Now for the floors. I decided to use laminate flooring because it was lightweight, durable, and for the most part water-resistant. The layer of plywood I had laid over the insulation was not entirely level so I had to put down a soft layer of subflooring.
It’s a kind of plastic mat that helps create a level surface of the subfloor. It is spongy so it can compensate for the imperfections.
The flooring was fairly easy to install. Most of the pieces didn’t need to be cut. They have ridges on the sides and they slide into each other. I had to make more precise cuts for the panels that were laid against the walls of the van and the wheel wells.
They weren’t too hard to make. I had to recut a few pieces because I wanted a very tight fit. I honestly did the entire flooring in about a day and a half. Erin and I were going camping that weekend and I wanted the floor laid before going on the trip. So I stayed up late in the evening to get it done. I thought it was quite nice once finished.
After that, I kind of came to a pause. I had to do more research about the different parts that I wanted to incorporate into the build. I wanted to know the approximate dimensions of all of the things that were essential. The battery and the different electrical components, the water tank, and the different pieces that would be included in the water system.
I wanted to make sure that the pieces of furniture that I was going to build would be the right dimensions for these different things. The last thing I wanted to do was to build the furniture and then realize that they were not the right size and have to rebuild them again.
So I kind of went on a bit of a buying spree. The garage looked like a warehouse with all the different items that I had collected. I returned things that weren’t deemed adequate or efficient. And I used everything else.
My biggest challenge at this point was desi the electrical system. I really wanted to make sure that I got this part of the build right.
For one, once it was installed it was going to be difficult to change anything. All the components were going to be in tight spaces. Space is at a premium in a van.
And two, getting it wrong was going to be potentially dangerous. Picking the wrong type of fuse orwire size could be a huge problem. Don’t want to wake up to a fire in the middle of the night.
I found a good few YouTube channels and that helped guide me in the right direction. But it took me about two weeks until I felt comfortable enough to start buying electrical equipment.