If you’re new to building a van, you may want me to first answer the question about what the point of a subfloor in a van is in the first place.
Valid question.
The subfloor gives you a place to insulate the floor, sound deaden the floor, and create an even surface for your actual flooring. It gives the rest of the build a solid platform to rest on.
Before Installing the Van Subfloor
If you had everything go perfectly and all supplies aligned, I would recommend installing your windows and vent fan before the subfloor. This way, you can get rid of any metal shavings before building the floor, or letting any shavings sneak under the floor.
But we all know that perfect isn’t real, so in my case, I only installed the vent fan before the subfloor. And at this point, all has been fine so let’s hope it stays that way!
One thing you need to make sure you do before installing the subfloor in the van is sound deadening and insulation. I went with Havelock wool insulation and Kilmat sound deadening.
Materials for a Durable Van Subfloor
Before even starting the subfloor, you may want to gather all of the subloor supplies first so you don’t have to keep stopping every 2 hours to run to Home Depot. Here’s everything I used for the subfloor (not including the insulation and sound deadening):
- Builder’s paper
- Priming paint
- Exterior screws
- Metal to wood adhesive glue – I recommend a marine grade one (and pay attention to drying times)
- Paint roller and plastic paint container
- Plywood – 19/32 (3 pieces)
- 2x2x8 (14)
- Painter’s tape
- Drill
- Jigsaw
Steps for the Install
Prepare to spend about 2 full days on this part of the build if you have all of your supplies. We spent a total of 16 hours creating and installing the subfloor.
1. Get Rid of Tie Downs
There are a few metal tie downs that are in the way of putting the floor into the van. These can unscrewed from the bottom of the van, but you’ll see a hole there.
Instead of leaving the holes there and sealing it, we put the screw back in and sealed that (just without the bulky part of the tie down).
2. Clean the Floor
If you have a new van, you may not need to do this. But mine came used…so it was quite dirty. I swept the bottom, and then finished cleaning with a floor cleaner mixed with water. I scrubbed the ground and the sides near the floor until any loose dirt, grease, or mud was gone.
3. Cut and Lay Down Furring Strips
When I say furring strips, I’m referring to the 2x2x8s you will be using to hook the plywood into the van.
Before you put them in, you’ll want to figure out a layout that works with what you plan for the plywood (see below for this layout).
For mine, we put down 7 strips in the middle of the van, about 9 inches to a foot apart. Near the doors and the walls, we cut a strip to length to fit that area. There are a few areas in the back that we cut small pieces to outline the oddly shaped areas.
Since the strips were not long enough, we had to cut a couple to glue them together to reach the back of the van. As I mentioned before, we used the wrong glue. You want to make sure yours is marine grade so that it sticks to the metal and the wood pieces stick together.
Once you glue, you’ll want to find heavy items like weights (or in our case, weights and water bottle cases and old VCRs) to put on them overnight to make sure they set properly.
4. Insulate Between the Furring Strips
Once you let the glue stick for a while (preferably overnight), you can cut out the insulation to fit between the furring strips.
5. Create the Template
I’ve watched many people create their template for the plywood in different formations (vertical, horizontal, different lengths, etc.). But we decided to make ours out of three separate pieces of plywood moving horizontally from the front to the back of the van. We also made sure to place the seams between cabinets and the bed to ensure the edge of furniture would not be resting on the edge of the plywood just in case it makes it weak.
Using the Builder’s Paper
To create the template, we took our builder’s paper and laid it out starting right behind the driver’s seat. As you create the template, you basically are tracing out the outline of the inside of the van to create the outline onto the builder’s paper. You may need to start cutting extra pieces to add to the edges or corners of the template to make the weird shapes your van may have.
At this point, many people continue to trace the entire outline from front to back on the builder’s paper and tape it all together. We didn’t do that. Instead, we took our first piece for the front and traced that first.
Trace onto Plywood
Once we had our first outline done, we traced that onto the first piece of plywood. We used the jigsaw to cut that piece out based on our template. It took us a few tries to shave down some corners to match perfectly and have it slip right into its spot.
We continued to repeat those steps for the second and third pieces of plywood.
I recomend the second and third pieces of plywood meeting under the bed so that there is no pressure points on the ends.
6. Line Up the 3 Pieces of Plywood in the Van
Once you are sure they are all lining up in the van, you’re all set on the outline! Your floor is almost there!
7. Screw in the Floor
After you’re finished admiring the beautiful subfloor you’ve created, you still have one more step. You need to screw in the plywood to the furring strips. Making sure you know where the strips are is important. We made sure to make marks on the wall so we knew where screws could and couldn’t go.
Avoid These Mistakes When Installing Your Van Subfloor
It can be easy to think that you should just screw the wood pieces into the van floor for extra security, but this will make the installation much more complicated, potentially cause rust, and could lead to leaks. Insetead, using a marine grade metal to wood glue is the way to go. Be sure to make sure it dries quickly and is marine grade as this ensures the wood will stick to the metal.
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