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Old 05-30-2019, 10:52 AM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Alternative Flooring [emoji3097][emoji3097]

?? Any great ideas for different floors rather than wood ?

Bamboo is “nice”....... but here’s the real question ... Hempcrete blocks 2 inch thick , could be like garden paver molded and filled with cob..??? I’ve been trying to figure the weight . I would only block and cob the walk ways not under the cabinets and beds ..

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Old 05-05-2020, 12:25 PM   #2
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Bumping this to see if anyone has tried hempcrete for flooring or any other area of insulation in their skoolie. Maybe I'll start a new thread on this, too.
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Old 05-05-2020, 03:46 PM   #3
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My concern would be what would happen if you are involved in a accident. Would those blocks break loose an become missiles?
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Old 05-05-2020, 07:38 PM   #4
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Seems that hempcrete has an R value of around 2.5 per inch, about half as good as XPS foam board. I'm not sure what 2" blocks cost, but eBay has 3.5"x7"x14" for about $10 (plus shipping), which would provide about the same insulation as 2" of XPS. It would take 47 of these blocks to cover the same area as a 4'x8' sheet of foam board - so it's $470 (plus shipping, plus losing 1.5" more headroom) for hempcrete versus $30 for XPS board. You might need 20-ish 4'x8' sheets to do a bus, so that's $9400 to insulate with hempcrete.

This seems in the same category of ludicrously expensive as aerogel, except aerogel is actually twice as effective as XPS instead of half as effective. Maybe I'm missing something and there's a much cheaper source available somewhere, but this stuff would have to be fifty cents a block to beat XPS on price.

Perhaps doing your own bulk pour is much cheaper? But apparently you can't use it structurally then, since it takes a really long time to cure. Then you'd need to fill in between studs on the floor, might as well use fiberglass then.
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Old 05-06-2020, 03:20 AM   #5
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Musigenesis, how do you find the time to find out all this information AND work on your bus AND bake? You probably work too! LOL


I'm retired and am worn out just trying to read a lot of these threads.
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Old 05-06-2020, 07:48 AM   #6
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Lizard skin

Has anyone used Lizard Skin for a heat barrier?
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Old 05-06-2020, 10:15 AM   #7
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Has anyone used Lizard Skin for a heat barrier?
A lot of folks on the binderplanet have and felt it made a big difference. Them little IHC's get hot inside -- especially when you strip out the carpet and padding...

It's expensive I hear but they make a heat and a sound deadening product.
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Old 05-06-2020, 10:27 AM   #8
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I believe making your own is significantly cheaper - maybe consider it the same as wool in terms of price and moisture permeability/management. You could make custom batts to tamp in it, but yes then you'd still need to put floor in over top. I guess the same question would apply to wool - is it worth it to do your floors with wool if it is so inefficient? What about mixing insulations in a bus - spray the bottom, wool the sides? Worst of both worlds?
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Old 05-06-2020, 11:02 AM   #9
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I believe making your own is significantly cheaper - maybe consider it the same as wool in terms of price and moisture permeability/management. You could make custom batts to tamp in it, but yes then you'd still need to put floor in over top. I guess the same question would apply to wool - is it worth it to do your floors with wool if it is so inefficient? What about mixing insulations in a bus - spray the bottom, wool the sides? Worst of both worlds?
Due to the nature of the bus I think using esoteric materials is misguided...
Especially on the floor. At some point it will get wet. I think the only acceptable floor insulation is a closed cell foam. Something that can't contain, or absorb any amount of water...

If you're into boondocking --any kind of fiber fill is an excellent home to rodents and insects... no thank you...

You may get lucky and not have water leak into your walls but again insects and rodents... Just look at the condition of the fiberglass insulation removed from everybody's builds? Usually Yuck!
The one exception I might try in my budget build walls will be encapsulating the fiberglass bats in plastic bags (the way it's done to protect the insulation in higher end automobiles) so they can never absorb any moisture or insects. A pesky rodent could still eff up this plan...
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