Major Floor Upgrade

Make it comfortable inside
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Saprophyte
Weekend Camper
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:45 pm
B190 Year: 1996
WBCCI: 0

Major Floor Upgrade

Post by Saprophyte »

Here's the story of replacing my original b190 carpet with a heavily insulated wood floor. I lived in the B190 for a winter in New England, so the insulation was important to me.

When I first bought my B190, there was some broken parts in the fresh water plumbing. I didn't know that when I filled the fresh water tank for the first time. Within a few minutes, the entire carpet was soaked. My wet/dry vac pulled a few gallons out, but I figured it would get nasty long before it dried on it's own. The carpet had to go.
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I lined all the exposed metal parts with 1/4" thick foil-faced flexible polyethylene foam, called "EZ Cool"
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Then some time passed before I got back to this project, but I came back strong. I took out the couch and kitchen to get to the floor.
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I wanted my new floor to be wood with a lot of insulation under. I also wanted it to be as water proof as possible, but also able to dry if it ever did get soaked. I decided to make the floor a continuous surface (or near as could be) of high quality hardwood (birch) plywood. This is to limit the number of seams were water might enter the floor

Under that would be more radiant barrier, this time foil-faced floor underlayment from Home Depot, because it's very thin. I made the underlayment into strips with slits cut into it. My thinking is that if the floor ever did get wet, I didn't want multiple vapor barriers trapping the moisture in.

I used a high-compressive-strength XPS foam, seperated at 12 inch intervals by pine strapping for extra compressive strength. The plywood is screwed into the straps, and glued with Liquid Nails around the edges.

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I added more of that EZ Cool stuff everywhere I could
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Finally, I finished it with heavy duty floor polyurethane.
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The one major snag in the project was due the fact that the floor became 1" higher than it originally was. This made the fit of the counter top against the curved wall of the van no longer work. The vent bottom of the stove hood also interfered with the top of the counter over there after the floor went in. I had to make some less-than-ideal relief cuts into the counter to make it work. I covered all of this up with some aluminum flashing, bent to fit in there nicely.
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SeaQuinn
Seasoned Traveler
Posts: 102
Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2014 11:33 pm
B190 Year: 1999
WBCCI: 0

Re: Major Floor Upgrade

Post by SeaQuinn »

Great job! Thanks for posting the details and pics. Did you take the rig for a spin yet? Curious as to any sound dampening you might get from the additional insulation. Enjoy the winter :-)
Saprophyte
Weekend Camper
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:45 pm
B190 Year: 1996
WBCCI: 0

Re: Major Floor Upgrade

Post by Saprophyte »

I actually did this before last winter, I've just been putting off making a post about it. I didn't notice a change in the sound, but it's definitely a lot warmer in the cold weather. I stood on this floor with bare feet in January and I wasn't even cold. Before this floor, bare feet when it was that cold would not have been bearable.
Cgzito
Weekend Camper
Posts: 28
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2016 2:51 pm
B190 Year: 1993
WBCCI: 0

Re: Major Floor Upgrade

Post by Cgzito »

Oh wow that looks great? Does it keep the heat from the exhaust out? I need to get you to do my floor haha.
Saprophyte
Weekend Camper
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:45 pm
B190 Year: 1996
WBCCI: 0

Re: Major Floor Upgrade

Post by Saprophyte »

It keeps the heat where you want it to be in all seasons!
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