To Replace Wall/Ceiling or not?

[emmaabraham]

Hello,

I am in the beginning stages of converting my skoolie, I am fresh out of college so I have a tight budget. I’m trying to save time and money. I’ve see/heard of some people not replacing the original walls/ceilings, looking for thoughts on this? I was thinking of leaving both and maybe just adding another layer. Like for the ceiling adhesiving some foam board onto it and putting ship lap over. And for the wall possibly just putting some wood over, maybe insulation? What are thoughts? Is it necessary to strip it all down, could I make it work this way? Again, trying to save time and get on the road asap. I will be living in it full time!

 

[rffffffff]

The ceiling insulation kinda sucks so full timing in it may not be great if you’re in cold or hot climates. For most the biggest reason to insulate above the ceiling is because of the internal bus height. If you don’t mind losing a couple of inches and you have a tall bus I think your plan could work out okay but if you have a 6 foot bus and you start adding too much ceiling depth you’ll end up making yourself or guests really uncomfortable. Same with the side walls… it’s really about space. You can definitely insulate over the side walls but you’ll lose some living space in the process. Only you can determine how much you need but most people try to maximize where they can.

 

[Drew Bru]

We lined our ceiling with 1/2" foamboard then put 1/4" plywood over that. It helped with the heat and cold considerably. We had planned on keeping the metal but decided to insulate over it instead of pulling it out (it was the last task of our conversion). There's a very noticeable difference with it insulated. We lived in it full time for 2 years and it worked fine for us, even in the winter in the mountains of North Carolina.

I don't know about the walls, but it could work for that too. We pulled our walls and insulated with 3" of foamboard.

 

[emmaabraham]

The ceiling insulation kinda sucks so full timing in it may not be great if you’re in cold or hot climates. For most the biggest reason to insulate above the ceiling is because of the internal bus height. If you don’t mind losing a couple of inches and you have a tall bus I think your plan could work out okay but if you have a 6 foot bus and you start adding too much ceiling depth you’ll end up making yourself or guests really uncomfortable. Same with the side walls… it’s really about space. You can definitely insulate over the side walls but you’ll lose some living space in the process. Only you can determine how much you need but most people try to maximize where they can.

Thanks, that’s super helpful, I’ll do some measurements and see, my boyfriend and I aren’t super tall so I think we may be able to get away with it, but I’ll measure to be sure, thanks for that tip!

 

[emmaabraham]

We lined our ceiling with 1/2" foamboard then put 1/4" plywood over that. It helped with the heat and cold considerably. We had planned on keeping the metal but decided to insulate over it instead of pulling it out (it was the last task of our conversion). There's a very noticeable difference with it insulated. We lived in it full time for 2 years and it worked fine for us, even in the winter in the mountains of North Carolina.

I don't know about the walls, but it could work for that too. We pulled our walls and insulated with 3" of foamboard.

Thank you Drew! So to confirm- you didn’t remove the original ceiling panels? Just furthered your ceiling off of it? After hearing what you did, I’m thinking i may do the same! Leave the original ceiling as is without pulling it- just building more on w/ insulation, but go ahead with replacing the wall. Thanks for the help!

 

[Drew Bru]

Thank you Drew! So to confirm- you didn’t remove the original ceiling panels? Just furthered your ceiling off of it?

Yea, that's right. We left the ceiling in and built right over top of it. We did check the insulation in places to see if it was moldy or any signs of leaking first. Then we sealed every seam and rivet on the roof with Dicor, just to make sure it wouldn't leak in the future.