However, there was a small leak that needed fixing at the back of the van before I tried sticking down the flooring to the ply. The leak was at the rear offside barn door and was caused by water being drawn in through the carpet. When we carpeted the metal door-frame, we removed the door-trim stuck the carpet on then replaced the trim. There were a couple of areas where the carpet stuck out beyond the door-trim on the outside. So first, I Stanley knifed the excess carpet back to the level of the trim. Then I added some Sanitary Silicone to seal the area where the door groove, carpet and door trim met. Hopefully this will keep out the water.
Next came the floor insulation....this only took a couple of hours and followed the well documented methods of:
- lift ply
- Brush out all the dust and rubbish
- Add flash-band to reduce panel noise
- Add bubble foil insulation (strips between the raised areas, then sheets)
- Add 3mm foam laminate floor underlay
- Replace ply
(it looks like my Dad did all the work in these photos but it was a joint effort!)
It was a little tough to get the ply back on as it was at a higher level and needed 'tucking' in under the walls. We found that lifting the ply pieces along their center-line to form an apex allowed them to fit under the sides while being 'persuaded' down into position.
Next came the vinyl. I bought 3x2m of hard wearing Grey commercial vinyl from a local flooring shop. It cost £50 with glue. This stuff is TOUGH. the kind of material you'd find on shop floors or buses. Should cope with surfboards and big guitar amps nicely!
We rolled out the vinyl on the ground, then put the ply floor together on-top. Next I cut around it with a Stanley knife with a hooked flooring blade. I was glad I bought these blades as this vinyl was strong stuff and the hooked angle of the blade made corners a breeze.
(not the most illustrative photo, but shows an alternative use for Morrison's car park in Caernarfon!)
Next I added the glue to the ply and we put the vinyl down. As the glue takes a while to dry, we had opportunity to press out any bubbles. Tomorrow, once the glues dried, I'll do a final 'tidy-up trim' with the knife.
Overall I'm really happy with the results. In the next month I'll be visiting Cannons Forge to get the bed fitted.
Here's a shot of the van in action on Anglesey:
wanna hear my band?
check the videos on www.myspace.com/larches
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