How-To Install A Vinyl Floor In Your Van
We spent a couple days replacing the soft stock floor mat with a plywood and vinyl floor. The stock mat is not the best foundation to build a bed and cabinets on top of. And it doesn’t give you that cozy home feeling. Instead it gives off a work van vibe, not the killer adventure van feeling we want.
We went with a rather thin floor with minimal insulation so that the D-ring bolt holes are still usable.
View from the rear of finished vinyl floor.
View from the side of finished vinyl floor.
Floor layers: sheet vinyl, vinyl adhesive, plywood, underlayment, plywood strips, adhesive, and van floor all held together with wood screws.
Parts
We spent approximately $500 on parts:
- Vinyl sheet – $185.76
- Vinyl adhesive – $17.94
- Premixed patch and leveling compound – $9.97
- Plywood: 3 sheets 4’x8’x15/32″ exterior AC – $115.07
- Underlayment – $44.98
- 3M 4200 Adhesive – $25.08
- #8 3/4″ screws for plywood – $4.65
- #4 5/8″ screws for trim – ~$4.00
- #8 Countersink drill bit – $9.47
- Metal fluted carpet trim – ~$25.00
- White Caulk – ~$3.00
- Great Stuff spray foam – $3.98
Tools
- Socket set
- Razor blade
- Trowel
- Circular saw
- Miter saw
- Jig saw
Video
Instructions
The original flooring was removed, including the side step, back step, and floor mat. The side step and back trim have bolts and push pins holding them down.
To remove the side step trim you need to pop up the bolt covers. The tip of a razor blade works good for this.
4 bolts and three push pins hold the side step down.
Once the bolts were removed, some force was needed to actually remove the trim pieces. They’re held down with some plastic push pins. We broke 1 of the 3 during removal of the side step.
Rear entry without trim.
Side entry without trim.
We then laid out the 3 pieces of 4’x8’x15/32″ exterior AC plywood with the good side down.
3 sheets of 8’x4’x15/32″ exterior AC plywood is enough to cover the floor and only have 2 seams.
We took the mat off and laid it down on top of the wood. We put the front of the mat all the way to the edge of the wood since we wanted that to be a straight edge.
Laying the stock floor mat on top of the plywood gives a nice template.
We then traced out the mat. Having the mat made the job a little easier.
Tracing the mat onto the plywood.
Tracing around the wheel wells.
We then used a jigsaw and circular saw to cut out the wood.
Using a jigsaw to cut the plywood.
When we got to the front we decide to not cut out the step yet. The mat did not extend the whole way to the step because of the trim piece.
After tracing and cutting everything out except for the side step area we placed the plywood back into the van to test the fit.
We then tried our best to trace along the step to get a better cut.
With the plywood in place we traced out the side step entry.
At first we thought we weren’t going to use the stock trim pieces so we needed to get the plywood as close to the metal floor edge as possible. In the end this didn’t matter as we had to cut more off to make room for the stock trim pieces.
Test fitting the plywood.
The fit up was pretty good.
Test fitting the plywood.
Inside view of the plywood. It fits!
We wrote a little message in Gidget before affixing the floor.
Before we permanently installed the floor we wrote a little message.
Some of the valleys in the floor are rather wide, and we wanted to avoid bowing of the subfloor, so we cut some strips out of the excess plywood. This also made the floor more sturdy and will hopefully provide extra support for the bed and cabinets. This is also what we used to screw the subfloor down.
We cut strips of 15/32″ plywood and attached them to the low parts of the floor with 3M 4200 adhesive.
After we cut the wood strips and placed them where we wanted them we started gluing. We had some leftover 3M 4200 adhesive from the fan install that we stored in our fridge, there was just enough to glue down all of the pieces.
3M 4200 leftover from the fan install was used to attach the strips of wood to the van floor.
All the strips came from the leftovers pieces after cutting the floor out.
The strips of wood sit just above the high points of the floor.
We weighed down the floor with some glass desks that we had on hand and let the adhesive cure overnight. When we came back in the morning the wood was securely bonded to the floor.
Heavy glass desk tops were used to weigh down the plywood strips while the adhesive cured.
We didn’t want to raise the floor too much but we wanted at least something between the plywood subfloor and the metal van floor. We found very thin underlayment and used that as insulation. Label says it adds stability, sound dampening, and thermal insulation.
We decided to layer the floor outside how it would be installed in the van to hopefully not mess up any of the cuts. We had a painters tarp handy, so we put the underlayment on top, and then the plywood subfloor.
We used the plywood as a template to cut out the underlayment.
We cut the underlayment with a razor blade keeping roughly an inch around the wood.
We left about an inch of extra underlayment on all sides to account for any gaps on the sides.
We then rolled out the vinyl floor on top of the plywood and got to cutting. The vinyl comes in a 12 foot wide piece. We wanted the wood to run lengthwise in the van, so we purchased a 12’x12′ piece. We cut off roughly 6′ and rolled it up and set it aside as our, if we really screw this up we can start over piece. We then cut out the major pieces such as the wheel wells, leaving a few inches of wiggle room.
We laid the vinyl on top of the wood and cut the general shape out. We left at least 6″ around all the sides. Once we put into the van we did the final trimming.
If we were to do this again, I might consider cutting as close to the plywood edges as possible. The vinyl is pretty easy to cut and it is hard to cut around some of the edges of the van when it is in it. It is probably easier with a square room, but all of the curves made it pretty rough.
Rough cut of the vinyl.
We then rolled up the vinyl and started installing the pieces in the van. We started with the underlayment.
The underlayment was placed on top of the plywood strips.
Then added the plywood. We ended up marking on the plywood where the wood strips were so we knew where we could screw into.
The plywood was placed on top of the underlayment.
We then used the countersink drill bit to pre drill holes into the subfloor, spaced out roughly every 12′ – 16″. Then the #8 3/4″ screws for plywood were installed in the subfloor, attaching it to the bonded wood pieces. The screws and seams were then covered with a floor leveling compound to create a smooth surface under the vinyl.
Roughly every 12 to 16 inches the subfloor was screwed into the plywood strips.
The screw holes and seams were filled with floor leveling and smoothing compound.
After the leveling compound dried, it was time to install the vinyl. Half of the vinyl was folded out of the way. A felt vinyl adhesive was laid down on the plywood using a trowel.
Using a trowel vinyl adhesive was applied to the plywood floor.
After the adhesive covered the floor, we folded the vinyl back over a used and used a rolling pin to roll out any air pockets.
We used a dough rolling pin to get rid of any air bubbles.
Rear entrance showing the vinyl floor.
Side entrance showing the underlayment, plywood, and vinyl sandwich.
Looks pretty good doesn’t it! We went with sheet vinyl because it’s waterproof, thin, durable, easy to install, and looks decent.
Once the vinyl was down we added trim around the side and rear entrances.
Installed vinyl floor.
Side entrance showing stock trim and vinyl floor.
Close up of side entrance trim and vinyl floor.
Cutting metal trim.
Pre-drilling holes to screw in the metal trim pieces.
Close up of the installed trim.
Side entrance with finished trim.
Any of the large gaps around the edges of the floor were filled with Great Stuff spray foam.
We filled the larger gaps between the floor and the van walls with spray foam.
White caulk was used to seal the edges of the floor.
Finished edge after applying white caulk.
View from the rear of finished vinyl floor.
View from the side of finished vinyl floor.
Looks super nice, you guys did a neat, professional job. The video was exciting to watch.
This is a fantastic reference. I’m just starting to think about how to set my SWB van up, and had been assuming I’d need to drill through the floor of the van. I love that the plywood gives you a solid foundation to add to. The end result looks great. Thank you for the (very) detailed pictures and video.
Anytime I can avoid putting another hole in the van I will. So far it feels pretty strong. I’m happy with the results.
[…] CA Posts: 209 Mentioned: 1 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s) Quoted: 77 Post(s) Nice work! We went with strips of wood in the valleys. Crazy how many different ways there are to build out an RV van. 2016 350 HD SRW […]
[…] Moreys In Transit: How-To Install A Vinyl Floor […]
Great work on photos and videos. Very professional job on the floor. Bravo! Thanks for sharing.
Hi,
I really like the way you did the floor in your Transit. Now that you have used it awhile are you satisfied with the sound deadening and insulating qualities of it?
Thanks for spending so much that me documenting your build.
Steve
It’s good enough. If we were to do it again we would cut the plywood differently so that the Seema didn’t interfere with our bench seat.
How much of the vinyl flooring did you buy? How many meters (or feet?)
About 12′ of 12′ wide sheet vinyl.
What did you use the left over vinyl for? I am in a predicament. Haha, too much vinyl.
It’s currently sitting in my garage. We will probably put it up on Craigslist for free.
Do you have a link to where you purchased the vinyl flooring?
Locally at Home Depot.
[…] Morey’s In Transit – http://moreysintransit.com/install-vinyl-floor-van/ […]
This is the best van floor I have seen yet. My plan is to do the same to my van. I want to use thinner plywood than you used for my top surface so the strips are crucial so that there will be no bowing. Really great job. Nice to see a professionally looking job compared to all the half as attempts made by others on the Internet.
Looks great! We are so happy with our flooring too! It feels so great to have this part done!
http://van-derlust.com/flooring/
Nice looking floor! We are going to do ours the same and don’t have many questions because you gave great details. Only question we have, is the plywood pressure treated (exterior AC) or is that something different? Many thanks!!
Exterior AC plywood.
Hi Matt: I order everything from Amazon from your links for the floor install. Just wondering, I got the countersink bit and it looks like the drill bit(bit part) is close to 2″ long. Does that sound right? I know the exterior ac is 1/2″ plus the shims under it are another 1/2″. This seems to long because it also countersinks. It says 11/64″.
Odd, but the package has been opened and taped back together. Just want to check with you if I need to return it.
Thanks again for all your research and all. I even order a Maxxfan from your link 🙂
The countersink part of the bit is adjustable. I just used a normal drill bit first and then came back and used the countersink on the already drilled hole.
OK, thank you. I’m new at using these type bits. I appreciate all your help and post on here.
I was curious as to why you did not use the insulation and floor that came with the Van under the plywood. I am getting ready to do mine and that was my idea. Your thoughts?
No real reason other than the fact that it squishes and we wanted our floor to be as low as possible.
Thanks. Your website has helped me a lot. Thanks for your time.
Is that a fiberglass backed vinyl sheet? I was looking into something similar on my van, but I found that type of vinyl flooring should only have a pressure sensitive adhesive applied to it instead of the permanent adhesive you have listed in your materials.
I don’t think it’s fiberglass back.
By the back doors on the floor there’s two black buttons and in the center a similar one. It looks like you covered yours with flooring. What are they for? I want to cover mine too so the floor goes all the way back.
Thank you!
Hmm not sure I know what you’re referring too.
Great work. You mentioned you used a relatively thin floor so that the D ring holes would still be usable. I don’t see in your build sequence that you did anything to keep access to them. How did you do this. Thanks, Bob
We ended up not utilizing the D-Ring bolt holes. Our floor is thin enough that if needed I could sand a little area in front of the holes if I want to use them.
thanks
Howdy from Oregon!
I’m doing my floor pretty much exactly has you’ve done but I haven’t decided what kind of vinyl to use. How’s your Home Depot vinyl holding up? The price is attractive, but when I went to check it out it seemed a bit on the soft side.
Thanks much for posting your work in detail. It’s been a big help!
Michael
Vinyl is holding up amazingly well. Really happy with it.
Thanks Matt. And thanks again for all the info!
Hi Matt: When you installed your kitchen cabinets and bed frame, did you mount them to the floor as well as to walls of van?
It’s been awhile since your floor was installed and I was just wondering how it is holding up? We had our vinyl floor installed by the same company that did our headliner roughly 7 weeks ago and are starting to see raised areas (ripples) in the floor. Don’t think they went to the same trouble as you did when installing your floor, but just wanted to see if you were having any similar problems with yours. Thanks for your detailed comments on your build.
No issues with our floor, it is holding up great. It cleans up pretty easily with just water. If we were to build another van we would go with vinyl again. The only thing we would do differently is change where the plywood seems are.
Hi Matt- What kind of issue are you having with the seams? How would you do the plywood layout if you were to do it over?
Many thanks for your excellent posts
Our extra bench sheet butts up right against one of the seams so when it was tightened down it compressed one side of the seam. If doing it again the bench seat would cover the seam.
Great looking floor! What is the length of the floor in the 148” transit? Did you use the full length of the 12’ piece of vinyl or did it need to be trimmed a little shorter? Thanks!
I’m not sure on the exact length. The vinyl was trimmed to fit under the plastic trim piece at the back of the van.
Sweet little write-up!
How’s it been warmth wise? The coldest you’ve been in? I was thinking of using polystyrene foamboard but if this is plenty warm then I might use that to save height.
Thanks!
Plenty warm for us but we stay away from real cold weather. The coldest we have been is probably 10F outside. Inside we had a small electric heater running.
You do not go into detail about how you trimmed and fit your floor under (or over) the door trim pieces for slider and back doors. Does the trim go over the plywood and the vinyl? Or does the vinyl and plywood go over the trim? What was your sequence in finishing those areas up?
Plywood and vinyl is under the door trim pieces.
Thank you very much for the instructions. Great idea. I will try for my Toyota Hiace soon.
May i have one question ?
I don’t understand why you trace from the vehicle step to cut the wood ? Not possible to trace
from the original carpet ?
Please kindly let me know.
this is the letters below the photo of your instructions.
At first we thought we weren’t going to use the stock trim pieces so we needed to get the plywood as close to the metal floor edge as possible. In the end this didn’t matter as we had to cut more off to make room for the stock trim pieces.
For the metal trim at the back door, what did you use to allow the trim to follow the curve of the back floor?