Leaving the original ceiling in?

[Whiskey.Wilderness]

Anyone else decide to not touch the original ceiling?
In Colorado buses they are required to put in 2” of good insulation in the ceiling.
Our bus also has rivets and a perforated ceiling. So we are debating on just painting it and leaving it be.
We only have until June to make it livable. So it would be a time saving option.
Anyone else do the same?

 

[Dead pirate]

I just painted mine. In the back i pumped in foam insulation.

 

[HazMatt-SKO]

I would've considered it; if the fellow I got my Virginia-vintage from hadn't already removed the seats and ceiling panels, before his fiancee declared that she'd •much• rather a cabin in Maine than a Skoolie in Taxxachusetts...
Having found the route of inhabiting under Skoolie construction to be inhibiting, may I STRONGLY advise that you'll want to be •absolutely• certain that the insulation is up to the task of keeping the warmth in, in wherever your climate is, for a greater duration than is requisite for running a route?
Fiberglass batting sprinklings coating your stuff is an irritant (intended), and a potentially severe respiratory health hazard.
On my next bus: I'll leave the ceiling, after excising the lowest foot, +/-, above the windows, hook n pull the insulation out, and backfill the voids with closed-cell aerosol insulation.

 

[Drew Bru]

We left ours in, put in 1/2 of foamboard insulation and a layer of 1/4" over it. I can't say it's better than stripping the old stuff out and spray foaming it...but it's a helluva lot better than the stock metal ceiling. It only took 2 days of fairly easy work to get it done.

 

[cadillackid]

mine all have their ceilings.. i soend alot of time but dont live in my DEV bus. (mobile workspace),, when it gets too cold I turn on more heat.. when it gets too hot i either sit outside or crank up more A/C..

 

[Danjo-SKO]

I decided that in my aluminum skinned Thomas that the headliner is shear panel and decided to keep mine. I’m going to cover it with 1/4” wainscoting since it has holes for speakers and lights that I don’t want.

 

[Phatman]

I left my perforated ceiling up. It had 3/4” insulation above it. My ceiling was like 6’-2”. I added an 1 1/2” of foam board and then covered it with 1/2” cedar. My shore power a/c keeps it comfortable down in south Texas.

 

[Whiskey.Wilderness]

On a note - we do plan to test how well it heats up inside with a space heater once the seats are out.
We plan to use faux metal ceiling tiles that glue up to cover it.
When we went to look at it on a 28 degree day it was noticeably warmer inside of it than it was outside. Even though it had not had the heat run in it. It was nearly 20-25 degrees warmer inside it.

 

[EastCoastCB]

I'm in the middle of demo-ing the interior of our 5 window Thomas.
Just finishing up stripping the floors out.
Still debating it in my head if I want to remove the steel headliner or not.

 

[musigenesis]

On a note - we do plan to test how well it heats up inside with a space heater once the seats are out.
We plan to use faux metal ceiling tiles that glue up to cover it.
When we went to look at it on a 28 degree day it was noticeably warmer inside of it than it was outside. Even though it had not had the heat run in it. It was nearly 20-25 degrees warmer inside it.

That's certainly because it was sitting outside in direct sunlight, which will heat objects up to temperatures much hotter than the surrounding air (I've measured 135F on my ceiling on a 95F day). It's 48F and sunny where I am right now and my bus interior is at about 75F, without my space heater on, but that will drop nearly instantly once the sun goes behind the trees.

 

[Whiskey.Wilderness]

Which is why we plan to test how it holds heat before we finalize our decision

 

[s2mikon]

I left my original ceiling in. Reason #1 structural integrity. The roof skin, frame rails and inner skin were designed by structural engineers that overrode the cost accountants. Anytime that happens pay heed. It was insulated with fiberglass. Meh. Reason #2 time. Counting all the rivets at 2-3 minutes each for removal I could not justify the time and money for drill bits to remove something that may lessen the structural integrity and to be honest, make it harder to attach the new ceiling to. So I used 1 inch blue polystyrene board that I bonded birch wainscoting to and used screws and mobile home rosette washers to hold it up. In the bath/darkroom area I used FRP bonded to polystyrene as a precaution against moisture. Down the center I glued carpet to the same polystyrene board for my antenna coax runs. And easy access to them and the speaker wiring. The ham radio hobby does complicate things. Now an observation this thing is quiet while driving. About the only thing you hear is the wind going past you. Later after I had painted it I wanted to install my solar panels so I installed rivet nuts into the roof and bolted down unistrut longitudinally the length of the coach with butyl tape between them and sikaflex over that and mounted my panels to the unistrut. My first thought was that there would be more wind noise from the panels but it is now quieter than before. The roof seems more solid when walking on it too. I think that Thomas runs 2 longitudinal rails on the roof outside. Bluebird did not. An added benefit to the solar panels is constant shade on the rear half of the roof. I have pictures of the ceiling in my album.

 

[ACamper-SKO]

When I fist got my bus I installed a wood stove before I insulated the ceiling and stayed in it a few times, it lost heat fast.. It was a metal tent, icicles everywhere. Once I put the ceiling in huge difference, I have to keep the stove dialed way down now and it is much more cozy.

A wood stove is a lot of inexpensive, nice, radiant heat, I could not imagine trying to heat a bus with no insulation with a small heat source like propane or electric.

 

[BensMom]

What paint type did you use?

I just painted mine. In the back i pumped in foam insulation.

what paint type did you use?

 

[Besh]

I left my perforated ceiling up. It had 3/4” insulation above it. My ceiling was like 6’-2”. I added an 1 1/2” of foam board and then covered it with 1/2” cedar. My shore power a/c keeps it comfortable down in south Texas.

This is what I want to do. Do you know if it is okay to use the perforated ceiling to anchor the cedar to? The ribs seem so thick and are sort of blocked by the rivets. I have not yet tried screwing into them yet, but I was wondering if perhaps the existing ceiling would be strong enough too since cedar is light. I was also thinking about using construction glue in combination.

 

[ewo1]

Screwing into the ribs is no big issue. you got two ways of trying it..1) drill a pilot hole first or 2) use self tapping screws. Easy...

 

[Gyrkin]

If you screw into the ribs it will be solid. If not it will come down. The perforated sheet metal ceiling will not hold even light cedar. Rember you will be driving it, and it will be vibrating and bouncing. I don't recommend construction adhesives either. Temperature extremes and diferent materials expanding at diferent rates will likly cause it to fail. Screw into the ribs, it's easy and very solid.