Joined because I want a skoolie.

[GardenGirl]

I am about to retire and was wanting a skoolie to convert. There will be 2 dogs, 2 cats, hubbie and myself traveling in it. We have been looking online for awhile and have seen some awesome skoolies. We plan to heavily insulate, do solar, install a composting toilet, fresh and gray water tanks, a dometic type freezer, a fantastic type fan, an emergency generator and a wood stove. We hope to find a 30 foot bus with a handicap lift because we plan to purchase a scooter we can lift into the back of the bus with the lift. Now, to find a bus.

[Robin97396]

Welcome GardenGirl

This is the place to build you guy's bus. We've got extra ideas for your bus. And a full build too! Cool. We enjoy seeing it done right.

[GardenGirl]

Thanks for the welcome. Another idea we had was to remove the ceiling to insulate. Have you heard of anyone putting the steel ceiling back up after insulating? I like the idea of having the steel ceiling.

[Robin97396]

I've heard of people trying to put the ceiling metal back but they eventually give up. Often the ceiling metal gets a little marred while taking it out. How marred the sheet metal gets seems to depend on who's doing the removal.

If you're wanting good insulation in your bus you're not going to want to put that metal back in that will conduct hot/cold back into the bus from the exterior. You need to create a thermal break. If it's freezing outside you wouldn't want direct contact with the exterior skin. Any bolts or screws that attach to the ribs will conduct thermal energy to the inside of the bus.

The problems with insulating heavily is that you loose headroom in the bus, both in the ceiling and floor. That's why so many people raise the ceilings in their buses. Some of us are simply short and just want the insulation.

Take some time and see examples of the ceilings people are putting into their buses.