How can I attach tongue and groove planking to bus walls?

[belfert]

I'm seriously considering tongue and groove planking for my bus walls similiar to a Motorcabin.

How would I attach the planks to the steel wall structure?

Brian Elfert

[Dallas]

I'm not sure how Mike does it, but you could try a McDonalds milkshake. I had one spill on two pieces of oak flooring I cut several years ago and they're still stuck together.
That stuff is probably some of the best glue I've ever seen. You can't pull those boards apart by hand!

Dallas

[Ace]

Brian even though I have never installed it on walls but I have done so on floors IK would think that you would still have to put plywood on the frame work of the bus first and sqaure up the walls where as they are probably somewhat bowed now. You will never get T&G plank to bend unless it's really thin and I haven't seen any like that! Keep in mind that when you plywood the walls and then install T&G over it, you will lose space in the width of your interior. make sure you have plenty of room before proceeding. 3/8 ply minumum on walls and 3/4" T&G means roughly losing over 2 inches total. I know it doesn't sound like much but after you start putting furniture in place, it starts closing in real quick!

Ace

[belfert]

Brian even though I have never installed it on walls but I have done so on floors IK would think that you would still have to put plywood on the frame work of the bus first and sqaure up the walls where as they are probably somewhat bowed now. You will never get T&G plank to bend unless it's really thin and I haven't seen any like that! Keep in mind that when you plywood the walls and then install T&G over it, you will lose space in the width of your interior. make sure you have plenty of room before proceeding. 3/8 ply minumum on walls and 3/4" T&G means roughly losing over 2 inches total. I know it doesn't sound like much but after you start putting furniture in place, it starts closing in real quick!

Is 3/8" plywood really going to be enough for this?  I'm not sure how I would attach the planks to the plywood as I have sheetmetal on the inside of my walls.  Nails for the planks would not be able to penetrate very far.

Brian Elfert

[Dallas]

If you want to use T&G, why not use 5/16" T&G bead board? Then you could use 3/8" OSB to square up the walls. Even with the bow, the bead board will slide together. I've used it as  wainscote in an oval shaped Victorian parlor before and it worked well.
The bead board comes in pine, (paint or stain grade), oak, poplar, birch and maple. glue it on the back in separate sections so that the flex of the coach will let it move and not be sqaushed together or pulled apart. You might also want to brad or pin nail every set of three or four to give it more of a solid look. pin it right in the interstice of the T&G, like with wood flooring.
Or you could cut plugs and sink screws in and plug them.

Just a few thoughts, although I still like the McDonalds Shake glue!

Dallas

[NCbob]

Brian are you talking about actual tongue & groove (horintal) or wainscoating (vertical).  Wainscoating you can buy at Lowes or  Home depot....prefinish it (if you're going to stain and varnish) and either screw it to the framing and plug the screws or use an good adhesive if you have a light backing. 

Don't know what state your bus is in at this point...are you down to the frames or did you leave some of the original paneling up.

NCbob

[Ace]

Done correctly you wouldn't need to use any nails of any length. If you have the walls pretty much sqaure using firring strips and plywood, you can use a regular wood flooring adhesive but my concern as mentioned would be the room you would be losing!

Ace

[belfert]

The 5/16" stuff is what I am planning to use if cost is feasible.  I am thinking of running horizontal as the side walls running vertical and the ceiling running the length of the bus might look funny. 

I have everything stripped out of the bus including the interior panels basically down to the steel frame.  Dina covered the steel frame with sheetmetal on the inside.

Brian Elfert

[Dallas]

The 5/16" stuff is what I am planning to use if cost is feasible.  I am thinking of running horizontal as the side walls running vertical and the ceiling running the length of the bus might look funny. 

I have everything stripped out of the bus including the interior panels basically down to the steel frame.  Dina covered the steel frame with sheetmetal on the inside.

Brian Elfert

Brian,
Why not put it at a 45° angle? This will give a feeling of more openess than the horizontal or vertical. Plus there is less waste because you can use smaller pieces in corners.

Dallas

[JackConrad]

Brian,
   This is what we used for wainscoating in our house as well as our bus and the ceiling in the bedrrom and bath of the bus. In our house it was glued to the drywall and trim nail used to hold it in place until the glue set up.  In the bus we put 1/2" plywood on the walls, then put a few globs of PL200 polyurethane adhesive on the back of each piece. A couple 5/8" brads from the air nailer holds it place until the glue set up. Ceiling was done the same way except attached to 3/8" plywood. We carefully put the brads into the edge of the tongue so no nails show on finished surface.  You can see a few photos of our bus at http://members2.clubphoto.com/jack217421  Just look for the Orange Blossom Special II albums (volumes 1-3)  Hope this helps, Jack
PS: if you plan to stain the wood, do so before installing. This will prevent any unstained lines in the joints if the wood should shrink after installation.

[belfert]

Brian,
   This is what we used for wainscoating in our house as well as our bus and the ceiling in the bedrrom and bath of the bus. In our house it was glued to the drywall and trim nail used to hold it in place until the glue set up.  In the bus we put 1/2" plywood on the walls, then put a few globs of PL200 polyurethane adhesive on the back of each piece. A couple 5/8" brads from the air nailer holds it place until the glue set up. Ceiling was done the same way except attached to 3/8" plywood. We carefully put the brads into the edge of the tongue so no nails show on finished surface.  You can see a few photos of our bus at http://members2.clubphoto.com/jack217421  Just look for the Orange Blossom Special II albums (volumes 1-3)  Hope this helps, Jack
PS: if you plan to stain the wood, do so before installing. This will prevent any unstained lines in the joints if the wood should shrink after installation.

I like the look of your bus.  Did you also attach the paneling around the windows and the tileboard with adhesive to plywood?  I'm wondering If I could attach stuff directly to the sheet metal on the inside with glue, but the sheet metal has rough welds and such.  They had hardboard with fabric on the interior.  It wasn't attached, but held by a plastic channel at bottom and the window trim rings at top.

Is the appearance a problem with the vertical wainscoating and the horizontal at the top?

Brian Elfert

[JackConrad]

Brian,
  Thanks for the compliment.  The ceramic tile on the kitchen and bathroom countertop/backsplash was attached to the plywood wilth standard wall tile adhesive.  The grout was mixed using latex admixture instead of water.  The upper walls are not paneling but wallpaper (I told my wife that particular wallpaper would like paneling! LOL). After installing the wainscoating, we installed a layer of 1/4" luan plywood to the upper part on the walls. This was first painted with 2 coats of Kilz primer and 2 coats of Shieldz (a pre wallpaper paint) before installation. The luan was installed using glue and a few #6 screws. the screws were countersunk and the holes filled prior to applying the wallpaper. The bathroom floor was also covered with a layer of 1/4" luan prior to laying the ceramic tile using thinset mixed using latex admixture. This made the finish tile floor  even with the Australian cypress floor in the front of the bus.  Hope this helps, Jack

[belfert]

Brian,
  Thanks for the compliment.  The ceramic tile on the kitchen and bathroom countertop/backsplash was attached to the plywood wilth standard wall tile adhesive.  The grout was mixed using 

I thought the tile was the tileboard you buy as paneling at the store, not real tile!  The pictures show the tile from far away.

Brian Elfert

[Ace]

Jack I really like how you installed your flooring on a 45 degree angle! Nice touch! 

Ace

[JackConrad]

Thanks Ace,
   I have to give Ace credit for the idea of installing the flooring at a 45 degree angle.  One of the most frequent comments we get when someone comes in the bus is "I really like the way you installed your floor". A couple reasons we went with this installation style. If we ran the flooring lengthwise it would make the bus interior look even longer and narrower and even the slightest error in getting all the tongue & groove joints tight would be very obvious. We tried laying a few pieces of flooring crosswise and did not like the look, looked to chopped up. So we went with Ace's suggestion and are very happy with it. This method does result in a little more waste, but we feel it is well worth it. 
   Only recommendation I would make to someone considering this type flooring is to either put down a layer of 15 pound roofing felt or glue as well as nail the flooring. Nailing is required to get the tongue & groove joints tight, however, even with the nails every 4 inches we still have a few squeaks.  Jack