How to Install Your Camper Van Floor | Insulation + Plywood Subfloor
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Oh boy, is this how to install camper van floor post a long time coming. With a full post on van floor insulation and even a camper van flooring mistakes post done, you’d think this would have been done ages ago too. But low and behold, life happens. So here we are, months later, with our complete guide to installing camper van flooring.
This van conversion floor was done on our 1992 Toyota Previa. And while our van is a minivan, this van floor installing process is the same for a sprinter van or any campervan conversion. We’ve broken down the post into different main sections to help break apart the steps, however, we recommend doing your entire camper van floor in one go. With the cure time of the Great Stuff Expanding Foam, installing your campervan floor will take a total of 3-4 days, depending on if you time the curing of the foam overnight or not.
We’ve added pictures and have done a video on the step-by-step process to help with a deeper understanding each step of the way. We’ve also linked items to Amazon so you can see the exact item we purchased. However, we bought a lot of the stuff for our camper van flooring from Home Depot and a local hardware store, as we found prices there to be better than on Amazon, so do double-check yourself if time allows!
Camper Van Floor Materials
1/2 inch Polyiso Rigid Foam Board | get it here
We decided to go with the half-inch rigid foam board due to the lack of extra space in our van, and need two full boards to cover the entire floor of a minivan. The half-inch foam board still has a great R-Value per inch at 3.2. The R-Value basically just tells you how well the material insulates the van. If you want a more detailed explanation for R-Values in general, head here. If you have more space in your van, I would suggest going with a thicker polyiso foam board. However, keep in mind, the plywood subfloor, actual flooring, and the ceiling materials will all take away your space!
Plywood Subfloor | get it here
We decided to go with 3/16th plywood due to the lack of extra space in our van, and need two full boards to cover the entire floor of a minivan. If you have more space, we recommend getting closer to the 1 in thickness, as this would allow you to screw things into the plywood subfloor to secure more of the van build. However, keep in mind this also adds more weight, so be sure to really think about what thickness you’ll choose!
Flooring of Choice | get it here
The bottom of this post has ideas on where to get your campervan flooring materials. We were given our flooring material from our grandparents and thankfully had just enough. We’ve linked options on Amazon, however, be sure to check online and the hardware and flooring stores in your area. Getting leftover from someone else’s project will be much cheaper!
Great Stuff Expanding Foam | get it here
Great Stuff Spray Foam is a total lifesaver. It works to fill in the ribs on the floorboard and is perfect for creating a total seal between the rigid foam board and the side/wall of the van. It also doubles as a sticky adhesive to secure the foam board to the metal flooring of your van. There are different types of spray foam cans, but this one was recommended on so many build-outs we read about, so we went with it! Get more than you need! You can always return it later, and it’s a pain if you instead run out!
Reflectix | get it here
While Reflectix isn’t great to use for insulating the main parts of your van. You’ll need some to insulate your wheel wells. When compressed against something, Reflectix loses its R-Value, making it nearly pointless to use for insulation, especially for your van floor. However, since the wheel wells are rounded and just awkwardly shaped, Reflectix is the best way to insulate that part of the van.
Aluminum Foil Tape | get it here
Aluminum foil tape is the perfect tape to tape together the two foiled sides of your polyiso sheets. You’ll be using this to cover up any holes in the van floor, to connect the foam sheet seems, and to cover/connect the insulation to the walls of the van. The aluminum foil tape is also used to tape Reflectix to the wheel wells of the van.
Waterproof Sealer | get it here
Waterproof sealer seems like an unnecessary step to the van floor insulation, as you put aluminum foil tape over the holes in the van floor anyways. However, since you’ll be using waterproof sealer in other areas of the van build, like the holes you’ll put in your roof for a fan and solar, better safe than sorry with using it on the floor install too!
3M 77 or 3M 90 Spray Adhesive | get it here
This spray adhesive is one of the most powerful on the market… and it’s at a rather good price point too. We used the 77 strength as nowhere had the 90, and we didn’t use enough.. leading the floor to make a sticky noise if stepped on just right.
Campervan Flooring Tools
Cordless Orbital Jig Saw | get it here
Honestly, if push comes to shove, you can do your van floor without a jigsaw. However, it’s nice to have one for the long, straight cuts, as well as for the plywood subfloor in the van. We have the Ryobi Orbital Jig Saw and it works great! We also found that using the jigsaw created less of a mess as opposed to the jab saw below when cutting the longer cuts of polyiso foam board insulation.
Jab Saw | get it here
Who knew these things even existed?! We surely didn’t. And actually didn’t even know what the tool was called until writing about it now. When our grandpa found out we were doing the van build, he let us borrow his jab saw, and boy — it was our saving grace! A jab saw is the perfect tool to use for cutting Polyiso rigid foam boards! It also works really well for cutting off the extra expanding foam too!
Utility Knife | get it here
What DIY project doesn’t use a utility knife?! A utility knife is great for shaving off extra bits of expanding spray foam and for cutting the Reflectix when insulating the wheel well. It can also be used to cut the 1/2 inch Polyiso foam board if you don’t have a jab saw… honestly, not sure how well it would work on other thicknesses though.
Caulking Gun | get it here
A caulking gun will be used in both this part of the van build and when installing your solar and fan on your roof. If you don’t plan on using it a ton other than for the build, no need to get a super fancy and expensive one! Just grab a cheap-o one to get the job done!
Sharpie | get it here
A sharpie is nice to use because you don’t have to be as careful with puncturing the foam board. Especially when writing notes on the insulation. However, if you don’t have one at home, there’s no real reason to buy one. You can just use a regular pen instead — you’ll just have to be super careful not to poke holes in the board where you write!
Tape Measure | get it here
Small tape measures are game-changers! We were literally fighting over the small tape measure throughout our entire build. Don’t believe me, buy one and see how much easier it is to use than the traditional big bulky ones!
Folding Saw Horse | get it here
Well worth the money spent to get a couple of folding sawhorses for your van conversion. These will come in handy not just for the van floor but also for the rest of your build. If you can’t squeeze these into your budget, ask around.. maybe your neighbor or family members has a couple of sawhorses you can borrow!
The Start of a Camper Van Floor Install // Purchase + Demo + Clean + Fill
1. Buy van
We reckon you’ve found and purchased your van for your camper conversion at this point, so yahoo.. you’ve got the first step done already! If your van is already just a shell in the back, then you’ll obviously skip the next couple of steps. However, don’t forget to look for sound-deadening materials no matter what kind of van you bought.
If you’re still on the hunt for your dream campervan… consider broadening your search to vans that don’t fit your dream idea perfectly. That’s how we ended up with both our first and second vans. They were not what we were looking for, but both allowed us to live our dream life on the road.
2. Tear out original flooring, carpet/padding
When tearing out the original flooring, try to keep it in the best shape possible. The original van flooring works great for a stencil for your insulation materials. In fact, that’s true for any original materials you take out of your van. Keep them for those just in case stencil needs!
3. Check for sound deadening
Most minivans will have some sort of sound deadening materials already laid on the floor of the van. Cargo vans will likely not have sound deadening material. While you don’t have to have it in the van, as it only really helps keep the road noise down while driving, you can add it to your camper van floor after step six in this section.
Our honest opinion on sound deadening — not worth the price, weight, and time!
Check current prices on sound deadening material here.
4. Clean floors thoroughly & treat rust if any
When cleaning the metal of your van, you want to be careful to not scratch it at all, as this can cause rust. Instead, use something like slippers with a grippy bottom to scrub off the dirt, old carpet, and grime. Lemon essential oil is a great way to take off any sticky residue without having to scrub too hard. After the floor is clean, treat any rust you see with Rustoleum spray paint.
5. Fill any holes that don’t lead anywhere or won’t be used in the future with weather-sealing caulking
We had holes from removing the old seats, random holes that led to nothing, and then a capped hole that released our spare tire. Before filling holes and covering capped holes, check to make sure they don’t lead to anything important! Be sure to use weather sealing caulking to prevent moisture from coming into the van.
6. Cover with aluminum tape
After the caulking dries, cover the caulking with 3M aluminum tape. While this step may not be 100% necessary, it offers the extra peace of mind that the holes are fully sealed. And, since you’ll be using the aluminum foil tape while insulating your camper van floor, it’s the perfect tape to use here too!
Watch More — 4 Things we learned while installing our van floor
What to Do With the Wheel Wells
1. Install Reflectix around the wheel well
The wheel wells are probably one of the most annoying bits of the entire van build. Sorting out what you’re going to build around the wheels is a chore, and then securing the wood framing — oh man, that’s another story! To make life easier, with the van floors, cover your wheel wells with Reflectix, using 3M Aluminum Tape to secure it. This will insulate the wheels, and then you’re done with them and don’t have to mess with covering them later after the flooring is complete.
If you’ve never worked with aluminum foil tape before, it’s extremely sticky, and very much so likes to bend back on itself, ruining the piece of tape. It’s not cheap, so you don’t want to do this. Be sure to pull cut small pieces of the aluminum foil tape at first, so you can see “how it behaves”. Once you get the hang of the tape, you can cut bigger pieces. Just make sure to pull off the backing as you go. This helps prevent it from sticking to itself.
Camper Van Floor Insulation
1. Trace and cut polyiso
If you pulled out flooring from your van, this is where you can use it as a stencil. Lay out the flooring on the foam board insulation and trace it using a sharpie. Then, cut the foam board. If you’re using 1/2 in polyiso for your flooring, (check this post to help decide), you can use a utility knife to cut through. Otherwise, use either a jigsaw or a jab saw. The jab saw is cheaper and is super handy for the awkward corners, though is messier than the jigsaw.
If you don’t have the old flooring to use as a stencil, we suggest making a stencil with cardboard. It seems tedious and like a waste of time, but it will be better than making incorrect cuts on your polyiso foam board. And, the foam board is awkward to move, so it may also save you from breaking the foam as well. With that said, if you don’t have or don’t wish to use cardboard as a stencil, it’s not the end of the world. You can use Great Stuff Expanding Foam to fill in any mistakes or extra space that you cut off the foam board — you’ll be doing this in step 12 of this section anyway.
2. Place in the van to verify perfect fit, trim if needed
Stencil or no stencil, we can guarantee you’ll need to check and trim the polyiso foam board insulation. It’s annoying. And even after measuring 10,000 times and being super precise with your cuts, it’s bound to need a little trimming. Do not skip this step!
3. Use polyiso as a template to trace and cut plywood
After you’ve tested the polyiso foam board in the van, take it out and use the foam board as your new stencil for your plywood. Carefully outline the stencil on the plywood, then using a jigsaw, cut the plywood flooring. If you have long straight cuts, a circular saw is great for that.
Choosing the kind of plywood you’ll use is up to you and how much space your van offers. We went with a 3/16 inch piece, which is very thin and does not allow for things to be screwed into it from the top. This was a bummer in our build because we couldn’t easily secure the bed, batteries, cabinets, or toilet to the ground. However, we didn’t have the height in the van to do anything thicker. If you have extra height space in your van, we recommend using a thicker, even potentially a full 1 inch piece of plywood. That way, you can secure the rest of your build to the floor.
4. Place polyiso and plywood in the van to verify snug fit
Yes, you need to put both the foam board and the plywood sub flooring in the van to make sure they fit properly. Even with the polyiso foam board already being tested, you need to relay it and put the plywood on the top, as the dimensions just above the foam board could be slightly different, causing the plywood to not fit perfectly.
5. Remove polyiso and plywood floor
6. Find Heavy Objects for step 9
You’ll need some heavy objects to weigh down the flooring as the expanding foam (next step) cures. Think things like cinder blocks, batteries, shoot even fill a suitcase of clothes. Anything to evenly disperse weight across the van flooring so it doesn’t rise as the spray foam expands.
7. Spray great stuff along ribs of the van floor
Yay, this step is exciting!! Filling in the ribs of the van floor with the spray foam not only adds extra insulation to the flooring, but it works as a great way to secure/glue the polyiso foam boards to the metal of the van.
When spraying Great Stuff Expanding Foam in the ribs of your van floor, be sure to not add too much, as the foam expands as it dries. Be sure to only apply spray foam to the floor that is being covered by one piece of polyiso foam board at a time. This way it won’t dry too fast, and you can get in and press down the foam board as you go.
This needs to be done section by section if you have more than one piece of foam board insulation. Check the picture below and/or video for a better understanding!
8. Install polyiso foam board insulation
After you apply the spray foam to one section of the floor, lay the polyiso down. Then continue to spray foam the other areas section by section, covering with the polyiso boards one area at a time.
9. Fill in the remaining space between the ribs.
As you can see in the image below, there was a little bit of space the polyiso covered that we didn’t fill with spray foam. Fill in this space as best you can before laying the next piece.
10. Lay plywood flooring and place something heavy throughout the flooring.
The Great Stuff Expanding Foam will want to expand and lift the polyiso foam boards if you do not have weight on top of them. So, lay the plywood boards on top of the polyiso, then add weight. Honestly, you can use anything you have around the house for the weight. We used the van batteries, old tires, and cinder blocks!
Remember, you’re not attaching the plywood flooring here, just simply placing it on the polyiso foam board to protect it from the applied weight.
11. Continue to spray foam the other areas section by section, covering with the polyiso boards one area at a time.
Repeat steps 8, 9, &10 with each section of your polyiso foam board. It’s important to add the weight as you go, as you don’t want the spray foam to expand too much making an even spot in your camper van floor.
12. Let sit and cure for 12 hours to fully cure
Dare we say, go in pour a beer or glass of wine, and shoot just relax for a bit! You’ve had a long day in the van!!
13. Remove plywood flooring
This step and the next are super quick and easy, though with the 12 hour cure time again, it takes a long time. So, if you have another project to work on in the van, you can do so before removing the plywood, and then just finish the day taking out the plywood and completing step 12 and 13 in this section.
14. Add great stuff in any cracks/perimeter
Fill in any miscuts and gaps around the perimeter and joints of the polyiso boards with Great Stuff Expanding Foam. It may seem over the top, but your van floor insulation is only as strong as your weakest point. So you want to be sure to fully insulate the floor by filling any gaps and cracks!
It seems silly to be doing this separate from spraying the ribs and laying the foam boards, however, it’s necessary to do it after the full cure time. This way, you ensure that the foam boards aren’t going to raise off the van flooring, and you’ll keep the total van floor insulation and really floor in general much cleaner this way.
15. Allow curing for 12 hours
Just gotta wait around at this point!
16. Cut off excess expanding foam
Use a jab saw or Exacto knife and cut off the excess expanding foam. The goal here is to make sure the expanding foam is level with the polyiso foam boards.
17. Verify wood flooring still fits
When you’re checking to see the plywood fit here, be sure to check the areas of expanding foam you just leveled out. In this step, you really just want to make sure the plywood lays flay on the insulation.
18. Remove wood flooring
19. Tape over expanding foam and perimeter with 3M aluminum foil tape
Honestly, I don’t know if this step is completely necessary. However, we felt better about covering the freshly cut expanding foam with 3M tape. To me, it makes it seem more waterproof as trimming the foam seems like it breaks the seal. Taping along the perimeter of the polyiso makes it so dust and dirt can’t get under the polyiso foam board.
If you’ve never worked with aluminum foil tape before, it’s extremely sticky, and very much so likes to bend back on itself, ruining the piece of tape. It’s not cheap, so you don’t want to do this. Be sure to pull cut small pieces of the aluminum foil tape at first, so you can see “how it behaves”. Once you get the hang of the tape, you can cut bigger pieces. Just make sure to pull off the backing as you go. This helps prevent it from sticking to itself.
20. Tape each insulation piece together
Again, is this step 100% necessary, maybe not. However, we felt better about taping the foam boards together than not, so we went ahead with it. If you’re running low on the aluminum tape, you could skip this step.
Installing Plywood Floor in Van
1. Refit plywood to check it fits yet again
This will be the last time you’re checking the fit of your plywood, so make sure it’s perfect! Laying the plywood again here allows you to also have a sturdy surface to be on for the next step.
If you’re using thin plywood (as we did in our conversion) be careful to not put too much pressure or body weight in one area. You don’t want to crack the wood!
2. Trace your flooring of choice (linoleum, vinyl, tongue and groove, etc)
Remove the plywood and use it to stencil out your flooring cuts. Alternatively, roll out the new flooring into the van with the plywood still inside, and cut directly up against van walls. This is what we did and feel it gave us the most accurate layout because then it laid in the exact place it would eventually be.
This would definitely not be the case if we weren’t using a roll of flooring. Obviously, do what best makes sense depending on the type of van flooring you choose.
3. Remove van flooring and plywood
Remove van flooring and set aside.
Take out only one piece of plywood at a time, doing steps 4, 5, and 6 individually with each piece of plywood as the others hold their place! This helps to lay the plywood in the exact location it needs to be when sticking it to the foam board.
If you’re using a thick piece of plywood for your van subfloor, skip this step and the remaining steps in this section, and jump straight to installing van conversion flooring below.
4. Spray the polyiso foam board with 3M 90
Time to finally stick your plywood van floor!! Use 3M 90 strength adhesive spray to secure the plywood to the insulation. More is best here as if you don’t use enough adhesive spray, the plywood will not stick to the foam board insulation. Allow the adhesive spray to get sticky, by doing the next step in the meantime.
Be sure to do this step section by section, only spraying what one piece of plywood will cover.
5. Spray bottom side of plywood flooring with spray adhesive
Again, more is better here. Spray an even, thick coat of 3M 90 strength adhesive spray to the bottom of the plywood. Double and triple check it’s the bottom side before spraying!! Allow the spray to get tacky before laying the plywood.
6. Lay plywood
I’ll say it one more time.. lay the plywood one piece at a time. Make sure the adhesive spray is tacky on both the foam board and the plywood. This is going to be a permanent placement, so take your time here!!
Installing Van Conversion Flooring
The following steps are going to be different depending on what type of van flooring you choose for your campervan conversion. We used roll-out flooring, so these instructions are based on that kind of camper van flooring!
1. Lay flooring out
At this point, you’ve already cut the flooring to size, step two from the previous section. Now’s the super easy part! Layout your van flooring over your nice, newly secured plywood.
2. Fold/roll in half
Fold the flooring in half like a taco. This will allow you to keep it in the correct place while doing the spray adhesive to stick the flooring to your plywood.
3. Spray the top of exposed plywood flooring and bottom of vinyl flooring
Use 3M 90 strength spray adhesive and spray the exposed plywood flooring with an even, thick layer of spray adhesive. Do the same to the bottom (folded over) side of your flooring.
Check the video for a better picture of what we mean here.
4. Let it become tacky
Allow the spray adhesive to become super tacky. This will take about a minute or so.
5. With another person slowly lay/push flooring in place, applying pressure as you go, from the center of the van to the outside
Climb inside the taco of your flooring. You know, pretend you’re the filling to the taco. Be careful, as the exposed bottom of the flooring is sticky! Ideally with someone else, slowly press the flooring down. Start from the most center part and press outward as you move to the edges of the floor.
Remember, it’s super tacky here. This will be a permanent job!! Again, check the video for a better explanation of this step!
6. Move to the side you just did and repeat steps 2, 3, 4, and 5
Now fold the unstuck part on the newly stuck side and repeat the process!! This is so exciting!!
7. Lay blankets on your new beautiful floor and place something heavy throughout the flooring.
Now’s the time to add the pressure and weight to make sure you have a complete seal on not just the van flooring to the plywood, but also the plywood to the foam board insulation. The blankets protect your flooring from scratches and knicks from whatever material you choose to weigh it down with.
We used our batteries, old tires, and cinder blocks… the same materials we used when adding weight to keep the expanding foam from expanding too much!
8. Let sit for a few hours
9. Remove the extra weight and blankets
Take a deep breath here.. you’re ready for the big reveal of your totally new camper van flooring!
10. Reinstall the plastic step if you want it!
We kept our original plastic step from when the van was a minivan. We spraypainted it black, which has actually held up quite well. The only other thing we did was cut off the grooves on the underside, as it didn’t fit with the new flooring and insulation underneath.
11. Lay down and enjoy the new camper van floor, your hard work is done!
Whew.. that was a lot of steps to get to this point, but you did it! You freaking did it! You not only laid your brand new camper van flooring, but you also insulated your van floor in the meantime! Celebrate and be proud of the work you just did! And if you fancy, take a picture and share it with us, @arboursabroad! We’d love to see your completed camper van floor!!!
More Videos and Guides on Camper Van Flooring
We had so much fun filming and creating step-by-step guides for you! When we were researching van builds in general, we found that a lot of guides missed crucial steps, or didn’t have enough info to really make total sense. So, we did our best at filming, photographing, and writing down each and every step to create complete guides for a van build.
Below are links to blog posts and videos of our van build. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified as we continue publishing more van build content and guides!
The First Steps in Turning a Minivan into a Campervan | video
9 Mistakes to Avoid When Installing Your Campervan Floor | video + blog post
Don’t Stress When Things Are Perfect Installing Your Van Flooring
Sure, you may be able to feel the seem of the plywood flooring, or shoot maybe the actual flooring doesn’t hit the wall perfectly.
Don’t stress it!!
Remember at this point in your van build, you have nothing else in the van. You’ll be doing a full van conversion. The imperfections in the van flooring will be covered when you add in your bed, kitchen area, and the like. Enjoy the hard work you’ve done, and be proud of yourself! It’s a DIY van conversion — and that in itself is remarkable!
Choosing the Best Flooring for Your Van Conversion
There are loads of different van flooring options to choose from, and pros and cons to them all. Choosing the right van flooring for your van conversion is totally up to you and your individual needs for your van life.
You have to consider things like cost, weight, and thickness. Along with whether you want it to be waterproof or not. Then there’s of course the aesthetic side of it all. What color and style match the feel you want for your van.
One other major thing to consider is the texture of the flooring. Do you want carpet so it’s warmer and cozier? Do you want hardwood so it’s easier to clean? Or should you go with linoleum so it doesn’t scratch when your cat or dog is jumping in and out of the van?
In all honestly, we didn’t really consider much. We were gifted old wood flooring (used for our ceiling) along with leftover linoleum or maybe vinyl flooring (which we used for the floor).
Where to Get Camper Van Floor Materials
We were gifted our campervan flooring material from our grandparents, so we didn’t have to shop around. However, there are so many places to look for flooring, and luckily, in a van conversion, you don’t need much, so you can use leftovers from other people’s projects!
Places to find flooring for van conversion
- Craigslist (Gumtree in the UK)
- Facebook Marketplace
- Local Hardware Stores (scraps and leftovers are usually in a small section next to the flooring)
- Local Flooring Stores (leftover scraps from home projects may be the perfect amount for you!)
- Amazon (probably a more expensive option)
- Costco (we’ve seen waterproof tongue and groove multiple times there!)
Save + Share This Camper Van Floor Guide
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