Another massive job ticked off the list!
I just finished laying the sheet vinyl flooring.
I decided to go with sheet vinyl because a lot of people have issues with vinyl planks moving and lifting in their buses, and I wanted the added protection for water spills etc that you get with one continuous piece.
I was so nervous about doing this step. As with just about everything on this bus, I have no experience doing this kind of thing.
Vinyl is quite expensive and I was afraid that I would muck it up and have to buy a whole new piece.
Thankfully that didn’t happen, and the adhesive etc turned out to be easier to work with than I anticipated.
I found sourcing the vinyl one of the hardest parts of the whole build so far. Most of what is available in stores is way too expensive for me, especially since a lot comes in 4m wide rolls, and the bus is less than 2m wide which means you are paying for twice as much as you need (if you want the timber pattern like I have). Bunnings had some that were 2m wide and I also looked at commercial vinyls which come in 2m widths too but the colours are much more limited and I couldn’t find one I was happy with. Eventually, I found a store that had a bunch of rolls of leftover stock that were half price and I found a colour I liked. It was 4m wide but I got them to cut it for me so I had two pieces of 2m width. I didn’t muck up the first piece so I am hoping I can sell the other piece to a fellow bus builder and recoup some of my money too. I normally would prefer darker colours but I am trying to stay a bit lighter with the bus so it doesn’t feel too dark inside. I’m a bit out of my comfort zone choosing lighter tones. Hopefully the colour will look ok when everything else is in. In any case, there will be rugs on the floor and most of the sides will be built over so you won’t see much of it in the end.
I had to cut the vinyl to shape which was a bit tricky especially around the wheel arches.
Then before I laid the vinyl, I tried to get the floor as smooth and as level as I could. I sanded it down to get the joins as flush as I could and I filled in all the screw holes and gaps between the ply sheets with a filler compound.
Then I primed the whole floor and applied the adhesive before rolling out and sticking down the vinyl.
