawing, shod horse. As many people have said, these coatings have to be covered with mats, to protect the liner material from the hooves.

If the flooring surface is properly prepared, all of these products will adhere very well, and will perform as they are intended. Aluminum is a particularly difficult metal on which to apply any surface coating. If you add in the corrosion factor typically found in a used trailer, the proper preparation is even more paramount. Most surfacing failures of aluminum, can be attributed to incomplete or improper preparation. Because many adhesion problems may not manifest themselves right away, a problem may not be noticed until months or years, after the coating was first applied.

I too find it difficult to pull mats. By applying a surfacing agent on the flooring, the aluminum is protected from the corrosive affects of urine. Moisture trapped between the mats and flooring, will no longer start to corrode the metal. I have found on my trailers, that the wet areas infrequently travel more than a third of the way across the flooring from the butt side.

If there is a particularly bad mess, I will first brush out the manure and hose off the top of the mats. Then I will lift the mats' butt end and roll it to the head side. This exposes the wet flooring, which will wash clean with a garden hose. When it dries, the end of the mat is flopped back into place. Normally all that is necessary, is to just brush out the bedding and manure.

I have never had to replace a rubber mat from wear in any of my trailers. Some Werm owners tell of adding mats, to obtain the cushioning the hard rubber didn't afford. By not having to pull the mats anymore, I find this is now a non issue.

The Werm is expensive and well received by some. The spray in liner costs ~$600 for a three horse trailer. A DIY bed liner costs ~$100. I've got four and three years on mine now with no problems. We're in the market for an additional new trailer. As soon as it arrives, I will remove the factory mats, and install the bed liner material. As a result, I don't expect any corrosion problems to the top of the flooring, and our routine maintenance will be as minimal as our other trailers.

These are different materials and they have different uses. As you can see, while they are all coatings, they are not interchangeable.

Gard

Gard, if you are rolling back the mat to wash the floor, what about the urine and urine soaked feces that is on the mat? Also, I have never seen a fluid remain static and not travel on a moving surface.

Also, all the dealers I have talked to have said that WERM flooring will be repaid on a high percentage when you either trade or sell your trailer. So not only is it a labor saver that protects your trailer floor, it is a returnable investment in you trailer.