Flooring ideas for NV350

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Zerpersande

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 29, 2022
Messages
241
Reaction score
127
Location
Japan
I’m thinking about buying this Nissan NV350 long body. It only has a bit over 10,000 miles on it so this carpet in the back seems to be in very good condition. I was thinking of gluing 15mm rigid foam to the carpet and then gluing 1/2” plywood followed by 12mm laminate flooring. Does this sound like a decent plan?
 

Attachments

  • 9016D391-6FB5-4ACD-80E3-395A1CC14F5E.png
    9016D391-6FB5-4ACD-80E3-395A1CC14F5E.png
    7.5 MB · Views: 0
Unless you are mounting cabinets, beds or things like that to the floor you really are just adding unnecessary weight. It is in my experience better to not have anything that will hold moisture against the metal floor or keep it from drying out. In addition it is very useful to be able to remove flooring many times. I think I would just use 1” rigid foam with poor man’s fiberglass (PMF) with just the canvas and TiteBond IiI glue completely encasing the foam and lay the underlay for the laminate flooring on top of that then the flooring. It will be much easier to cut and install or remove if needed.
 
Last edited:
I think I would just use 1” rigid foam with poor man’s fiberglass (PMF) with just the canvas and TiteBond IiI glue completely encasing the foam and lay the underlay for the laminate flooring on top of that then the flooring. It will be much easier to cut and install or remove if needed.
Well, rigid foam that I found has no metallic covering, just hard foam. No idea what PMF is but the only thing they had were rolls of ibsulation. I’ll have to use my camera and Google Translate to figure that out.

so you would rip up that floor covering?
 
tnttt.com in the foamies forum will describe everything about different foam construction and PMF. How you do your build will depend on where and how you will use your van. I’m prone to get lots of dust, sand and dirt on the floor where I am, plus I fish and hike around water so mud and wet feet hit the floor as well. It stays pretty warm where I’m at but a piece of removable carpet makes clean up easy, I like easy. I don’t do a lot of pavement so road noise isn’t a problem for me. I usually try to build so everything is wedged in but then do a few attachments to existing holes in the wall for easy removal and cleaning. I left a rear vent open once and traveled a dusty dirt road for a couple hours at speed. When I opened the back I had a 1/4” of fine white dust coating every surface. That sort of influenced my future builds! Lol!!! With a new van and being unsure how I was going to use it I would leave everything stock and just use it as a metal tent, maybe a crude platform for a bed, a bucket toilet and a camp box type kitchen to try out layout, function and see what kind of flooring I might need. As the saying goes “results may vary”. If by chance a van didn’t work for you or you needed to sell it you would have a larger market.
 
tnttt.com in the foamies forum will describe everything about different foam construction and PMF.
My problem will be either finding a product here in Japan or finding something that is an acceptable equivalent.
With a new van and being unsure how I was going to use it I would leave everything stock and just use it as a metal tent,
Part of the reason for buying the van is to ‘have something to do’. I like making things and doing this seems interesting. It will also fit into my desired to spend more time outdoors and with my dog.
 
The internet is a wonderful market place but incorporating local materials or recycled materials are even better. Believe me after a few camping trips with your dog in your van you will have plenty of things to do and a much better idea of what you need to do.
 
Being a passenger van, mine came with vinyl flooring from the factory. I needed a surface that the furniture could be mounted to. I laid 1/2" waterproof, foam carpet underlayment on top of it, and 1/2" plywood on top of that. Nothing is glued down. The plywood is held down by U bolts attached to the OEM seat posts. I painted the plywood and it serves as the finished flooring. It's had a ton of abuse (from battery acid to road salt to heavy objects dragged across it) and held up well. My priorities were durability, cleanability, and reversibility (the OEM flooring is preserved, intact).
 
The plywood is held down by U bolts attached to the OEM seat posts.
My thoughts exactly. But my plan it to use factory tie downs until I put in removable furniture that will use the tie downs and therefore keep everything in place.

I painted the plywood and it serves as the finished flooring.
I may put vinyl on mine. Though my Golden Retriever might match with ‘paint’ better.
 
tnttt.com in the foamies forum will describe everything about different foam construction and PMF.
I bookmarked that site as soon as it opened. Thnx!!
I usually try to build so everything is wedged in but then do a few attachments to existing holes in the wall for easy removal and cleaning.
Yeah, I trying not to get in a hurry here and following your ‘wait and see what happens approach’. Definitely not putting anything permanent in except for my solar. Get that in and build around it.
 
Top