The next step after doing our floor was to begin insulation and siding on the van. Again, we are going slightly out of order because of the timing and geographical locations of our build. It might be more logical to do the electrical first, and we would have liked to cut the holes for our fan and windows first, but it has been raining and snowing, so we waited on that.
Materials:
2 rolls 2' x 25' Reflectix
1 roll 48" x 10' Reflectix
2 packages UltraTouch Denim Insulation (R13)
1 package 4mm plastic vapor barrier
1 4'x 8' sheet 1" Thermasheath Rmax Foam Insulation Board (better R-value than regular R-Tech foam board that we used on the floor)
2 cans 3M spray adhesive
2 rolls Gorilla tape
2 sheets 4' x 8' Tri-ply underlayment plywood
Some screws
Time:
Ehhh, maybe two full days worth?
Cost:
If I get less lazy, I will calculate this later!
Steps:
1. Reflectix! Reflectix is basically bubble wrap with foil on either side of it. It is a good insulator and vapor barrier, easy to cut and work with, and not that expensive, so I didn't see any good reason not to put it everywhere. We cut shapes to fit all the various spaces in the van and spray adhesived them on. If you're building a Promaster, be prepared to be wowed by all the ridiculous shapes and blobs all over the van; there are almost no straight lines. We popped off the factory panels on the doors and Reflectixed behind those too. After you're done the van will look like a sweet spaceship. If you're using spray adhesive you'll want to make sure to have good ventilation and wear a face mask.
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| Working into the night |
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| Turning into a space ship |
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| Shiny! |
2. Denim insulation. I used this in Silas and really liked how easy it was to work with. It cut down on sound/road noise a great deal as well as obviously keeping the van warmer in winter and cooler in the summer. Ripping the denim and stuffing it in crevices creates a lot of denim dust, so you will want to again wear a mask and have ventilation in the van. Having a vacuum or broom and intermittenly cleaning up during this process will make things happier. On the large panels, we put a bit of spray adhesive and then stuck up square pieces. We would cover large areas with duct tape to help hold the big pieces in place. You will also want to stuff all the nooks and crannies and crevices- of which there are many! I like using a long flat head screwdriver to jam bits of insulation in. We used denim on all the walls and doors. I used it on the ceiling in Silas because it has a better R-value than other materials but it was such a huge pain that I decided not to do that this time. One more note on the denim- they used to carry it at Home Depot and you could buy it by the package- that's what I did last time, but now you can only order it by the pallet (which is way too much!) I was able to get it at Lowe's in the quantity I wanted.
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| A really easy, mostly square section |
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| Taping in large pieces to keep them in place |
3. Vapor barrier. We wanted to make sure our denim was protected from any moisture. The Reflectix on one side protects it from outside the van moisture and condensation and on the inner side we covered it with a plastic vapor barrier. This is pretty simple, just requires lots of tape and some scissors.
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| Starting in on the vapor barrier. |
4. Ceiling. As I said above, trying to use denim on the ceiling was really hard and annoying, so I opted for foam board this time. We found a type board with R-6, which is better than the R-Tech board I've used in the past. We used 1" but in retrospect I wish we would have gone with 3/4" because it sticks down just a bit below the cross beams in the van. We used a knife to cut squares that fit in between all the roof ribs. For now, we left off the square where the Fantastic will go so we wouldn't have to cut through it later. We spray adhesived (sense a theme?!) them on and we put up temporary furring strips across the boards to hold them on while we drive around without our wood paneling on. We got the feeling they might pop off otherwise.
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| Ceiling insulation going in. |
5. Siding. During this step we also put up wood siding where all of our cabinets will go. This siding will essentially be the back of the cabinets, and because it will be covered, it doesn't have to look perfect (which is good because as I said before, the shapes in this van are unreal). For the rest of the walls, we will do tongue and groove paneling. We used 3mm (I think. I'll have to double check on this) underlayment. We painted it with a waterproofing stain before mounting it to add an extra layer of moisture barrier. We used a combination of circular saw and jigsaw to cut the shapes to match the walls and screwed them in.
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| A couple of panels up. The rear one will be under the bed, the one closer to the front will be the back of the kitchen cabinet. The un-Reflectixed portion above it is where one of our windows is going. |
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| IGNORE THE BED.. No really, please don't look at our sketchy temporary bed platform. This picture is to show you more siding and the strips along the ceiling to hold our insulation in. Obviously if we were putting our actual ceiling in before going on a 3,000 mile road trip this wouldn't be necessary. |
Alright! Next stage of the van complete! We are looking forward to having a well-insulated van.
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