Videos you watch may be added to the TV's watch history and influence TV recommendations. Note: 10 yards covered essentially the rear half of the van walls plus a headliner shelf we made. Sorry about that! We have since removed it completely, and since this was under the bed anyway we covered the exposed area with Reflectix and called it good. Said it would take too long to air out. I think that plywood paneling is a little more forgiving to work with than this hardboard paneling with a vinyl skin that we used. It means you don’t have to fuss with a cooler full of ice and water-logged food. Hi Jamie, thanks for reading – and for catching out errors! This thin plywood is easy to bend and would save some space as opposed to straight walls. I am working on a van very similar to yours (97 dodge ram 2500 passenger van) and it’s time for the wall paneling. I’m also going to be doing plywood walls but was wondering how many inches were lost due to attaching the ply to the metal ribs of the van? Total: $329, plus whatever plywood you choose for the walls. https://www.amazon.com/Cushion-Insulated-Clamp-Stainless-Nuts-Assortment-Assortment/dp/B076V8W4TS/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1541980563&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=cushion+clamp&dpPl=1&dpID=51nCr23I6iL&ref=plSrch. This can make it difficult for so many reasons. For the other wall with windows, we left the windows available and functional. The plywood we used was a project panel from Bunnings (an Australian hardware store), it’s full measurements are 1220 x 2440 x 3mm. Oak or birch hardwood is good for cabinets, storage and furniture. To avoid this, cancel and sign in to YouTube on your computer. If you’re thinking mold prevention, you can pre-treat wood with Concrobium (available at big box hardware stores), then seal it with polyurethane or a mold preventative paint like Zinsser Bullseye. Basically, everything runs through the solar charge controller. (I think the counter strips need to be ironed into place. If using insulation make sure it’s tucked in before moving on. Or for future modifications. After moving to Australia on a Working Holiday visa, I felt there was a lack of information for people in my situation. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! I’m getting super confused when it comes to laying down wiring for the solar system. I don’t know if that makes any sense at all but if it does id really appreciate the push in the right direction! You won’t regret it. This is because there’s less pressure overall on the walls, versus the floors. Marine Plywood For Caravans. Once the plywood panels are attached to the walls, you can reattach any trim you removed by hammering it into the plywood panels with 1 ¼ inch (3.2 cm) finishing nails. Jeff. The luan worked great for our purposes, it’s lighter than birch, so we thought it made sense to save a little money and weight there. The insulated clamps are of course purpose-built and better for the application, but they’re not cheap in comparison. A note on removing the air handler: it’s doable, but it requires a professional to evacuate the freon from your system, cut and cap off the pipes running under the van, and repressurize everything. We were able to use many of the same templates in several different steps of our van build. Electricity gives us the…, Read More How We Mounted Solar Panels on a Fiberglass Van RoofContinue, How do you finish off the door panels? Picking the right size and thickness your plywood sheet can be tricky, particularly if you're new to the DIY game. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @gnomad_home and on Facebook at Gnomad Home. The many types of plywood can differ in materials, number of layers, rating and grade. But installing our plywood walls in our DIY van conversion was a time-intensive, multi-step process to arrive at our finished result. Then we traced the template onto the plywood and grabbed our trusty jigsaw. The curve on the other side is more exaggerated, it’s as if there could be a window there, but instead it’s a metal panel. Copyright © 2021 ⸱ Gab Travelling | Travel Blog ⸱ Design by Love & Riot. On top of this there may be windows and insulation to work around. This is good for smaller vans (think Westies) but not so great for a larger van that will likely have more weight and fixtures hanging on the sides and ceiling. Family Handyman. Finally it’s time to install the actual plywood walls, once the paint is dry. Order online, over the phone or in store. The first panel worked out perfectly. We needed to figure out how many pieces of paneling we needed and how we would lay them out on the ceiling. This turned out to be pretty handy, because we could stick magnets on them. Birch ply doesn’t have that issue. It’s What’s Inside that Counts for Plywood. We made cardboard templates, traced them onto plywood, cut them out with a jigsaw, and screwed them into place. You can also spray one side of the wood (the side you want to bend outward) to assist with bending and retaining the curves. These screws went right through the plywood and into the frame without drilling pilot holes. For our van, we decided to go with 1/4” birch plywood because it’s flexible, easy to work with, and has a nice grain pattern. If you’re searching for a plywood that won’t wither around water, Marine Plywood has got your back. We traced the template onto a sheet of plywood, then used our jigsaw to cut the outline. Please log in again. I hope this helps! The plywood that goes on the side of a newly-framed house serves a structural purpose -- it ties the studs together and makes the walls … The furring strips are generally 4” wide. For covering the van’s walls, we only completely covered one wall. Composite plywood consists of various wood types and comes in the form of a large sheet. so I’d lose a considerable amount and the bed I’m looking at is 75 inches long (expandable foam mattress) but once the walls go up the width I’d be able to work with is about 72 inches. We cut holes to accommodate the door handles, and screwed the original plastic handle coverings back over the plywood. We knew almost nothing about electrical before we built our van, so it’s definitely possible to learn what you need to know. 1. Most outbound links are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission at no cost to you (thank you!). Thanks! Hope that helps! It will dry and retain the less stressed shape longer. It’s always a good idea to clean up excess dirt, dust and grime. What did you guys do with the corners between the ceiling and the side walls? All we needed were a few cuts here and there and an additional piece at the bottom to make the template for the rear windows. We attached some wooden planks to the steel. We respect your privacy – unsubscribe any time. It can also seem confusing where the walls meet the ceiling and the floors, if they don’t line up properly. That said, rivnuts would certainly help your avoid any potential issues. Buying food and drinks at restaurants and gas stations all the time is not only unhealthy, it’s also expensive. I’ve checked out your guys’ section on that but I’m curious where/how it would be laid to get connected so it works ex: how the ceiling fan/vent would get connected to the solar panels…that kind of stuff lol.. ya feel? Total: $329, plus whatever plywood you choose for the walls. Thanks for the comment! Hope that helps! However, our opinions are entirely our own. This guide will explain the different uses of plywood, as well as popular plywood sheet sizes and its rating and grade system, so that you can choose the best plywood for your project. There is no fabric on the sliding door or below the opposing “crew van window.” In our next post, we’ll detail how we installed it. Look up abyc electrical standards. With this in mind, the batons I used for the floor were roughly Paint both sides of the plywood at different times, according to the paint’s label. Inevitably dirt and dust will get under and behind the walls after installation, but giving a good clean first is best. We cut the 4×8 sheets of ½ inch plywood to size using a circular saw. Luan (also spelled as ‘luaun’) is a ‘fake’ mahogany grown in SE Asia, and plywood made from it contains high levels of urea-formaldehyde adhesives. 6 / 10. Would love to see what you did. The floor 12mm of soft? 6 / 10. After fully insulating our van and installing laminate flooring, the next step was to put up the walls. Best of luck on your build! We only had to do one layer of the undercoat because the plywood was pre-treated. Refrigeration means you can store fresh food and other cold items – like vegetables, dairy, meat, “booch,” and beer. Family Handyman. Luan (also spelled as ‘luaun’) is a ‘fake’ mahogany grown in SE Asia, and plywood made from it contains high levels of urea-formaldehyde adhesives. Next time round I might use slightly thicker plywood. Plywood is a necessity in many DIY and construction projects, but not every type of plywood works for every project. What type (hardwood/softwood) and thicknesses should I use for: The walls 9mm soft (or 12mm so I could hang things off it if I decided to)? Last week we took a pretty big step in our van build: we finally completed building, staining and finishing our kitchen cabinets and countertop. Learn more. A van’s walls usually have curves, which make it hard to drill in something straight. That’s why we decided to go with some beautiful cedar paneling for our van’s ceiling. Awesome discounts from some of our favorite companies. Birch ply is also a much more robust material, so whenever we needed something that had structural capabilities we used birch (we used a lot of 1/2″ birch for the furniture in our build). Which one did you use and find worked best for you? I was wondering how you went about walling the back of the van? This was placed in two sections on our wall with windows. *We used the metal blade to cut the wood, this is because of its thickness. Those clamps are for pipes and with vibration will saw right through the insulation. How to make campervan units. These expansion gaps are necessary as the plywood will naturally expand and contract. The plywood pieces were the standard 4'x8' size. Measure the length of each wall in the room … Instead of using screws to hold panels against the wall. This adds protection against mold and general spills or messes. Hi! We had … Yearly membership that allows you to camp at wineries, breweries, and farms around North America for free! Even though we had tried to get our template as close as possible, we still had to trim down the plywood panel in a few spots to make it fit perfectly. We cannot emphasize enough how much time reusing your templates will save you. ), If there is no mounting “joint”, you can cut a piece of wood, or pieces of wood, which are then held in place with liquid-nails, as your plywood “studs”. Once you’ve laid the sound deadener, rigid foamboard insulation, and 1/4″ or even 1/2″ OSB (similar to plywood, but stronger and cheaper) as the base of your flooring, you’re ready to choose what kind of material to install on top of it. Electrical in a van is like electrical in a boat. We thought about adding trim around the windows to make it look nicer, but at that point we just had to get on the road so we held off. For the opposing wall we needed about 160 x 130 cm for a single placed plywood section. The windows in our van are all the same size, so we were able to modify our first template to make the other two panels. We used ½” thickness plywood for the ceiling, 3/8” thickness plywood for almost-flat surfaces of the walls and ¼” thickness* plywood where we wanted the paneling to conform to the van curvatures. They have a pin inside that can be pushed in to expand the split anchor pawls. We left approximately 1/16″ inch of space between each plywood sheet, and between the plywood and the van walls. Also, it is easier to bend it back to flat, from a curve, if over-bent, after it is mounted. We cut the 4×8 sheets of ½ inch plywood to size using a circular saw. The ceiling Maybe 6mm or 9mm of soft? We actually used 1/4″ luan underlayment for our walls, mostly due to the cost (and we liked the grain pattern). Thank you so much for creating this amazing guide for us who our beginning our van life journey. You can paint both sides, but it’s not necessary. It also takes current from your batteries and sends it to your fusebox (which is where your lights, fan, etc., are plugged in). *Disclaimer: ¼” Baltic birch plywood is … We have installed plywood lining in our van and we’re wondering about sealing it, but a carpenter friend warned us against it. To cut out the holes for the windows, we drilled holes in all four corners using a 1/4″ drill bit, then used the jigsaw to connect the dots.