I'm about to replace the floor in my MC9. The area over the bays, is open and I'd like to put a "ceiling" in the bays to hold insulation between the bay and the floor. What material have any of you used? I've considered reusing the wall panels from inside, using sheet metal, plastic, hardboard, or tyvek so far. Haven't decided what would be best as each as advantages and disadvantages. Any suggestions???? Thanks, Don
My bus came from the factory with a soft (rather than rigid) foam insulation covered with vinyl stuck on the underside of the floor, so the bays have a vinyl 'ceiling' which can be easily wiped-down etc. The foam is primarily for acoustic insulation I am sure, but will doubtless have some thermal properties too. You can buy it quite easily but it is quite a bit more pricey than the usual rigid polyurethane foam
Jeremy
HVAC duct board
When we pulled out the floor on our MC5 we were left with a latticework of factory frame rails. We marked the locations of the frame rails on the metal sidewalls with a sharpie. Then went a layer of felt paper to quiet the flooring to come.
We then put down a layer on 1/4 inch plywood and snapped chalkline from sharpie mark to sharpie mark to locate the now-hidden frame rails. Then we glued 1x3 common board atop the 1/4 plywood over the frame rails only, and we filled the space between the boards with 3/4 yellowboard. We then topped the whole thing with 3/4 t&g plywood, which we again hit with the chalk line. Finally, we bolted through all of these layers to the frame rails using the existing holes.
A coat of polyurethane protects the wood and, importantly, the locations of the frame rails. This has Proven quite helpful in locating utility drops, etc., two years later.
The original floor was 1/2 non-insulated plywood. This new floor is 1 3/4 and insulated. It is very-noticeably sturdier and quieter.
Michael & Gigi
Got a couple decisions to make. No heat in bays?How to keep water from freezing? Plumbing runs etc. Would it be better to insulate outside of bus(inside of luggage doors ) and floor of bays? One thing I did was to use foil (bubble wrap like) insulation that come in 48 inch wide rolls and stapled it to the top of my bay ceilings in the bays that did not need to be heated. In your case you could lay it down then put your new floor down and screw thru it and have not only insulation but a thermal break. I drilled holes about 6inches apart in my inner skin on the bay doors and used foam in a can. started at bottom. Slow when it expanded out next hole up moved up etc. Be careful around door works in center. A 3/4 inch of blue foam cover with 1/2 plywood on bay floor will give you a good insulation and a clean good base to mount about anything you want. The sheet between the bays I do remove(thin metal) so I can put odd shaped items in there and run utilities with ease. Everyone does it different. It's a bus thing! Bob
Thanks for the feedback guys. You've given me more choices than I had. Now to figure out what I'm going to do.