Cheap Walls/Insulation

Freemind · Apr 4, 2012

I have a 1996 Couchman Saratoga. It's a class B with 47,000. Built on a Dodge 1-ton. It came loaded with a working 3-way fridge, sink, stove, standard 3 tanks. The black tank is built under the toilet in the back of the van. The van runs great. The van had a 13 inch TV. I bought a 19 inch flat screen LCD to replace it. I removed the small tanked hot-water heater and am going with a Eccotemp L5 Tankless water-heater. I also removed the forced air heater and am going with a Olympian Wave 3 or similar catalytic heater. The van had minimal insulation. The van walls have some spray foam, but the fiberglass top had no insulation at all. I unscrewed the fabric covered plywood walls. I had to tear out the ceiling. I then used 3M High-Strength 90 spray glue to apply a layer of Reflectix to the walls and ceiling. I bought 1 and 1/4 inch thick sheets of foam insulation off Craig's List for $3.75 a sheet. Its used, but way cheaper than at a big box store. I bought PL300 foam safe adhesive at Home Depot to glue the sheet foam to the Reflectix. I had thought to reuse the fabric covered thin plywood walls once the foam insulation is all up. I really hate the color of the fabric though. I decided to strip off all the fabric and recover the wood. I started to remove the fabric and found it very time consuming and the plywood under it is very course and cheap stuff. I decided to not use the plywood after all. I had thought of using ridgid ABS plastic sheets and then painting them. Then I priced the ABS. So that's not going to happen. I tried to think of something ridig but cheap to use instead of the plywood. I plan on painting it anyway. I don't want smooth walls. I thought of using just fabric to cover the walls. But it's just not rigid enough. I priced cheap fabric and the cheapest stuff I could find was at Walmart for $1.50 a yard. I knew I could find it cheaper than that. Searched Craig's List again but came up empty on dirt cheap fabric. Then I thought of using burlap to cover the walls. It's cheap. I found a local plant nursery that sells 3 feet wide rolls that are 48 feet long for $12.50. So I bought 2 rolls of that burlap. It's very loose weave though. I still bought it. Then I still had to address the non rigid part of using fabric. I thought of using cardboard under the burlap and then painting it. But I decided that cardboard is just too much of a risk to mold and rot, even painted. Then I remembered that fan-fold insulating sheathing is cheap and will not rot just like the thicker sheets of foam insulation. Lowes has the 1/4 inch thin fanfold for $30. But Home Depot has it in pink and the pink fanfold is not perforated like the blue, so it will still act as a vapor barrier. I don't know why the Lowe's blue stuff if perforated every 6 inches. I'm going to use the pink stuff even though it's $4 more. Both the blue and pink fanfold are 4 feet wide by 50 feet long. I googled how to apply burlap to a wall and you just use wallpaper paste. I even googled a recipe to make homemade wallpaper paste. So I'm going to use the original fabric covered walls as templates to mark out the shape on the fanfold. Then wallpaper paste the burlap over the fanfold and then paint the new wall with latex paint. Going to use Kilz to prime the burlap/fanfold wall first. I bought self-tapping sheetmetal screws. I'll screw the new walls into the metal supports just like the plywood was secured and then paint the screws. The burlap should give the fanfold some toughness to penetrations and hide any warps or bumps. And the fanfold will give me an extra 1 on the R value of the wall.

Simran · Apr 4, 2012

To read your explanation of the covering process it sounds like a great deal of work. Eventually I'd like to do my walls as well but I'm going with a smooth 1/4" material so it is easy to wipe down. Good luck, Gus

akrvbob · Apr 4, 2012

Wow, I'm very impressed!! That sounds like some really ingenius work! Its surprising how often you can find used building materials on Craigslist. Did you take pictures of the whole process? If so, I would love to do it as an article for the website! let me know if you are interested. Bob

karl · Apr 4, 2012

I used cotton sheets glued over foilfaced rigid insulation with titebond 2 then painted on the walls, paintable textured wall paper (prepasted- Walmart or HD) over foilfaced rigid on the ceiling, then painted with semigloss.