Our second bus build, WanderLounge

[Tango]

Marine grade ply is about 70 bucks a sheet here in Houston. One benefit of a shorty is that since it does not take much of anything, you can usually afford the "good stuff". Personally, having owned a couple of Skoolies & RV's...I wouldn't put anything else down as a base. OSB should NEVER be used to my simple mind. Might as well lay down particle board. Floors are going to be exposed to dampness no matter what you do. Use something that will hold up.

[brokedown]

This isn't a shortie though. It's 32 foot so not as long as a 40 but I'll be needing 8 sheets for the floor. $70 per board for 3/4 marine vs $22 for 1/2 non-marine is a big difference.

I've got 28 feet of floor to cover with it.

[brokedown]

So the local co-op has less expensive materials available.. they have CDX plywood and perma foil insulation panels. From what I"m reading, CDX has even lower moisture resistance then OSB. The deeper into this hole I get the more I'm thinking I should add a moisture barrier on top of the wood...

[PNW_Steve]

I used a 3/4" t&g subfloor material in my last bus.

It was an "OSB" type material. I had some reservations but the lumber guru at probuild assured me that it was the same material used in bathrooms and laundry rooms.

Fast forward.... I had two major floods in the bus. Once a pipe froze and burst in the night. The other.... Someone.... Left the kitchen sink filling while he stepped outside to yak on the phone.

Both resulted in a pretty water fall cascading down the front steps.

I did my best to dry things out.

Two years later I pulled up the carpet. The wood underneath had stains on it from the water. No swelling no mold.

That said, I have put "regular" OSB sheathing on a shed in a dry climate and not covered it with siding. Less than two years it was swelling and falling apart in spots.

Just my observations.

[Robin97396]

It doesn't kill OSB to get wet. It kills it if it continuously gets wet. I don't buy compresses sawdust or chips. That stuff even stinks when it burns.

Wintering in this bus for two winters I've learned a few things. It's not only windows that sweat in the winter from humidity. The floor will also sweat like a cold can of coke sweats on a summer day. In freezing weather I've seen frost over two inches deep on the floor due to the L-track conveying outside temps through my floor. The frost only grows in protected areas like under my bed. Carpet seems to insulate the floor enough to almost eliminate the condensation.

My point is if I can find condensation in the form of frost inside my bus it indicates there is a condensation problem in any uninsulated area. Yeah, I know. I'm one of the only people that didn't insulate my floor. Let that be a lesson to the rest of you. I don't have built-in walls or cabinets so I can still add insulation to my floor.

[brokedown]

Rain rain go away! No progress for the last few days. Yesterday it stopped raining long enough for me to load all the stuff I took out of the bus back in, as we're headed to the florida skoolie rally and not coming back for 10 days or so.

Since my last update... I deleted a back window, and Hillary took care of most of the holes in the floor with rivets and silicone sealer. Still loving the air tool setup!

[brokedown]

Windows and floor!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[EastCoastCB]

Nice!
Lookin like Sandi's!

[brokedown]

I got a pair of tin snips and cut that panel out of the ceiling metal. Since the ceiling had lights and speakers in it I might not have enough to cover all the windows I plan to delete! But the back one went pretty well, I learned a few things to not do on the next ones, the important thing is it doesn't let water in when it rains for a week.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by brokedown

I got a pair of tin snips and cut that panel out of the ceiling metal. Since the ceiling had lights and speakers in it I might not have enough to cover all the windows I plan to delete! But the back one went pretty well, I learned a few things to not do on the next ones, the important thing is it doesn't let water in when it rains for a week.

I've got a riveter and a TON of rivets if you want a hand.
And can get 18ga for 60 a sheet +/-.

[Tango]

Combine the rivets with some paintable OEM seam sealer for a nice, watertight fit. Love that stuff.

[sojourner]

Originally Posted by brokedown

"the more I read about it the less ideal that bamboo natural flooring seems. "

Would you mind sharing what negative concerning bamboo flooring? If you're talking laminate, I would agree (the core material is the issue). I'm considering either cork (not floating laminate) or strand woven bamboo for my finished floor.

[brokedown]

I got the HF rivet gun and several boxes of rivets. So far we've used about 60 of them doing the one window and the floor. We've already painted the floor and we're using aluminum rivets so the sealer is just to 100% make sure water stays out, i assume my next layer will be rigid foam insulation right on top of it.

With regards to the bamboo flooring, mostly I'm reading bad things about using it if you don't have humidity control. They go as far as saying to lay the planks out for days before installing them so they can pre-swell before you lay them down, that's just not compatible with us driving around the country.

Roll floor pretty much stays the same level of "meh" no matter what.

[EastCoastCB]

You're not worried about aluminum and steel corroding?

[brokedown]

I am worried about it, which is why the floor was treated and has 3 coats of oil based enamel primer and paint, and the rivets are covered in silicone!

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by brokedown

I am worried about it, which is why the floor was treated and has 3 coats of oil based enamel primer and paint, and the rivets are covered in silicone!

The aluminum rivet, when it expands in the steel hole, makes contact with the steel.

“The corrosion rate of the dissimilar metals not only depends on the environment and the difference in potential, but also the respective amount of the dissimilar metals. For example, an unfavorable situation would be to have a large area of inactive metal and a small area of active metal in any particular joint design. If this condition exists, the smaller active metal could corrode at an accelerated rate. This fact is particularly important to remember when using fasteners, bolts, and rivets, since they have a relatively small area in respect to the pieces of metal that are being connected.”

How to deal with dissimilar metals | Trailer/Body Builders

Not that your window covers are structural or anything, but the future possibility of galvanic corrosion is very probable.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/galv...eel-68581.html

[Tango]

Mixing steel and aluminum is very tricky to pull off successfully. Anywhere they are in contact, you have basically created a battery and the charge differential eats them both...quickly.

[EastCoastCB]

From what I've read the silicone can actually trap moisture making the process that much faster.

[brokedown]

Interdasting. So is the suggestion then to pull all these aluminum rivets and replace with steelones, or to do something extra to treat/seal?

[snonut]

The difference in cost between aluminum and stainless steel isn't significant enough to warrant using aluminum. The ss rivets are a little harder to use if you have a manual riveter but they are a lot better. I used a 17 1/2" from HF and I had no problem. I've used a couple of hundred so far (1/4 and 3/16 by 1/2" long).