No plywood subfloor... Only Metal

[absgeller]

Hello, this is my first post, so advance apologies for any forum etiquette mistakes of mine.

In April of 2021 I purchased my 40ft Carolina Thomas school bus, Cummins front engine. She's a beaut.

My boyfriend and I have been gutting her since (the seats had already been removed but the previous owner had begun putting in wood on top of the rubber floor and building a structure, so we had to re-gut).

We began removing the floor only to find out the rubber is directly glued to the metal, there is NO plywood in between. Click here to see what I'm talking about.

The floor is pretty un-rusted, but we can't figure out any other way to remove the floor other than chiseling away at it, piece by piece. Have you guys got any ideas?

[ChrisKatana]

HEAT.

Either a torch or electric heat gun will soften the rubber and adhesive.

[HamSkoolie]

Heat gun from Harbor Freight is about $20. If yo have compressed air with a bit of volume you can also get an air chisel with wide blade for like tile removal. A little heat and that chisel should make short work of the rubber.

[musigenesis]

It's a bit late for this, but if I got a bus with no plywood I would just leave the rubber layer in place and build my subfloor on top of it.

[cadillackid]

if the metal is in good shape then musigenesis has it right dont pull the rubber.. and chznces are the metal on a non-wood bus is a LOT nicer than one with wood.. plywood is optional when buying new busses so some have it some dont..

[ChrisKatana]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

It's a bit late for this, but if I got a bus with no plywood I would just leave the rubber layer in place and build my subfloor on top of it.

That's what I thought. glad I pulled mine out. I found tons of rust under the rubber. Left untreated would have been catastrophic.

[absgeller]

Hello everyone, apologies for delayed response!

Thank you for all of your suggestions. We ended up renting a compact floor stripper (alt called a vibrating stripper) to remove the rubber. It didn't pull it quite like butter, more like wax, if that makes sense. Scratched up the floor metal but we'll have to grind the rust off anyway, so I think we did what was best.

Here is a link to a video of us removing the rubber if anyone is curious:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CbV44..._web_copy_link

Thanks again!

[Hutchy]

mine is like that but I'm definitely stripping it, I think it would be a bad idea not to. I may have to rent one of those