Thursday 19 February 2015

8. Covering and framing windows

17th Feb:  I bought some 20mm thick polystyrene insulation very similar to the Foilboard used in the lower walls. This was to insulate the windows that we are covering up.
I used a new form of Liquid Nails to glue some wood to the windows so that i could screw the ply on. I had to screw some pieces over the top temporarily to hold it in place. I hope the glue sticks to the glass!
18th February:  First 2 sheets of ply over the front windows.
I used Tas Oak timber to frame around the windows.
We chose to use basic roller blinds for the windows. The timber frame around the windows helps to connect the walls to the ceiling.

Tuesday 10 February 2015

7. Walls & Ceiling continued.... Some of Amy's pics

9th February - Walls are almost done. 

 
12th February - following the curve of the roof was a bit of a challenge. The main steel ribs in the ceiling were spaced about 1500mm apart so I screwed on some plywood blocks to screw the lining to. I then used liquid nails and screwed on more ply blocks around 750mm in between each rib. the sharpest curve in the ceiling required me to cut part of the groove out of the lining board to allow for the angle on that row of boards.


Roughing in the electrical required some cutting into the steel frame of the bus.


Front section walls and ceiling mostly complete
The gap in the wall will be filled in with cement sheet and possibly stainless for behind the wood heater.


Rear section walls and ceiling mostly complete


Here are some photo's that my wife's sister took:





Friday 6 February 2015

6. Front Door & Lining the Walls

28th December 2014: My friend Paul helping to cut the channel out that the seats bolted to. This is so that the ply on the walls will sit flush against the frame. We also scraped all the mounting tape off the frame that was there behind the Laminex panel that was previously on the walls.

30th Jan 2015: Time to re-do the frame around the door. I used 50mm Galv square tube. One of the challenges with working with the bus is trying to keep everything level and square. The floor rises and falls and the walls are not straight. Infact the walls have a slight bow outwards. This made it a bit difficult when framing up the door as the door frame needed to be straight.

This shows how I merged the bowed wall to the straight door frame.


3rd Feb: My father-in-law helping to make a start on lining the walls. It was a slow start getting the sheets to size and shape over the wheel arches.

We used 9mm exterior ply to do this. I decided to leave the heater tunnels in the bottom corner because they were rivetted under the floor and would have been a big job to cut out. So instead we just covered them with ply too.

One quarter of the walls done!!!. We decided to have the top of the sheets level with the bottom of the windows. The bus isn't level at the moment so we can't use a spirit level. So the bottom window edge is my reference point!

We've been getting some amazing sunsets the last couple of weeks. Usually means time to pack up!

Thursday 5 February 2015

5. Insulation, heater, wiring and lining the ceiling

23rd August – I did a fair bit of research on insulating metal structures. I looked at the different ways people have insulated shipping containers and sheds etc. It was a hard one to know what to do. We decided to use FoilBoard for insulating the walls. The Galv framing is 50mm so we used 25mm FoilBoard so that there is a 25mm air gap between the insulation and the panelling that we will put on the inside. FoilBoard is a polystyrene board with foil either side. The idea is to stop the thermal bridging.


6th September – I also did a fair bit of research on wood heaters and settled on the Jotul 602N. These little heaters are made in Norway and are efficient and have low emissions. This also has a cook top on it! It is small but may still heat up our small space a little too much!

1st October –The wiring was roughed in by a electrician friend and we were able to use channels and existing wiring pathways to fully wire up new lights and power points.


2nd October – Family Shot. Hudson is 6 months old here.

6th October  – My Brother-in-law helping out with the ceiling. We started from the centre and worked out to the walls. Each board is 135mm wide.


 The ceiling was already insulated. We decided to close off the pop up roof vents and insulate that area. We battened the roof out and decided on LED downlights. The Ceiling is being lined with VJ lining that I bought from a timber auction for $750.



Putting up the VJ lining took much longer than expected. This is the first section almost done. We screwed 18mm Form Ply to the steel roof frame as ribs to screw the lining on to. We had to remember to cut the holes for the down lights as we went along. We plan to use 90mm LED downlights.

4th October - Pulling out the pneumatic door mechanisms from above the doors. This also took a bit of time and muscle.

11th October – Again, Gumtree to the rescue! Scored a $40 Cedar door and framed this up in place of the front double doors. This is the door roughly in place. I will take it out and frame it up properly with Galv Steel frame.

4. Layout idea and Roof

15th June – Pulled the wall panelling off. Our $300 Gas Oven (gumtree) and our IKEA drop leaf table.
Taped out another idea of rooms and spaces etc. 


We plan to use a composting toilet. Looking at one called NaureLoo. The toilet in the pic is an old standard one from the shed. Just to get an idea of space!


17th July – After a few leaking issues, we decided to put a roof over the top of the bus. This was my way of seeing how to do a roof and far you can bend a flat sheet of colorbond roofing iron. I picked up a pack of sheets off Gumtree (as I do most things) for $630, enough to do the whole bus.


24th July – I had also picked up a real bargain of Gumtree. 6 trailer loads of Macrocarpa Pine that had been milled on a Lucas Mill. Got the lot for $50! Couldn’t believe it. So this was used to form the frame for the roof.

I made up 2 RHS steel sheet holder jigs. These enabled me to line up the sheet and hold one side down and use my weight to push the other side down and screw it off on the curve. I was quite happy with how well this worked, saved me a lot of time and I was able to do most of the roofing by myself.

27th July – Roof mainly completed. Guttering will happen eventually


Still working out what to do with the back in terms of extending the roof. Our bed will be at the back and the weather usually comes from that direction so that's why the back section is overhanging.