Hay, you may have seen some of my other 'ibles with regards to my camper van. Well at the end of 2014 we ripped out the interior and decided to start again. So far we have treated the floor, nothing major just sanding any surface rust spots and treating with rust proofing primer. There is a spot that needs welding and that is where my little bro comes in to play. Next week he is bringing his welding kit over and is going to weld a few plates to some tiny holes in the floor. Anyhow, I digress, this 'ible is about the floor.

The Floor we took up had 50mm celotex underneath it, which I thought was a bit too much and reduced head space which is valuable in a van. On a VW forum (http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/) I have seen a great thread on insulating the van, to which we have so far followed to the letter, with the exception of the floor. We need to take the floor up next week and I still have work to do and don't think my knees can cope with much more of the van floor so wanted a floor down sharpish. The plan then was not to put the insulation on the van floor but attach it to the Ply floor going on top, that way all the floor inc insulation can be removed without mess.

Step 1: Cheated With the Floor and Bought It From Ebay.

So we could of gone to wickes or other merchant and bought the materials measured it out blah blah blah and got incredibly stress out as neither of us can cut in a straight line.

OR.

We could have a look on ebay and see what we can get... £65 inc delivery we got a pre cut T4 Short Wheel Base 9mm ply floor kit from custom-v-dubz - Spot on! (quick search and we would need 2 sheets at around £20 each to do it ourselves)

Step 2: Get Sticking

I guess you could use spray glue, I found that double sided fabric carpet tape worked a treat and was less messy than spray glue. It took nearly 2 rolls of Carpet Tape from ScrewFix to do all the layers.

Where ever you do this make sure you know which side it up and which side is down when the floor is in the van. We are going to be sticking everything to the bottom of the floor. Go Check again, just to make sure!

We are fortunate to have enough space in the living room to be able to put the ply on the floor and work around it.

So the side that will be facing the metal surface of the van floor should be facing up as we are going to be sticking to this side. (hope that makes sense)

Carpet tape all around the edges, be careful not to overlap as the backing needs to be removed from the tape to stick the material.

Step 3: Measure Out Our Material

With the help of Ez the pooch, I measured out the foil bubble wrap insulation.

The Plan is to keep the warmth in, so the foil side should face up in to the van, this means we are sticking foil side to the floor.

The floor came in 2 sections, the smaller section was just the right size for the width of the bubble wrap. The general rule is to make sure you have a cm or 2 overlap at the edges so you can trim nicely once it is stuck down.

The underlay is the same on both sides so this doesn't matter which way it is stuck on.

Step 4: Stick It Down

The Pictures here are not of the first layer being stuck down but the process is all the same.

Carpet tape around the edges.

Lay the material on top

Start at one end peel off the tape from the top edge and start to peel the tape down each side.

Carefully lay the material on top smoothing out the edges.

** Note the underlay is stretchy so try to be gentle and not pull it too much, although a bit of pull helps smooth out any wrinkles.

When doing the larger of the 2 pieces we lined up the material, ran a strip of tape against the edge, remove the material then ran another strip of tape next to the first so both sections will stick.

Step 5: Cut the Edges

In the video you can see my lovely assistant, Pete, cutting the bubble wrap layer with a craft knife.

* note he is very lucky to be allowed to do this step after the Beetle Carpet cutting saga!

You will need to do this on both sections of floor for all 3 layers.

VID_20150226_154336_zpszpsgi4ko.MP4
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Step 6: Process for All 3 Layers

So to recap.

1. Apply sticky tape

2. Measure out material

3. remove backing from the tape and stick down material, starting from one end and working your way down until the material is stuck to all edges and nice and flat.

4. Cut off access from the edges.

5. Repeat for all required layers.

We have purchased a step insert to tidy things up which restricts the thickness of the floor layer, there is some vinyl flooring that needs to go on top of the floor to finish it off. Otherwise I may of added a final layer of the foil bubble wrap to the bottom face down to reflect the cold/hot from the ground.

watch this space for the final floor covering, Red and White chessboard...