So, out of necessity of both insulation as well as making a flat surface out of a rounded, plastic edge, I built out boxes over each of the wheel wells.
This was not a difficult process. Especially since the wheel wells rose exactly 5.5″ off the floor – which happens aalso to be the width of a 2×6″ beam of wood. And as luck would have it, one of my neighbors was redoing his pool deck, and getting rid of all the leftover lumber. This had the added benefit of having already withstood years of weathering, and lots of traffic.
What was left was essentially to make it square, to insulate it from the outside weather, and to cut out scrap pieces of plywood from the bed frame to cover and secure it for later use.
The only difficulty would be to shape, copy and cut the inside well support. To do this I simply laid out the final length of the 2×6 that would cover the aisle side of the well, trace the edges with a black marker and then cut out that section with a jigsaw.
On top of the driver’s side well would be the composting toilet – which I will discuss in a later video; and over the passanger’s side well would be both the sink and the on-demand hot water shower head.
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This is just a short video – more of a follow up to the two previous. In discussion style, I talk about the special build-outs and particular challenges I faced during my build.
Specifically, there was a C-channel that ran the length of the bus on which all the original benches mounted. I originally thought about taking this down and removing it. But there were two problems.
First, I didn’t know if I would later use it for needing to secure something to the channel – the frame or base for the wood stove was one of these potential future adds that may need more security than what I may have just from the fram alone.
Secondly, I was a little afraid that I would get halfway through removing it and find out that either the bolts went all the way through the walls to the outside (and somehow putteyed over), or made it through some of the spatter board only to stop midway – thereby never allowing me to fully remove it for lack of being able to clinch the nut on the other end.
In either case, it didn’t pose any more of a problem than to cut out the spacer for the channel in the studs and keep moving with the rest of the design. So off I went!
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As for Part 2, the insulation largely reflected the work and effort in Part 1. Not hard. Just time consuming.
Insulation is a straightforward process. It’s the little tricks that you learn along the way that make things easier.
For instance, use scissors rather than a box cutter. This is more exacting, easier, and scissors don’t suffer the quickly dulling effect that razors do.
Secondly, cut about a half-inch over what you need. It’ll bunch up, but on a bus, remember that things wiggle around. This will keep it snug.
Thirdly, because your studs are not likely to be spaced 16″ on center, you’ll want to also keep some seam filler handy. This is often called spray foam. This will be necessary to ensure that your hard work won’t be wasted in those hard to reach places that cumulatively let in all those little drafts and make your heating and colling less efficient.
Remember this step BEFORE putting up your wall paneling. You’ll undoubtedly take them down later when you’re freezing your buttons off and find yourself forced into looking for all the cold spots.
Watch the video for the rest of the details.
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Linus the Land Yacht: Episode 3 – Framing and Insulation Part 1
Building the walls was relatively easy. So was the process of insulating. The tough part is that it takes a long time to measure, cut, recut (if needed) and mount all the studs in the right places. It’s not like you’re working with a home inspector’s curiosity here. There are no standards or regulations to which one must adhere when spacing and placing the beams. It’s all up to how it works out on the particular bus itself. And since each bus and bus dweller are different, so, too, are their needs in construction.
Part 1 of this segment covers the walls. Part 2 is the insulation.
As per the walls, the things I had to consider were the following:
1. I wanted house quality insultion on all sides of my bus (top, driver’s, passangers, and roof). I will be insulating under the bus much later.
2. I would not be bolting into the bus’ frame at all. My design will be “floating” in order to presuppose that the shifting and bending of the bus should be independent of the frame I’m building into it. And,
3. I will be using the frame to mount everything from countertops and showers, to storage, an office and even an elevating bed. So it needed to not only be precise, but given its independence from the bus’ frame, also sturdy.
This called for some preparation. While I got most of my materials for free over the course of the build, studs were not so easy to come by. More than that, it’s probably just a better idea to buy new ones that are guaranteed not to have been infiltrated by borers and various fungi. These I decided to buy from Home Depot. I wound up using upwards of 60 from start to finish. The bulk of the rest of the materials would be salvaged, upcycled, donated and even repurposed. Check out the video for how it all came together.
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Gutting the bus was no easy business. But it was nothing compared to laying out a several-hundred-pound sheet of roofing rubber on the top. It wasn’t just heavy, either. It was blistering hot, absolutely enormous, it involved noxious chemical adhesives, and I had to make all the right cuts the very first time, or I would have to go out any buy an entirely new roll (also, not the cheapest material in the world.
To get the seats out of the bus, was only half the issue. Getting rid of them was also going to be a part of my challenge. Good thing Craig’s List still has some good souls around. I actually had a pretty difficult time unbolting some of the legs around areas of high traffic. The rust that was built up was due mostly to picking up passangers over the years who clearly had some muck on their boots.
When Craig’s List came through, it delivered to me a nice older gentleman named Bob, who, as luck would have it, not only had a need for a metric shit ton of shuttle bus seats, but also had a box truck in which to cart them off. If that wasn’t enough, he even came prepared with some griding bits and together we took care of all the seats.
I kept five in total – four to create a kitchen table (that I will talk about in a later video) and one with an arm rest that I will be saving for a passenger’s seat – also which I will be discussing later. That one is actually going to go on top of the battery bank that stores the solar power that I have planned. Oh, I’m looking forward to some serious fun.
End seats.
It’s hard to tell by all of this post-apocalyptic scenery that I actually have a vision for what the bus will look like at the end of all of this work. But I see good things.
To get the ball rolling, I had to gut the bus. This meant the seats, the ceiling and even some hardware on the walls and in some of the nooks.
First, the seats. Then the ceiling. The ceiling was actually a pretty big challenge. Not only was it in such bad shape that I literally had to rebuild much of it, bolting jerry-rigged plywood to the underside of the ceiling just to avoid larger supports that might later hinder my placement of insulation. But it was so hazardous, in fact, that I canceled my filming plans. It wasn’t just dusty and grimy, there were pockets of water that would suddenly gush down from the rafters once I got certain parts of it unscrewed. There was also this nasty chemical glue left behind. It was so thick in some places I couldn’t even get the wood down from where it was connected. It was in pretty bad shape. Hence, the hard work on laying out an entire sheet of EPDM rubber.
EPMD rubber is an interesting, if jarring material to work with. First off, it’s insanely heavy. It’s the same material that they roof office buildings with. It’s several milimeters thick, too. So nothing is getting through this sheet unless I mean for it to. This would be the material I decided on using to keep from having to plug all the holes.
Unfortunately, this also meant supporting the roof with all new plywood sheeting. In the end, all the hard work would be worth it. But in the mid-summer heat, I’d find myself questioning that logic several times over.
Another challenge of this material is that it requires a special kind of glue. The company that makes it, also makes its EPDM glue counterpart. It’s basically that shit that Batman dropped the Joker into in Tim Burton’s 1989 rendition of the DC cult classic
The tricky part is that once in position, the glue must be applied immediately before unrolling the rubber. Once it’s set, the only thing getting it off is a heavy construction crane.
So, first: it’s heavy. Next, you must cut exactly what you need BEFORE bringing it up to the roof – which means precise measurements on the ground. Then it has to be unrolled, measured for one final round before the glue goes on, and then rolled back up to make room for the lathering process.
Once that starts happening, it must be unrolled inch by inch, being mindful of not only the precision of the lay, but also the coverage of the glue. It’s basically mindboggling that anyone gets this right. Even moreso that I did it right the very first time.
In the middle of everything, it started raining. Ugh! But you’ll see all that on the vide. Enjoy!
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First of all I wanted to say thanks for all the support. All of your wonderful comments have motivated me to stay on top of the edits and put out the entire series of videos documenting the build. Your support has not only kept me motivated to build and document this laborious process, but also to keep editing them with plans to set them adrift in the world wide sea of viewers like you!
I’m happy to announce that construction on Linus the Land Yacht is finally complete. And later today, I will be starting my release of the Linus the Land Yacht series. So far it includes 30 episodes breaking down every secion of the build. So everything from battery banks and electrical wiring, to water pumps, to composting toilets, to on-demand hot water shower. Everything you can think of that goes into tiny homes.
See that subscription section up there to the right? Put your email address there and subscribe to get all my additional notes and journals on each video.
You can also leave comments there, and either ask questions, or ask me for other videos on specific things from the build or my plans or whatever you want!
Thanks for watching, and stay tuned!!
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