Promaster Build- Floor

Today we put the floor into the Pedro.  We decided to do the floor first because we will be doing most of the build after ski season in April down at my brother’s house where we will have a smart engineer, lots of tools, and warm sunny weather at our disposal, but we need the van to be usable in the mean time and the dogs wouldn’t be able to ride in the van with the bare metal floor (how’s that for a run on sentence).  So, the floor was our priority.  Everything went really smoothly!  Here’s what we did:

Materials:

2 rolls of 10’ x 4’ reflectix ($21 each)

1 roll of Gorilla Tape ($5.50)

1 can 3M spray adhesive ($11)

2 sheets of 8’ x 4’ .5" foam board ($7.45 each)

1 sheet 12’ x 6’ plastic vapor barrier ($6)

3 rubber horse stall mats 4 x 6’ ($39.99 each)

2 wood strips .5” x 8’ ($8.99 each)

1 metal door frame threshold ($13.99)

Time:

5 hours

Cost:

$222.34

Steps:

1. Relfectix.  Reflectix is like magic!  I plan on covering the whole van with it.  It’s a great insulator.  We used spray adhesive and cut reflectix to fit the whole floor and the wheel wells.  We got it all stuck down and used Gorilla tape between all the separate pieces.  We were able to cover all the space with 2 rolls of 10’ x 4.’  It was about 40 degrees outside while we put the floor in and the metal was quite cold on our feet.  Once we put the reflectix down it was noticeably warmer, and a perfectly comfortable temperature to stand on in just our socks. 

I've seen some people put little wood strips in between the ridges on the floor to make the whole thing more level.  We opted not to do that to save some more time and money.

All the reflectix is glued in and all the seams are covered with Gorilla tape

2. Foam board.  Next we cut our foam board to shape.  We again used tape between all the seams.  I chose 1/2 inch foam board because that seemed plenty sufficient given all the layers we would eventually have on the floor.  We were just shy on having enough with the two sheets that I bought, so we will have a little gap to fill in when we buy more foam board for the ceiling. 

3. Vapor barrier.  I’m pretty sure this wasn’t necessary but I had it and decided to throw it down just in case our top layer wasn’t 100% waterproof.  We cut the plastic a little larger than the floor space so it came up the walls a bit around all the edges and then trimmed it down once we had our top layer in.

4. Horse mats.  We chose to use rubber mats because hardwood is too slippery for the dogs, the rubber seemed like it would not only insulate well but also be a great sound dampener, it would be easy to clean and it wouldn’t be a problem to get into the van with wet clothes or gear.  We bought our mats at Tractor Supply Co.  They come in 4’ x 6’ rectangles, which was great because the van is 12’ x 6’ so three mats covered the space perfectly.  The mats are heavy enough that they lay perfectly flat and don’t curl or move around, and there is no gap in between the pieces.  We trimmed them with a utility blade, which was hard work, but we got nice curves around the wheel wells and other features of the walls. 

The mats are dirty because we have already been using them in the van.

5. Doorways.  Because we didn’t frame the floor with wood or use a solid sheet of plywood before our mats, we wanted to make sure that our foam board wouldn’t get crushed on the edges when we stepped into the van.  We used .5” wood strips along the back door and the side door to reinforce the edge of the floor.  This went under the rubber mats, above the relfectix, and as a side edge to the foam.  For the side door, we also added a metal threshold, which we screwed into the wood strip to protect the edge further.

Layers.  The wood strip keeps us from crushing the edge of the foam when we step into the van.

Here's what all the layers look like from the side.  The foam board is behind the wood strip.

Here is the metal threshold which hides everything and makes it look clean as well as protects it.

The project was really fun!  The floor feels really comfortable to stand on and we expect it will insulate very well as well as quiet things down significantly in the van.  The van is about 6’5” inside, so we didn’t have to worry much about having our floor or ceiling insulation too thick.  All in all the floor was a little under 1.5” thick.