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Old 02-03-2004, 12:45 PM   #1
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Insulation?

In our first bus conversion we only insulated the floor. I used 1 1/2" ridged foam and put 3/4" Plywood over the top of that. Where we had a problem was with the side walls. When we slept in the bunk bed our shoulders would be frozen when we woke up in the morning. With this bus I think I want to insulate the side walls under the windows. I have seen on some pictures that it look like the metal under the windows has been removed and then insulation put in there. Is this the best way? Does anybody have any advice for insulation the walls and floors for me?



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Old 02-03-2004, 01:03 PM   #2
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windows cause major heat loss. I think you'd be wasting your time just insulating the wall below the windows. I covered more than half the windows in my schoolie with insulation. I used 3/4 " rigid foam board for the walls and the floor. I couldn't come up with a cheap simple method for insulating the cieling, so i left it alone. The ceiling currently causes the majority of my heat loss. Before I covered my windows, i went to home depot and bought house window tint, and mirror tinted all my windows.
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Old 02-03-2004, 01:05 PM   #3
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For the ceiling just drill holes every couple inches and spay in expanding foam. My neighbor is doing that on his Eagle
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Old 02-03-2004, 01:11 PM   #4
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my cieling and walls already has insulation in it from the factory. Fiberglass roll type insulation. When the furnace is running, it's easy to see where all the beams criss cross the roof as these conduct heat and melt the snow off the roof of the bus in a checkerboard pattern.



I don't live in my bus, so i'm not too concerned about the heat loss. If i actually used my skoolie for camping in the winter, i think i'd sacrifice some ceiling height for better insulation of some sort. Perhaps a few layers of 1/4 inch foam board. This should be flexible enough to follow the curvature of the roof without breaking. Then the trick is finding a cheap simple method of covering the insulation..................
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Old 02-03-2004, 01:22 PM   #5
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Celing Insulation

We have the sound panels in the celing so I am sure we would have a funny looking celing after all the foam came out of all the holes
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Old 02-03-2004, 01:24 PM   #6
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Removing the windows

Did you remove any of the windows and put sheet metal in it's place?

That is what I was thinking about doing.
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Old 02-03-2004, 01:25 PM   #7
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I don't know what you mean by sound panels...
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Old 02-03-2004, 01:29 PM   #8
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Sound Panels

In our old bus, the front roof panels where the driver sits is full of 1/8" holes, hundreds of them. In our new bus the entire celing is like that. Thousands and thousands of them.... I would not want to count them....
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Old 02-03-2004, 02:24 PM   #9
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i just left my windows in place. The mirror tiniting keeps people from seeing through the windows from the outside. Inside, i just covered the majority of them with the foam board insulation inside. Then i bought the cheapest wall board i could find at home depot and used that to cover the insulation.



When i installed the hot tub, i had to remove some windows to make the jacuzzi fit. I put flip up steal panels along side the hot tub in place of the windows. These panels open by remote keyless entry.



The mirror tiniting from home depot was about 100 dollars for enough to do the etire bus, mine is a 71 passenger.
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Old 02-13-2004, 08:56 AM   #10
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Storm Windows

No practical experience for reference, only theoretical ideas that I am considering in the future.......



In the situation where one has removed side windows from some portions of the bus yet kept other windows in place, how about taking the removed side windows and using them to create storm windows/insulated windows for the remaining windows? It would be a whole lot of work, I'm sure. If the windows sections were separated by a 1/4" spacer, and sealed airtight with caulk, they would provide some additional insulation for the bus, kind of like double glazed windows on houses. If you really wanted to tinker and get "high tech", it would be possible to build an air tight cabinet with a window and rubber gloves (like the cabinets for handling hazmat stuff) and then flood that cabinet with nitrogen gas before making the final seal on the windows. Capturing nitrogen gas between the panes would eliminate condensation inside the windows.



Alternatively, the removed windows could just be mounted in the same frame opening as the remaining windows with a larger (maybe 1/2" or more) air gap between them.



May not provide enough results to be worth much effort. Just an idea.
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Old 02-16-2004, 06:42 AM   #11
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Greetings,

I removed all the sliding windows as they were noisy as all get out.

They rattled and squeeked a lot after 25 years on Texas back roads!

I framed in the areas for the RV windows I removed from the 5th wheel with 1 1/2" square tubing held flush with the outside for a good skin fit.

I then skinned over the oustide with .050 aluminum.



I removed all the skin from the inside walls except the bottom impact strip.

The walls were a little over 1 1/2" thick, so I stuffed two pieces of 3/4" sheet foam into the spaces. The frame work of the bus was a z channel, so it resulted in a nice tight fit. If there was any air space where I had a "senior moment" and did a bad cut, I filled the area with spray foam.



For the ceiling, my bus has two pieces of sheet metal running from front to back. The middle section of the roof about 3 feet wide was insulated with fiberglass bat insulation. I discovered this while installing the AC and vent holes. There was no other insulation in the bus at all! Since the bottom edge of the sheet metal on the inside was already loose after I removed the window trim above the windows, I only had to drill out one row of rivets to allow me to pull the roof sheet metal down slightly. This was just enough to allow me to slide in two sheets of 3/4" foam into the roof between the outside skin and the inside skin I had pulled down. I then filled any air gaps with spray foam. This process on the roof alone took me about 2 days and cost many skinned and bloody knuckles!! My hands hurt just thinking about that ordeal.



Looking back as I sat in the bus yesterday morning while it was near freezing outside and I am comfortable inside with only a 750 watt heater keeping the inside warm, IT WAS WORTH IT!! With the insulation and a still bare floor, it is much nicer inside and so much quieter going down the road. I can only imagine how much better (quieter and better temp control) it will be when I get the foam and carpet on the floor.



Hope this helps or adds food for thought......
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Old 02-16-2004, 07:56 AM   #12
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Thank you for the information. I think I will follow your advice and remove the metal on the walls, but I am not sure about the celing, Ouch!

I will be picking up our bus in the next few weeks so I have some time to dream before I wake up and have to start working.



Have a great day
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Old 02-16-2004, 10:48 AM   #13
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Greetings,

On the ceiling, it wasn't completely removed.

The center 3' or so was already insulated with fiberglass bat insulation.

Counting the curve down on each side, this left about 4' on each side.

Since the edge was already loose above the windows, I only removed the next row of rivets which allowed me to pull ONLY THE EDGE down enough to stuff the sheet foam in place.

I found that if I cut the foam to the width required to fit between the metal frames that I could lay it down with a 1' block under each end and put some weight in the middle (a couple of cinder blocks) and let it set for a couple of hours, it would gently take a bow which made it so much easier to put in as it was "pre-curved".

That little discovery saved more than a few "blue words"......
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Old 02-16-2004, 09:28 PM   #14
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my windows also rattled quite a bit when i first brought home bus. Since i planned to cover most of them with insulation on the inside, i used a calk gun and sealed all of the windows that were to be covered. This kept them from rattling, and added extra protection against air leaks.
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Old 02-16-2004, 09:29 PM   #15
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my windows also rattled quite a bit when i first brought home bus. Since i planned to cover most of them with insulation on the inside, i used a calk gun and sealed all of the windows that were to be covered. This kept them from rattling, and added extra protection against air leaks.
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Old 02-17-2004, 06:17 AM   #16
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Greetings,

Caulking the windows that will be covered or not opened is a good idea!

When I was doing the windows and skin on mine, I would start it up and turn it around to take advantage of the shade.

During these "turn around" maneuvers, I noticed the sheet metal that I had added would reverberate and made LOTS of noise.

I remembered doing body repair on various vehicles and would sometimes find caulk where the parts lapped or were close - look under the hood of most autos where the skin attaches to the frame for a good example - so I ran a short bead of caulk where the skin was attached to a frame member.

This made so much difference on vibration induced "reverberation" that I did the same thing to the existing skin under and above the window openings.

Believe it or not, this cut down a bunch of noise.
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Old 02-23-2004, 10:43 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tullamore
For the ceiling just drill holes every couple inches and spay in expanding foam.


Neat idea, hadn't thought of that. I found fiberglass up there already, but presumably I could do this. Any idea how much foam it would take?



I was thinking of going rigid board with parallel knife cuts to follow the curve, but hate to loose the headroom, also seems kinda tedious. Layers of thin flexible foam mat sound expensive and also a pain.



Expanding foam isn't cheap at $6 per can. I am on a budget. I could just do the roundest part, where wall meets corner/ceiling. Then the cheaper rigid board for the middle (relatively flat). Wallpaper or fabric to follow...
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Old 02-23-2004, 10:56 PM   #18
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i've yet to come up with a GOOD solution for insulating the ceiling.



If i lived in my bus, rather than using it primarily for parties, i would sacrifice head room for roof insulation. Height is not of primary inportance to me, i'm only 5'6" tall. That leaves me 6 or 8 inches to play with. If i build a bus to live in, i think i'd use 3 or 4 inches of fiberglass insulation on all walls and the cieling. My current bus is a bit drafty, and ton's of heat escapes through the ceiling.

I really have no plans to "fix" the roof of the partybus. I have a huge furnace (80k btu's) so i can keep warm, at the expense of buying lots of propane.
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Old 02-24-2004, 08:51 AM   #19
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Hi Dennis (BeautyFool),



Hello neighbor! I'm over here at the north end of Whidbey Island next door to Deception Pass.



I'm going to use cork ceiling insulation (don't think of corkboard stuff); it's has good acoustic properties, a good insluation value and isn't too thick. It should also be easy to apply; it's available in rolls and tiles (there's even a pre-glued, peel-n-stick version). I've found the material at The Cork Store.



I visited your site several weeks ago...cool!
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Old 02-24-2004, 09:44 AM   #20
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Cork Celing

I think the Cork might be a great answer to walls & Celing. Thanks for the Information!!
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