Installing flooring into a van completes a van build by serving as stable place for everything to sit on top of. There’s many options for how to put it all together and what materials are best. This is just an example of what worked best for my van and the insulation. These floors are installed in my partner and I’s 99′ Ford Econovan.
The vehicle has a low/normal-sized roof, so we did what we could to maximize its space. For the floors we used treated plywood, painted with an undercoat and final coloured coat. We then covered them with a foam mat, so it’s more comfortable to sit down. The mat also helps by reducing scratches.
We used two 1200 x 2400 x 7 mm plywood boards for our floors as we had to cover about 4m2. A 7mm thickness for the plywood worked best as it was thick enough for screws to go on and us to walk on without adding unnecessary weight.
Instead of putting down vinyl as others do for van builds, we decided painting the plywood be most time efficient and useful. We also only ever see about 1m2, of the space. This is another reason we didn’t bother with vinyl or a more protective cover.
Painting is great because it prevents mold, and any spills can just be wiped up, overall it’s pretty durable.
For building, the plywood was cut and placed down in three sections. Installing flooring into our van was a no brainer as we needed it to hold down the insulation.
All in all, the floors turned out really great. They’re stable yet affordable and all of the work was simple with the right tools. For painting the floors we used a small sample-sized jar. This made it easier to use multiple colours for different parts of our van.
Installing Plywood Floors into a Van
Materials:
- Two – 1200 x 2400 x 7mm plywood sheets (or any other plywood sheets that fit well in your van)
- Jigsaw with wood blade
- 4L White acrylic undercoat paint*
- 500ml coloured paint
- Battery Drill
- 100 – 25mm Screws
- 13.5 m Worth of 2.5 x 2.5 cm timber posts (optional, but highly recommended if using insulation)
- Large durable scissors
- Measuring tape
- Pencil
- Rubber mat
*We used the entire 4L undercoat to cover all the wood paneling in our van.
Method:
- Measure out the necessary space
Decide on for the most functional way to place and cut plywood. For those with a different vehicle make/model as mine, the placement and cut of the plywood will likely be different. For our vehicle we used the wood in as big chunks as possible. Both plywood pieces went lengthwise to our van and we cut out the spots for the doors and wheel hubs. This worked out perfectly because the plywood’s length was just over the width of our vehicle.
- With a pencil make notes to cut
For most of our wood we measured, made notations then cut and it all worked. Some people use cardboard boxes as cut outs to outline on the wood. It’s different for everyone though. If you need cardboard ask at department or grocery stores.
- Cut the plywood
After the outlines are done on the plywood. Once the main cuts are done, try to place the plywood and make small adjustments until it fits well. For us, the first plywood section went from behind the seats to almost the wheel hubs. The second covered the wheel hubs and a bit. The remaining area is from two pieces.
- Paint the undercoat on both sides of plywood
At different times according to the paint label paint the white undercoat layer. We only had to do one layer because of the paint/wood was pre-treated but it completely depends on the materials you’re using.
- Repeat step #4 with coloured paint
- Fit in timber posts (optional)
While the paints are drying (or any other time) fit in the timber beams, if using. The beams are used as somewhere to screw the floor into. We preferred this over drilling everything into the vehicle itself. It’s also to avoid compressing the insulation, which could otherwise lose its functionality. The layers went: metal van floor, timber posts, insulation, then plywood floors.
- Drill in the floors
Once the paint it dried, drill the floors in with the screws and screwdriver. They can either be drilled into the van’s floor or the wooden posts like I did.
- Fit extra wood posts, if necessary
Our insulation and wooden beams forced the floor to stick up more than our van’s floor. We measured more wood posts to cover the ends where this insulation stuck out. Same as cutting the plywood pieces, make small notes on the posts and cut with the jigsaw.
- Fit and install rubber mat (optional)
Finally, to complete the floors, after adding in our shelving unit and bed. We cut up a rubber mat with scissors to fit our available flooring. This makes the floor more comfortable to sit on and helps prevent scratching the floors easily. Finally our floors are complete.
Finished the floors? Move on to installing walls, to move closer to completing your van build.
