Interior walls?

[grantgoold]

I am looking for some insight into the building of interior walls. What size lumber have you used to build out the interior walls. I am going to build the bathroom walls, including a pocket door, this weekend and want to get the materials ready. Have you used 2x4s, 1x2? ......

Thanks

Grant

[vaunter]

for most the walls. i used riped down 2x4`s
i rip them on my table saw into 4 1x2`s which in real life equills 13/16 by 1-1/2
that maks walls thin enuf to not waste space and thick enuf to run wires and outlets and switches

[Blacksheep]

The only 2 walls I have are the walls that seperate the bathroom from the kitchen where there is a pocket door and the bathroom and the BR. I used 1x2's which was enough to house the electrical switches. 2x4's are way overkill and take up too much room.
On my pocket door, I used extended drawer slides on the bottom and made a track for the top. The door is a 3x4 inch ply covered on all sides with matching laminate! Has worked great for the last ah, say 4 years. Never needed adjusting, yet and it stays closed while travelling via a small barrel latch.
Ace

[jjrbus]

Wish I had a Pic of this, but will try to explain. I saw a bus with a pocket door, but it did not have a pocket!! So I guess it was not really a pocket door. The door simply slid out to close bathroom, it was against wall behind toilet when open and slid on track to close of bath area. Very simple concept and saves a wall. Looked goood also.
I bought a pocket door assembly and with some tweaking used that as the wall. Wires were run in void betweeen assembly and outside wall and then over door.

[coachconverter]

I try to find nice and true (a challenge) 2x2 material for the bottom plates, and then depending on it's purpose, either 2x2 or 2x4s for the studs, utilizing the 2x sides for the wall thickness.  If in the center of a wall I use 2x2, if a corner or door frame I'll use the 2x4, again turned 90 degrees.  Hope that makes sense.

I've taken plenty of high-end conversions apart in the last few years and see much less strength built into them, but they suffer from that, with walls that move.  One was a Parliament conversion and the other from Superior Coach.  On both, interestingly, they used 1/4 inch plywood in places I wouldn't dream of, especially in million $+ coaches!

I'll try to dig up some pics.

Todd

[ilyafish]

Todd i am very interested in those pictures if you manage to dig them up!

[CAROLINABOY]

me to please post pictures if possible.

[TomC]

On my bathroom walls I used 3/4" furniture grade plywood with birch wood vineer.  This is available at Home Depot and is really nice to work with. It has very few if any voids in the plys and while one side is furniture grade, the other side is also grade B finished that still looks great when varnished with 2 or 3 coats of gloss clear.  On independent panels that needed stiffening, I used 1.5" by 3/16" angle iron on the inside with a 1.5" wide by 3/16" steel plate running the length on the outside.  Some might not like it since it looks a bit industrial strength, but this way my walls are only 3/4" thick!  I'd do the same technique again-it makes for a stiff wall.  Good Luck, TomC

[gus]

Grant,

Consider folding doors. Cheap and easy to mount or replace. My bus came with them and I'm sure they came from HD.

[coachconverter]

OK, found one kinda similar to what I mentioned.  This is an inside shot from a bathroom.  the walls fore and aft were 2x4, with 4 inch depth for electrical and a/v boxes, where the wall towards the aisle the 2x4s were turned to flat side, to save an additional 1.5 inches of width for aisle.

You can see in the corners that I "L'd" the 2x4s, then screwed them together.  A very strong corner!  Let me put it this way, with my 250 pound butt I could lean into this corner and rock the whole bus without any deflection to the corner.  Before closing up the inside walls of the bath, I insulated the walls, for sound mostly.  The bathroom was so air-tight that when you turn the fan on, it will suck the door closed even when open 3 inches.  Alleviating the other bathroom concern, odors creeping into the rest of the cabin.

Anyways, I don't scrimp on interior walls at all, I figure that they will probably last the longest in any conversion.  I put 1/2 inch hardwood plywood on both sides of the studs, glued and screwed!

Todd

[Hartley]

I use 2X3 studs and 2X2 which were usually available at home depot and lowes.
you could also rip 2X4's to make an odd size...

[belfert]

I used metal studs in my walls to save weight.  I used 1 5/8" studs for the bunk walls.  I used 2 1/2" studs for the bathroom to accomodate the plumbing.

Brian Elfert

[JackConrad]

Wish I had a Pic of this, but will try to explain. I saw a bus with a pocket door, but it did not have a pocket!! So I guess it was not really a pocket door. The door simply slid out to close bathroom, it was against wall behind toilet when open and slid on track to close of bath area. Very simple concept and saves a wall. Looked goood also.

   That was probably ou bus. Instead of purchasing a pocket door frame, we just purchased the track. we attached this to the ceiling, made our door using a 5/4 red oak frame with 1/4" red oak flat panels. After hanging the door  "cover strips" of 1X2 oak attached to  the ceiling on either side of the track block the track from view.
   When in the open position it is against the wall behind the toilet. When closed it blocks the hallway between the kitchen and bathroom. We have a similar door between the bathroom and bedroom that is on the bedroom side of the shower when open and blocks the opening between the bedrrom and bathroom when closed.
  Using 5/4 oak for framing gave us a door thickness of 1 1/8" when finished. Total space used for door (door thickness and a little clearance between door and wall) is about 1 3/16".  Jack

[Sam 4106]

Hi Grant,
I agree with Brian Elfert. Why use wood at all? Metal studs are STRAIGHT and stay STRAIGHT. They are as easy, or easier, to work with as wood and did I mention that they stay STRAIGHT. Good luck with whatever you decide to use.
Sam 4106

[jjrbus]

 My memory is not very good, I forgot about your bus Jack!  I thinking it was Gary's bus, but my memory is not very good.  Jim