Flooring

[juliol]

Thank you Nat, I did not catch it on page 1

J

 

[Tiger Bus]

Lowes has interlocking rubber floor tiles I took a look at. Looks easy to install and durable. Comes in a few colors and different surface textures. Has anyone seen those or used them ?

 

[nat_ster]

Home depo also carries them.

Made by traffic master. The surface was tough as hell, but once I pealed the edge up, it was done.

$6 a foot special order. :shock:

Nat

 

[gbstewart]

Home depo also carries them.

Made by traffic master. The surface was tough as hell, but once I pealed the edge up, it was done.

$6 a foot special order. :shock:

Nat

is this glue down, or floating type
gbstewart

 

[nat_ster]

Home depo also carries them.

Made by traffic master. The surface was tough as hell, but once I pealed the edge up, it was done.

$6 a foot special order. :shock:

Nat

is this glue down, or floating type
gbstewart

I can't remember, I will have to go look again and get back to you.

Nat

 

[nat_ster]

The stuff home depo has is made by the same company as the other product I was endorsing. It comes in 12 x 12 tiles with a glue strip. It can be left floating or glued down.

It's listed as a ten year commercial warranty. My home depo has it for around $4 a square foot.

The residential wood look stuff is just about as tough, but only cost $1.50 to $2.50 a square foot.

Nat

 

[nat_ster]

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/75-feet ... mat/998356

http://www.homedepot.ca/catalog/vinyl/1 ... BuyCount|1

Nat

 

[JakeC-SKO]

Some of those are pretty impressive looking. Going to need to keep that in mind on my next bus

 

[tessmcenroe]

I just bought a 1984 short bus and need to put in flooring as my first step in the conversion. Debating between cork and bamboo.

What is the first step before the actually flooring goes in? The floor is stripped, but what about insulation or a layer of plywood? And how is that anchored down?

Also, in general what tools are needed to screw into metal walls and what do you use for anchors?

I'm new to all of this but the dream is coming true!

 

[Tango-SKO]

Rubber or vinyl seem to hold up the best in an RV environment. All wood, including bamboo is subject to swelling and rotting if it gets wet. And it will get wet. And cork makes a fair sound barrier but I would think too soft to handle much traffic. Remember that in an RV...the traffic is very concentrated to the same paths. Very different than say a larger room where there are more choices.

Personally, I am laying down marine plywood then gluing rubber tiles by Pirelli. Had them in the kitchen of a house I built and fell in love with the stuff. There is some in the Paris Metro that has been there since shortly after WWII and amazingly it still looks great.

Looks like this...

Studded Rubber Flooring Products

And yeah...I think I will go with red once again. Just for fun. Course I have a super short shorty and don't need much, so the price is not a big issue.

 

[onenationundergoat]

We left the original bus floor (ours is over metal, not plywood), took out the metal strips on either side of the aisle to make it flat, and laid down foam underlayment/moisture barrier, then put cheapo $1/sq ft laminate wood flooring on top. The kitchen and bathroom have a sheet of luan over the foam underlayment, with stick on tiles on top of the plywood. We've been living in it full time since then (June 2014) and have traveled over 8000 miles in all kinds of weather and washboard dirt roads, sand, mud, and I-don't-know-what-else since then, and it's holding up great. Although if you let a puddle of water sit on the floor for too long I could see how it might soak into the seams of the laminate. We didn't fasten the floor down at all; we just built all our furniture right on top of it and screwed the furniture in. It doesn't move at all.

If I had to do it again and I had the head room (I'm short, but not everyone is...) I'd put foam board insulation under it first.

 

[KrissyLeigh]

Did you glue the underlayment to your metal floor? Or the wood to that? How is it attached? Thanks!

 

[jasong71]

Has anyone used wood look porcelain tile for flooring?

 

[Tango-SKO]

Seriously doubt porcelain will survive the twisting and flexing that a bus floor experiences. Small tiles on counter tops can be OK, but an epoxy (non-cementitious) grout is best there.

 

[jasong71]

Should clarify, anyone use it on a MCI bus?

 

[superdave-SKO]

i recently installed both self stick and floating vinyl flooring from lowes. the cheap self stick was junk, not worth installing. the floating floor is real nice, about 1.80 sf.

 

[onenationundergoat]

We didn't attach the underlayment at all. Just laid it down, cut it to size, taped the pieces together with insulation tape (which is cheap and super sticky and awesome), then installed the flooring right over it. The only thing holding the floor in place is the screws that hold the furniture into the floor. They're drilled right through the furniture frame and flooring, all the way through the metal bus floor.

The self stick tiles I got have been wonderful, actually. I ordered them dirt cheap from Mazer Wholesale. I accidentally ordered twice as much as I needed but they were so cheap it didn't matter. I expected to have to replace some because they felt so flimsy (you can tear them with your hands) but none of them have gotten messed up at all.

 

[onenationundergoat]

I used these: Solid Black Peel & Stick-Self Adhesive Vinyl Tile Flooring, Cheap in black and white 12", but they sell all kinds. The actual "garage flooring" is more expensive, but the cheap ones work fine.