Flooring screws and side wall removal

[BUS2SLO]

I finally got my floor up and there is screws every few inches that secure the metal floor to the body. I cant lay plywood over the existing screws because they protrude from the floor. I did not plan on insulating the floor because I would like to keep the interior height I have.


Also on the walls can the seat rail be removed, I know some buses this is structural . It a 2002 Collins 5 window



Thanks

[Brad_SwiftFur]

Remove existing floor screws either with appropriate screwdriver, or grind them off flush. **FAIR WARNING** - use appropriate eye, face, hearing, and other bodily protective gear.


Chair rail looks "safe to remove", I believe it is structural in the Blue Bird bodies (and not necessarily all of them, at that! I have seen photos of a few that were merely bolted in!)

[JDSquared]

Looks like those screws held the plywood down. You can try an impact driver to get them out or drive them down. Grind them off if you have to.

Not sure at all about your chair rail. They are usually structural. But yours looks like it's just riveted on though

[BUS2SLO]

The chair rail only is riveted, I cut a small section of the panel out and it looks like there is a support beam same spot as the rail that run the length of the bus.

[musigenesis]

I don't know about Collins bodies, but in an International the chair rail is not just structural - it is how the walls are connected to the floor, so removing it (which would be pretty difficult) would be pretty catastrophic. Perhaps in a Collins the ribs themselves are directly attached to the floor, meaning this chair rail is a separate piece that provides only a baseboard and an attachment point for the seats, but I would make really sure that was the case before trying to cut it out.

It's possible that you could cut off just the flange at the top, since it's not clear whether that specific part itself provides structural strength or if it's only an attachment point for the seats.

Most skoolie builders (99%+) just leave the chair rail alone, so there's not a large bunch of data points proving that removing it is OK.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by BUS2SLO

The chair rail only is riveted, I cut a small section of the panel out and it looks like there is a support beam same spot as the rail that run the length of the bus.

Here's a rough cross-sectional sketch of how the walls attach to the floor in an International:



(the red piece is the chair rail) You can see its importance and why you don't want to remove yours if a Collins is built the same way.

FWIW, even cutting a small part of it away is a potential problem. My bus has complete or partial cutouts in the chair rails for the wheel wells, the fuel line and the side exit door, and in each case there is substantial additional stiffening added to the walls to compensate for the cutout.

[Biscuitsjam]

If I were you, I'd add 1" insulation to the floor. Headroom is significant, but so is being unable to properly heat or cool your bus. Or having one end 30 degrees different temperature than the other end.

[BUS2SLO]

Its out, I pulled the screws that hold the sheet metal to the frame( left perimeter ones for now). Pulled wall and rail, I have a handicap(flat floor) bus so i don't believe the rail is structural, it only had 10-12 rivets per side. Im gonna reinstall them after insulating for cabinet mounting etc.



Started on the floor with the flap disc, should take a few hrs tomorrow to finish.

[Native]

@musigenisis ... what's that shiny stuff that is parallel to the ground in those pictures?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

@musigenisis ... what's that shiny stuff that is parallel to the ground in those pictures?

Ice or something? OP is in Cali, though, so it's probably not that. If they paint it yellow, I might be able to tell.

[BUS2SLO]

Originally Posted by Native

@musigenisis ... what's that shiny stuff that is parallel to the ground in those pictures?

That’s the floor cleaned up with flap disc to remove the wood and glue debris. Gonna finish it up today then on to paint.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by BUS2SLO

That’s the floor cleaned up with flap disc to remove the wood and glue debris. Gonna finish it up today then on to paint.

Heh, Native was referencing the fact that not one square inch of my floor is clean metal like yours. I remain permanently envious of those of you who have the sense not to buy a rusty bus (as fun as mine has ended up being).

[Native]

Originally Posted by BUS2SLO

That’s the floor cleaned up with flap disc to remove the wood and glue debris. Gonna finish it up today then on to paint.

As Musigenesis said, it is all toungue-in-cheek.


I will say that your floor is by far the cleanest, shiniest floor I have ever seen!

[Brad_SwiftFur]

Originally Posted by Native

@musigenisis ... what's that shiny stuff that is parallel to the ground in those pictures?

It's an illusion, I assure you!

[Mikemac]

Thermally isolating your floor surface will save you money, increase the comfort and reduce road and environmental noise. By putting a layer of 1/4 wool felt on a sealed metal surface you change heat transfer hot to cold during summer and warm inside to cold out side in winter temps. Hat channel is made in strips and is easy to make in wood or other material then ad extra wool insulation to the cavity between these stickers. And screw floor to hat channels. Seal all screw holes from top and bottom with bed liner paint or elastrometric calk used for boats. 1/4 up to an inch thick sheet felt can be found on line. Dont skip this step you will pay forever. Wool is fire resistant, anti microbial, insulative, for both sound and temperature.

[BUS2SLO]

Thanks for the tip , I’ve been rethinking the zero insulation on the floor anyway. Was thinking I can do 1/2 foam with furring strips and then 1/2 acx subfloor.

[Maggie01]

Originally Posted by Mikemac

Thermally isolating your floor surface will save you money, increase the comfort and reduce road and environmental noise. By putting a layer of 1/4 wool felt on a sealed metal surface you change heat transfer hot to cold during summer and warm inside to cold out side in winter temp. 1/4 up to an inch thick sheet felt can be found on line. Dont skip this step you will pay forever. Wool is fire resistant, anti microbial, insulative, for both sound and temperature.

Where do you get this 1/4" wool felt? I'm not finding it.

So I would lay this felt down on my rust free, osphoed, rusty metal primed, painted with oil based paint floor, then just lay 1" insulation boards on top of that, take 1/2" tongue and groove plywood and prime and paint it on all sides to seal it, then lay it on the floor and then screw the plywood down on the edges going through the insulation, which would secure them too, then apply top flooring, (probably laminate click together strips). This should keep my bus cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter and give me a strong, long lasting floor? or am I missing a step?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Maggie01

Where do you get this 1/4" wool felt? I'm not finding it.

So I would lay this felt down on my rust free, osphoed, rusty metal primed, painted with oil based paint floor, then just lay 1" insulation boards on top of that, take 1/2" tongue and groove plywood and prime and paint it on all sides to seal it, then lay it on the floor and then screw the plywood down on the edges going through the insulation, which would secure them too, then apply top flooring, (probably laminate click together strips). This should keep my bus cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter and give me a strong, long lasting floor? or am I missing a step?

You're not missing a step, you're adding an unnecessary one: the felt. XPS foam has a higher R-value per inch than wool, so you would be better off adding another 1/4" of XPS foam than wasting 1/4" of headroom on wool - which has the added disadvantage of being an organic material that some critters like to eat.

[Maggie01]

I was going by what Mikemac was saying about the wool changing the heat transfer.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Maggie01

I was going by what Mikemac was saying about the wool changing the heat transfer.

This sentence:

By putting a layer of 1/4 wool felt on a sealed metal surface you change heat transfer hot to cold during summer and warm inside to cold out side in winter temps.

does not make any sense.