The Subfloor

  Hey Everyone! Welcome back to my blog, thanks for being here. Today we are picking back up from where we left off in the last blog. If you haven't yet read that blog go back and check it out. 

  I received the van back from the paint and body shop with the bolt holes fixed and the surface rust treated and painted. I also sent her out for new tires. I chose a bigger size tire than what was on it and put the Falcon Wildpeak A/T's on her. She's starting to look spiffy now!

  Now I'm ready to start the build...I think...like I said I have never built anything before in my life. I am contemplating where to start. In the meantime I need to get started with the insulation. 

  I had been researching the best ways to insulate a van. Although there are many great recommendations I decided to go with Havelock Wool. It's 100% natural, it absorbs moisture, it is also used as a sound barrier, Havelock Wool has an impressive R7 value per inch of 3.6.2". It was one of the more expensive ways to go but I liked everything about it. I ordered the wool and received it before I even bought my van, heck before I even knew which van I was going with. 

  My first step was to start stuffing the wool into all the little nooks and crannies. Each batt is 16 x 48 x 2. You can easily tear or cut the size you need. Their website  even gives you a guide to help you estimate how much wool you will need. I was impressed with the service and the product. With the insulation stuffed in the sides of the van it was time to start building the subfloor.

  I drove the van to Home Depot to get the materials to start my build. On the way to and from Home Depot I dreamed I was on the open road traveling far and wide across this great land!! Living the dream!! Then I arrived back home and reality set back in, it was time to get to work. 

  Good news is I have a trip coming up soon in a few months. I was so excited!! I needed to spend every spare minute getting her as ready as I could for this trip. I knew I wouldn't be finished, just good enough to take her out.

  I went ahead and bought all the materials I would need to build the subfloor frame, the subfloor itself and the frames for the walls. I also got the screws I would need but I wasn't paying attention...well truth be known I didn't know what I was doing, I bought hex head screws instead of Phillips head plus they were way too long. I certainly didn't want to be putting holes through my van floor. I ran to the local hardware store to get the right screws. Home Depot is 40 miles one way from me. Let me just say right here that I am thankful Home Depot lets you do returns because I over guessed how much materials I would need...guess I should have measured but hindsight is 20/20 right!

  I set into building the frame for the floor. I didn't bolt this frame down instead I used liquid nails. I also used plumbers strap, liquid nails and screws to put it together. I went with a thinner batting board for the frame because I still needed to put in a subfloor. I didn't want my flooring to be too thick, I needed to save on as much space as I could. Sometimes an inch makes all the difference in the world in a van.

  Now some people argue that insulating the floors are not necessary but I decided to insulate mine. 1) for the moisture barrier, 2) for the possible sound barrier and 3) just because that's what I wanted to do. With the frame in place I was ready to do the subfloor.

  The subfloor was the job I was dreading the most, now it was time to start on it, I dreaded everything about it. Carrying the plywood, cutting the plywood,...the plywood itself. I was just dread dread dreading it. You get the picture. Plus all I had was a miter saw and a jigsaw. I didn't know how I was going to cut it. I thought about buying a skill saw but I was trying not to have to buy anything else that I couldn't take with me in the van. I was telling a coworker and he let me borrow his skill saw thankfully, I decided to go with the 1/4" 2ft x 2ft sheets of plywood. I liked the smaller size plus it was much easier for me to handle. 

  The subflooring started to go in. My cuts were not perfect. I used the rubber matt that had come out of it as a template to make my cuts around the wheel wells. It's not a professional job by any means but I was pretty dang proud of what I had accomplished. After all that dreading it actually wasn't that bad.

  Once I got the subfloor in I decided to put a Shellac finish on it. Looking back now I'm glad I did that but I'm still not sure why I put a Shellac finish on it, I just felt it was the right thing to do at the time. 

With the subfloor finished the next project with be the walls. Join me in the next blog as the construction of the walls begin.

   And Remember....

Life is a Journey...Sometimes the people around you won't understand your Journey! They don't need to, its not for them.  

Changing Lives One 🟨🅢🅣🅡🅘🅟🟨 at a time!

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See you in the next This Van Life of Mine!