Desert area buses!

[rocket_kitten]

hi!
I'm building (most of) my bus in maryland and moving to arizona. is there anything you did specifically for the heat? is there anything you wish you had in retrospect?

i'd love any insight!
thanks!

rocket

[cschlessman]

Hi live and build in Az. Insulation , that said insulation. I also use those beads in paint on the walls and ceiling of the bus and I'm getting ready to do the roof with them also.
Chuck

[Scooternj]

Don't forget about window tint and a decent HVAC system.

[rocket_kitten]

i'm definitely adding the beads to the inside, before the insulation (and roof, bf wants to put the beads in all of the outside paint).
what r rating do you think will be sufficient? the local stores have one inch board with an r rating of 5, but i wonder if i can get away with thinner board.. it's not the tallest bus.

thanks!

rocket

[browncrown]

I live in an area where it is not uncommon to be above 100 for a week at a time...like others said...INSULATION...your best friend against heat.

[Scooternj]

Originally Posted by rocket_kitten

i'm definitely adding the beads to the inside, before the insulation (and roof, bf wants to put the beads in all of the outside paint).

I was definitely planning on that with my bus, trying to make it as thermally reflective as possible.

[lornaschinske]

THERMAL BREAKS! Insulation is worthless unless you have thermal breaks. We did the double wall system. The ceiling has insulating strips over the rivets in the roof ribs. Plus we used Henry's SolarFlex reflective roof coating on the roof (3 thin coats on a 40 ft bus ate up a big 5 gallon bucket). You would need to recoat the roof every three years or so. The desert sun is deadly on everything. Anything dark coloured heats up so hot you can't touch it. I regret painting my rub rails and bumpers hammered black. And then there is the super fine dust. Plan on dusting or better yet vacuuming a lot and make sure you run a HEPA filter vac or have the vacuum exhausting outside. 422 more days until we leave the Land of Entrapment!

[rocket_kitten]

thanks for all the advice!
regarding the thermal breaks, someone mentioned rubber backed aluminum sided tape over the ribs. would that work as well as insulating strips? and what exactly do you mean by insulating strips? i think i'm going the Henry's route as well. think i can get that tinted?

Originally Posted by lornaschinske

THERMAL BREAKS! Insulation is worthless unless you have thermal breaks. We did the double wall system. The ceiling has insulating strips over the rivets in the roof ribs. Plus we used Henry's SolarFlex reflective roof coating on the roof (3 thin coats on a 40 ft bus ate up a big 5 gallon bucket)

thanks!

rocket

[lornaschinske]

No, you can not tint Henry's. Not enough room in the bucket for anything except really light tint. Plus a lot of places will not shake a can of roofing "paint". The asphalt stuff gets hot and will explode and/or ruin the paint shaker (the Restore and Deckover coatings are hard enough on the machines). At the Home Depot I work at, I'm not allowed to shake a can of roofing... ANY ROOFING MATERIAL, despite what many customers say I can. Customers get nasty with me at about once a week because I refuse to shake certain things in the machines. What makes the Henry's reflective is the white colour itself. When it's dirty, it doesn't reflect as well. That is part of the reason you recoat every 5 to 7 years. Of course you could recoat more often.

Thermal Break Strips Hard to describe, easy to do. We used "dead air" space for the insulation. Since the strips are sealed (glued and caulked) no air can move thru the space. Polymer plastic also acts as insulation as it does not transfer heat (or cold) very well. These strips are about 2-1/8" wide over all. I do not have a fancy thermometer. But using my hand, the temperature on the strips are about the same as the center of the insulated ceiling panel. The uninsulated row of rivets, they are quite hot. I have a few rows still to cover.

We used 3 strips of 8 ft. x 1-1/8 in. x 1/8 in. Polymer Lattice stacked on top of each other. The bottom two strips were split lengthwise and placed on each side of the rivets. It took the two strips to just clear all of the rivets (some stand a bit taller than others). They are a bit widely spaced due to the stepped design and every few strips, the metal sheets that form the ceiling is lapped over at the rivets. The design we used is wide enough to cover this lapping and hide it. We've still got to run the center trim (which will also be spaced in the center to hide the electric wire for the linked lights) and install/faux paint the anaglypta wallpaper. A job I am not looking forward to.

[abwetzel63]

Nice trimwork, Lorna. Cool (pun intended) idea, and low tech, seemingly low to mid skills requirement. Thanks for the idea.

[rocket_kitten]

that looks great! i am going to look into that. I'm also waiting to see your stained flooring wall panel..

thanks for the explanation and pictures!

thanks,

rocket