All About Trailer Renovations with Revolution Trailer Uplifting | Ep. 39

Today is episode 39, and we have a pretty exciting interview for you with Revolution Trailer Uplifting in Winnipeg MB, who we met and fell in love with on Instagram, and asked if we could interview them for the show. Lucky for us, they agreed and Fiona and I got to fill our little HGTV-obsessed hearts full.  If you’ve ever even thought about casting the beiges and browns of your rig aside and renovating your trailer to a more relaxing esthetic (a la RV Fixer Upper – if you know, you know) – this is the Canadian place to do it. 

On our way West, we stopped by to tour the Revolution Studio, and chat with Meghan who coordinates nearly every aspect of the process with clients and we were thrilled to see how the work gets done and learn a little more about the process in general.

For more on Revolution Trailers, or to see their work – Check out their website , Instagram , or Facebook

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Transcript

Hello, fellow traveler welcome to the RV Canucks podcast. It’s September 1st and we are wrapping up our RV connects grand tour for 2021. If you’ve been following along on our adventures via Instagram or Facebook, you’ll see that we’ve had some challenges and absolute high points literally and figuratively, and a situation where I had to borrow Dan’s pants. And yes, I’m just a little bit sad that they fit me. If you want to catch up on the latest, please follow us on social media. We can be found everywhere. What the handle at RV Canucks. That’s RV C a N U C K S. And we’re so thrilled to have been able to interact with each of you along this trip. If you want specific updates about the 2021 grand tour follow the hashtag RV connects grand tour 2021, for all the latest we’ll have full episodes on all the destinations.

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00:00:52

We stayed running through September and into the fall. So make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss a thing. And speaking of interacting with people on Instagram today is episode 39, and we have a pretty exciting interview for you with revolution trailer uplifting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, who we met and fell just a little bit in love with on Instagram and asked if we could interview them for the show. Luckily for us, they agreed and Fiona and I got to fill our little HGTV, obsessed hearts full with visiting their shop. If you’ve ever thought about casting the beiges and Browns of your rig aside and renovating your trailer to a more relaxing aesthetic, this is the Canadian place to do it on our way west.

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00:01:33

We stopped by to tour the revolution shop and to chat with Megan who coordinates nearly every aspect of the process with clients. And we were thrilled to see how the work gets done and learn a little bit more about the process. In general, we asked Megan about the renovation process, timelines, design limitations, and that all important question on price. And let me tell you, they are busy. In fact, when we stopped by, they were prepping for a move of their facility, which is likely underway as you listen to this episode because they have already outgrown their space twice due to demand. While we were there, we saw two projects being worked on one, a mid two thousands monster of a trailer and the sweetest 1973 Surfside you ever did.

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00:02:16

See, we even got to have a peak inside a 1952 Spartan Royal Manor, which I wanted to hook up and haul out of there myself. And it will be the most amazing trailer when it’s done. Now. One note before we get started, as this is an on-site interview, you may hear the sounds of a busy shop, hard at work in the background. That’s one of the hazards of doing live interviews, but the information you will get will far outweigh the sound of an impact wrench in the background. If you want information about revolution, trailer uplifting, you can find them on Instagram or Facebook at revolution trailers, M B for Manitoba or on the web@revolutiontrailers.ca. So enjoy the interview. And we’ll see you back here on September 8th with a new episode about visiting dinosaur country, Drumheller, Alberta, all right, everyone.

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00:03:01

We are here with Megan from revolution, trailer uplifting and Winnipeg, Manitoba, and all of you have been very, very excited and sending us messages all morning about questions that we can and should ask. So Megan, welcome. Thank you for joining

1

00:03:16

Us. Thanks for having us. So

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00:03:18

I know revolution’s been a little over a year in business. Can you tell everybody a little bit about the scope of services that you offer?

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00:03:25

Well, we do everything from basic repair and maintenance right up to a full gut job. And re-imagine, if you can dream it, we can probably do it.

0

00:03:35

So tell us a little bit about the history of the business. Cause I know this started from other types of renovations. You were just telling us

1

00:03:41

We, all of us that work here, we’re a staff of six. Now we all come from different renovation backgrounds. It started out with myself and the owner of the company doing residential renovations. And one day he came to me and said, Hey, I’ve got an idea. What if we do travel trailers instead of houses? And I said, okay, like, you know, just tell me where to show up and let’s do it. So that’s sort of how it started.

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00:04:06

We having toured the yard a little bit. We see trailers of all different ages. So there’s, there’s no age of trailer that you won’t work

1

00:04:11

On. Nope. We have from 1950 to 2015 on the lot, right now we have fifties, seventies, nineties, two thousands. We haven’t yet done a one from the sixties or one from the eighties.

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00:04:26

Take note everybody, if you have a sixties or eighties trailer that you’re thinking of renovating, we got to fill those gaps. Okay. So take us through the general design process.

1

00:04:34

Okay. So we have a few ways that we do things either. We have clients that bring their trailers to us, or we also have a whole bunch that we own that we do up. So I act as sort of the, the designer idea maker. And then I take my crazy ideas to the guys down on the floor and they make things happen. So you can either bring us a trailer that you have. And we work together to come up with a design. We look at the kinds of things that you like, the things that you want, we call them the must haves and the nice to haves. And we go through that when we come up with a design based on your needs and your interests in, you know, things that you like. And otherwise we just do ones up that we own. And then we sell them. Pre-finished pre-finished we sell them finished once they’re done.

1

00:05:16

So,

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00:05:17

Okay, awesome. So I have a question, obviously, being in Canada and knowing the climate we have and the extreme temperature shifts, and you know, you go on Instagram and you see all of these beautifully drawn up trailers and people are putting wallpaper everywhere. Like, is there anything that you wouldn’t recommend for a Canadian renovation in terms of like flooring or wall treatments? Because it just won’t stand the extreme temperature

1

00:05:39

Change. Yeah. We’ve found that certain wallboard products just don’t work like in our climate with the extreme temperature shifts. I mean, and here in Manitoba, we go from minus 40 in the winter to plus 40 in the summertime. So with that, the humidity changes. We can’t have any kind of board or MDF type product in our trailers, the loop, the Luann board, which is a very thin eight inch plywood, which is typically used, which has the layers that go in different directions. That seems to be okay, the best intentions and the best maintenance we still end up no matter what, eventually there’s going to be some of those weather issues, those water issues and things like that, no matter how well you take care of a trailer or don’t take care of a trailer it’s going to happen.

1

00:06:25

So

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00:06:26

If somebody brings a trailer to you for renovation and there’s kind of that hidden water damage, is that a no-go you, or do you have the experience and the skills on hand to be able

1

00:06:34

To fix it? No. Cause I just did a post he yesterday I think that somebody had asked us what we’d learned. And one of the things that we learned was the water damage is always worse than you think. So by the time you can see it inside the trailer what’s happened behind those walls can be catastrophic sometimes. So we had recently a fifth wheel and that had a little bit of buckling down in the corner, on the back. And he said, yeah, it’s just a little tiny bit. There’s a little hole there. When we opened it up, the entire side from the top to the bottom was rotted. It was gone. So the whole back ended up having to come off this trailer, we had to repair a part of the roof. So by the time you see the damage on the inside, what’s happened behind there is huge, but we can do it.

1

00:07:16

We can fix that. So all it takes is time and money, your money and our time is what we say.

0

00:07:21

Very good. So talk to us a little bit about the importance of weight when, when renovating and deciding what goes in and goes out.

1

00:07:29

Yeah. So obviously when you take something out and put something back in, you have to be cognizant of the weight of it. It also depends on what your intentions are for your trailer when you’re done. So a lot of people around here will take their trailers and park them in permanent spots. So they take them, it’s it kind of acts like a cottage in these parts of, of the country. So if you’re going to be traveling, then obviously you have to have lightweight. And that’s basically why they’re built the way they’re built the stick build with the, the eighth inch. You can take things out and you can add things in we’re. We’re very careful when something comes out and something goes in, usually it’s a fairly close wash, but we do have to be, we have to be aware of what, of, what the products that we’re using.

1

00:08:14

And we’re learning. We’re finding more things every day that are, you know, suited for RV specific renovation. Talk

0

00:08:21

To me about flooring a little bit because every trailer that comes off the market just has really ugly, like rolled vinyl. Do you have to stick with that? Or are there other options? No, actually

1

00:08:29

The rolled vinyl for our climate is the worst thing you can possibly put in. So how they build these, these trailers is they basically, you get your floor frame, they put the flooring down and then they add the walls and stuff on top of that. So they don’t glue the flooring down, but when they add those walls on top of them, it becomes a binding point for that flooring. So with the heat and contraction, the cold and the hot, the floor is going to crack. And if you see in any one of them, eventually that floor is going to crack. So we use an LVT, click vinyl in all of our renovations. The one that we use is rated for well into the minus 30 temperatures. Now, obviously you’re not going to be in your trailer in the minus thirties cause you, you don’t want to do that. It would could potentially crack and stuff. But what happens with the lock together stuff is it gives it that room to move a little bit independently.

1

00:09:14

And then of course we’re not putting it underneath the walls, but it’s also a completely waterproof product. So if you do get a spill or your water tank Springs, a leak or your toilet Springs, a leak, you’re going to have that waterproof flooring down. Well, well probably the

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00:09:29

Top question we had is what is the top thing that people want taken out completely and never replaced? Is there something like everybody hates their dinette or everybody? Like, is there something specifically that everybody’s like, I want that gone. I never want to say

1

00:09:41

It again. The blinds and the valances, always, probably one of the biggest things that we take out for people is the hot water tanks. And we’re really big on doing an on-demand hot water system, which actually hangs on the outside of the trailer. So that seems to be sort of the one thing that we, most people don’t know about them. So we always tell people when we’re talking renovation, but they’re often found in like a kitchen cupboard or something like that. So taking that out, all of a sudden you’ve got an entire cupboards worth of space and the on-demand system offers you constant hot water for as long as you have water, we always swap out lights and things like that. We put in an led we’ll add in USB plugs and things like that, make sure that we’ve got GF, CIA plugs and things like that.

1

00:10:28

We don’t work on anything. We don’t work on motor homes in the sense of, we don’t do anything, drive, train, we won’t do anything, engine, anything like that. Somebody can bring us a motor home and we’ll do out the inside. But you know, our main business is sort of making things look prettier on the inside. So

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00:10:43

In that sense then what are maybe the top considerations that people should think about if they’re strictly buying a trailer for you to fix up? Like, what are some things that you would prefer people look for before they come in or is it doesn’t matter? You bring it to us in any condition,

1

00:10:58

You can bring it, it in any condition. So some people want a very specific layout. You know, they have family needs or it has to sleep so many. Some people take a trailer and they say, take absolutely everything out. We want to start over. Like, we want to move the bathroom from here to here. And we can do that. We can do just about anything you want. So we don’t really have any, any preference. We are excited whenever anybody brings any trailer in. So we can, we can kind of work with people and give them exactly what they need and want.

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00:11:30

I know we touched on this a little bit before. Do you think that adding wallpaper is a good idea or not?

1

00:11:36

I love wallpaper. We did a really fantastic bathroom for somebody who had very, very bold taste and put a very, very graphic black and white and gold wallpaper in it. And it looked fantastic. So yeah, well paper and the backsplash tiles that we use are actually a heavy vinyl sticker that are made specifically for the RV application or temporary. Like if you lived in an apartment, everything. Yeah. I mean, wallpaper is fantastic because it can upgrade and it really offers no additional weight

0

00:12:04

In terms of paint. Is there like a hot color for like 20, 21 or, or are a lot of people asking for similar things or do you find everyone just comes in with their own tastes?

1

00:12:14

Well, we’ve had all of the ones that we’ve done so far have been really different from each other. We haven’t really with the exception of one or two using the same colors, sort of here and there, but everybody has an idea of what they like and I’ve got all my color decks, I’ll put them out and I’ll just sort of watch people and see what they gravitate towards and that sort of how we go on to build the, the design plan. But people want light and bright. The, the trailers that are coming in. I mean, you’ve seen them, they’re beige and brown and dark and lots of Oak and lots of dark colors. And, and when you’re out camping, you’re out in nature and, and you’re out in the sunshine and I don’t know why you would want to be in a dark place on the inside.

1

00:12:58

So everybody wants to light and bright. Oh

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00:13:00

Right. Timelines. We talked a little bit before about timeline. So what’s, what’s the, an average timeline or preferred timeline somebody can expect if they’re going to bring a trailer to

1

00:13:07

You? Well, well, there’s a lot that goes into the planning. So it’s really hard for somebody to bring one in and want it back in two weeks because there’s a significant amount of work that goes before we even get to the stage of, of taking things out and starting to put things back in. So it’s a fairly long process. We, once we have the design plan, we can usually, depending on the scope of the work, it’s anything from, you know, we’ve got one coming up that we have scheduled in for five days because the amount of work that is going to happen on this one can be done in that amount of time. Some of the big, big renovations, we say four to six weeks and some of them are seven to 14 days.

2

00:13:45

Even if anybody is

0

00:13:47

Looking across Canada, you obviously can serve anywhere. Would you, or could you, or is there regulatory issues with maybe taking somebody from the state?

1

00:13:56

Well, from the states who have inquired about some of our trailers, I don’t know yet what’s involved and especially with borders being closed and stuff, we haven’t really examined that we did have a meeting last week with somebody from Vancouver, who’s looking for something to be converted into a full-time residents for them. And I mean, Vancouver offers a little bit, a little bit of a kinder climate for that. So yeah, that’s, as far we’ve gone, you know, we’ve got somebody coming in at the end of the month, who’s about six hours north of us here. And we get people from as far as thunder bay and mostly within Manitoba so far. Cause that’s who we’ve been sort of marketing to. But yeah, I mean, we could certainly help anybody within Canada. And at some point in time, probably the states,

3

00:14:38

I’m curious to know if I’m bringing you a trailer in say, average condition, what do I budget? Do I, but, and maybe the question is how much do I budget per foot? Cause I know you could have a 30 foot trailer, a 20 foot

1

00:14:50

Trailer. I find that tough question. We often get people that email us saying how much does it cost to fix? And I might kind of standard answer is more than a hundred, less than a million. It really depends on how far you want to take it. So if you want to just do a simple paint job, maybe upgrade the countertops and put a new tap in. Obviously that’s going to be a much lower price tag than getting it back to the tin and completely starting over. So I’ll use an example. We just had our client trailer in recently and she had the trailer for years and she loved it. We knew that there was some water damage. The size was perfect for her. So she brought it in, we opened it up.

1

00:15:30

There was significant water damage, which, which was a fairly big repair. But once we were done that we completely redid the inside. So painted everything, flooring, lighting, new plumbing, new shower, new, everything in it. And her job came in at about, I think it was about 17,000. So typically we’re finding that to get a pretty solid renovation done with, you know, touching on just about everything typically comes in up to about half of the cost of buying the equivalent model new. So you find a $60,000 trailer, but it’s not exactly what you want for $30,000.

1

00:16:11

We can probably give you a similar trailer, a used trailer with exactly what you want, but we can work with every budget. We’ve done everything from, you know, I’ve got $5,000 to spend. What can I get for that too? I’ve got 40 grand. Let’s go. So it’s all I got. Okay. Well,

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00:16:29

I love that you said that because I think we constantly talk about, oh, well maybe this is the year maybe we upgrade. And every time we step in our trailer, I’m, we’re, we’re both like, no, it’s home. Like it feels like home, right? And so we love the layout. We love the length, we’re comfortable driving it, but there is some things about it that I would change mostly, you know, the leather valances and the ugly brown floors and all of that kind of stuff. Right. And so, and the money we would spend on upgrading is so extensive that I would gladly pay, you know, half to, even more to get exactly what we want in a trailer that we already love. So I think that’s fantastic that you’re doing it. So I say, just do it if you’re thinking about it. And if anybody is looking for more information on your work and what you do, what is the best way to get in touch

1

00:17:11

With you? Probably social media is where we have the best. We have a website revolution, trailers.ca, and then both of our Facebook and Instagram is revolution trailers. M B. They can find us there and then all the contact information you can find. Megan, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. This is awesome.