I bought two end-of-the-roll pieces of fiber flooring.
We use this type of flooring in parts of our house reno and it was easy to work with. It doesn't curl up at the edges and there is no cardboard or paper in it.
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Engineered fiberglass inner layer - - - Utilizes woven fibers so it lays flat and won’t expand or contract for increased stability
The lower roll (light grey) will be the new floor covering for the van. It will replace a worn out blue colored carpet.
I got the other roll for the bathroom walls. The van has a sit down type shower / toilet / bathroom. I'm hoping to waterproof the bathroom walls with the fiber flooring so I can do away with the surround shower curtain. I'll still need a smaller shower curtain to protect and prevent water from getting out through the bathroom door area but that should still feel better than surrounding oneself with the vinyl shower curtain. A plain white piece would have been better but the price of end-of-the-roll pieces was too good to pass on.
Both pieces are more than I need for the jobs so there will be leftover pieces to line cupboards etc. Fiber floor really does lay flat and doesn't curl up at the edges so it nice to use as a liner.
I'd like to give us some more shoulder room. The galley is on the drivers side and the passenger side has a closet (hers !) and the bathroom with two doors.
I have been thinking about cutting the bathroom doors along the yellow dotted line in the photo above to turn them into "Dutch doors". The top halves could then turn inward and give us the feeling of more space when parked. I could even ad some flip up "shelves" to the interior of the lower halves of the Dutch doors to block the bathroom area from view. I'd like to replace the wood panel door inserts on the top halves with opaque panels to let more light into the bathroom.
Or I could maybe raise the bathroom doors a bit and allow them to turn inward forming a slight "V" to give more room when parked.
I've also been thinking about painting all the wood in the van white. It is varnished oak / plywood now and has yellowed with age. I don't know how well paint would stand up though.
I'd like to hear any tips or advice regarding interior renovations. If you have any ideas let me know.
I decided to try painting the bathroom walls white instead of using the flooring as a wall covering. It'll help lighten it up as the walls are an oak plywood now. As mentioned before the varnish on the plywood has yellowed over time so it is too dark for the bathroom. I have one coat of primer and one top coat of semi-gloss white paint on now. I should be able to put another coat of paint on tomorrow. It's not great but it is better than it was.
I removed the wet bath first and have given everything a good scrubbing while it is out of the van. Whoever varnished the walls dripped and spattered a fair bit of varnish on the shower pan and the toilet. We managed to get just about all of that off. I bet the varnish drips were hard to see originally but they had yellowed with age and it really didn't look good.
Because I didn't waterproof the bathroom walls I'll have to use the wrap around shower curtain when (if) I ever shower in the van.
I've tested allowing the bathroom doors to "V" inward. It gives and extra 2 inches of shoulder or hip room right there in the galley so I will make that permanent when I reassemble the bathroom.
I also decided to orient the toilet to face the aisle instead of facing forward. The bathroom doors open and block the aisle to give privacy just like it was in mt RT 190P.
I still have to replace the old carpet with the fiber flooring I bought. The old carpet is foam backed and glued down ........................... wish me luck with that job
I went ahead and turned the bathroom doors into Dutch doors. It gives us lots of shoulder room now and a feeling of space while in the galley area. The lower halves of the dutch doors remain closed so the bathroom is reasonably hidden from view.
The doors had 3 Blum 170 degree hinges each already so I only had to purchase one pair to complete the Dutch doors. The hinges have some sort of built in spring mechanism that keeps the doors shut without needing a latch.
I rotated the toilet to face the aisle. Previously it faced toward the shower pan. The bathroom doors block both ends of the aisle for privacy. It is now much like it was in the Roadtrek 190P I owned. I think it is better than getting in the shower pan to use it. I stopped the shower pan from squeaking also.
I moved the trash bin from the side entrance to the shower stall. The bin comes out and the holder folds against the wall for showering. The wall is protected by the shower curtain when showering.
I installed a kitchen sprayer as a handheld shower head. This is the 4th RV I've done this in!
I coupled the sprayer hose to the shower hose using brass fittings and wrapped the union up with white tape. That junction is held in place by a small shower head holder to prevent it from banging the walls when driving. The combined hoses are long enough to stay under the shower curtain while showering.
I removed all the old carpet. It was worn bare it places and stained in others.
It's an older home built van but slowly we're making it better.
I'd like to leave it floating and not glue it down so I took my time and fitted it as precisely as I could. It is more or less locked into place. I'll ad a metal threshold strip at the entrance.
The more time I spend it it working the more ideas I get
I'd like to ad a stow away "L" shaped table up front to allow dining in the cab area.
Then I have to work on improving the rear section. We'd like to make the seat/bed cushions thicker with multiple densities of foam.
I might do some painting or cover some the unfinished plywood with left over flooring.
I had lots of flooring left over so I went ahead and covered most of the unfinished plywood in the rear of the van. It's an improvement for sure and brightens the area up.
The hole you see on the left is there so that I can reach through and open the rear door if I ever need to quickly exit through the rear of the van.
The table is used to fill the gap between the seats to covert the area into a bed. Sleeping for two is across the rear in this van.
There's an approximate 5' wide x 1' high x 3' deep storage area between the original metal van roof and the fiberglass high roof. Our fold-able clothing goes in bins up there. We covered that opening with a blue curtain. The metal roof part is covered with carpet.
The rear of my van is laid out similar to a RT 190 Versatile of that era. The front of the van is much like a RT 190 Popular. There's a closet (mine) for hanging clothes behind the drivers seat and where Roadtrek would put in the optional armoire on the passenger side there is a 2nd closet for hanging clothes (hers).
I'm looking for a table to put up front in the van now to use with the swiveled cab seats.
I found a folding table base today. I didn't want to drill a hole in the floor or mount one on the raised bases up near the cab area so hopefully this folding base works out.
There is enough height in the closet to fit the folded table base with the pole attached should I decide to mount it that way.
One advantage of the folding table base is that we can move the table out of the way for getting into and out of seats. Another is that we could take the table outside the van.
It looked like old stock in the RV parts shop but it seems to be well made.
It raises the table height too much so I'll have to trim a few inches off the table leg pipe.
If you've followed my posts about this custom camper van then you'll remember that there are many custom made parts in it made by the original owner. I sort of continued that theme today.
I had a restaurant grade table in the basement just taking up space so I decided to use the table top in the van.
I first removed the Formica (laminate) from two sides to reuse later. Then I cut the table top and sanded it to fit tightly in the closet behind the drivers seat. I re-glued the Formica I had removed earlier and sanded the edges to give it a clean, finished look. The wood grain laminate matched the table in the rear of the van exactly.
Then I made two latches to hold the table in place when it is stored in the closet. To make the latches I made two "stand-offs" by cutting some leftover Pex pipe. The "stand-offs" measure the same as the table top thickness. Rubber washers squeezed into the Pex pipe keep the screws centered. I cut a black plastic paint stir stick into pieces to make the latches.
Next, I made a small metal bracket to hold a Velcro strap in place so that I could secure the table leg and base in a closet.
I had to shorten the table leg by 3 inches to make a comfortable table top height and had to sand the black table leg end cap down so that it would fit all the way into the bottom of the table leg base. It fit tightly into the base but I went ahead and added three screws so that the table leg and the fold-able base are permanently attached to each other.
The large table fits into the cab area and I can slide it around so that I can get into and out of the drivers seat.
The extra shoulder room and feeling of space was welcome.
I removed the top halves of the Dutch doors and got a look of consternation from my wife. No worries, I have a plan I said. (this better work out )
I bought some fake Oak panels and aluminum U channel extrusion from Home Depot. The panel are 1/8th inch thick and the extrusion has a 1/4" wide channel.
I will mount two sections of the U channel on the back side of each of the two remaining lower Dutch doors. I will glue in a section of the 1/8th panel in the tracks and have a separate free sliding panel on top of that. The glued in section will provide both support and fill the gap so that friction holds the sliding panel up.
Slide the panel up for privacy and down for freedom of movement in the mid section of the van.
The Dutch door idea sort of worked but the open top halves did block access to other parts of the van.
When looking at carpets to install in an RV, I think that it's probably a good idea to look for something that's flame-retardant. There are synthetic materials that are flame-retardant and, from what I understand, 100% wool is also flame-retardant.
Also, carpet tiles might work better than roll carpet in an RV. The parts of the carpet that get the most foot traffic will wear out more quickly than other parts. It seems like it would be easier to replace a tile or two, rather than tear out the entire carpet. If you decide to use tiles, get some extra so that the color and pattern will match if you need to replace a few. Murphy's Law dictates that whatever beautiful carpet tile you choose today will be discontinued tomorrow.
When I bought the laminate and tiles for my house I bought enough extra to redo an entire room of each type. Even if you have to fix something in five years you'll have something that matches, rather than having to redo the entire thing.
Of course carpet is different, it can wear and soil a lot fast than tile or laminate, but same idea of having extra.
Speaking of which, I want to remove the carpet in my van and replace it with laminate. So much easier to clean! That's another thread..
As a concept, the sliding privacy panel works. There's a gap on the hinge side but I can think of four ways to deal with that if I choose to. A piano type hinge or similar would permit the panel to be much closer to the edge. I like the Blum hinges though because they keep the door closed without needing any sort of latch.
It needs a handle such as a drawer or door pull to make it easier to grip to make it move. I'll finish the second one today. The top halves of the Dutch doors are stored away and can simply be re-installed if desired.
The horizontally grained piece was scrap. It extends almost to the top of the aluminum tracks. It's glued in place and serves a few purposes; structure, space filler and spacer so that the sliding panel does not rub on screw heads.
I installed just the lower half doors to give more space inside the van. It make a big difference but we'll have to see if we mind the missing top doors.
I did mark the holes where the upper half doors attach when installing the new wall tiles so I can easily install them if desired.
The mirror shown is a plexiglass mirror. I was in Speedy Auto Glass getting a chip fixed on the car and they cut the size mirror I needed while I waited. They did warn me that the plexi-mirror can be scratched easily so use a soft cloth for cleaning.
One package of stick-on tiles at an approx cost of $45 (taxes in) would have been needed to completey cover that white area. The mirror cost $30 so I thought it was a better way to spend the money
As part of the chip repair Speedy had a giveaway safety kit promo on so that was nice to get.
I built a cover to protect the extra batteries I put in my under-floor storage space. Added a receptacle for the table table that came with the Legend:
Interior renovations ...
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