Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Roof Insulation Removal and Finishing Underlay

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So after taking a break from our Toyota Coaster bus conversion and heading to Bali for a week, we are back now and it’s time to get stuck into it and finish building our home! Today’s goal was to finish sealing our bus floor so we could install our underlay, and remove the roof insulation.

We were both so excited when we arrived because we knew that the day earlier we received a pallet of goods we had ordered. And there it was; a shining cling wrap film of hope. It was beautiful. We opened it up to find our shower module, specifically built to fit a Toyota Coaster, our new toilet, water tanks, roof vents, hatches and more. Besides our fridge and washing machine, this was our first large purchase.

Once we had both gotten over the excitement of our new goodies, it was time to check out the bus and where we were up to.

Finishing The Sub-Floor –  

You might remember that from our last trip to the bus, we had replaced the back portion of our sub-floor and had glued it in place.

If you missed it, check out here.

Now it was time to screw the new sub-floor in to the chassis of our Toyota Coaster for extra support. Using a drill and multi purpose self drilling screws, Shane attempted to screw these into the into the chassis. The screws of course were unable to penetrate the metal, they were general purpose screws and not metal specific. It also would have been a benefit if we had an impact driver, rather than just a drill. Shane tried this with such grace that he ended up detaching the wood from the chassis which we had glued down last time. After some much needed advice from my brother, Shane and I decided against securing the wood with screws. We reapplied glue and left it to settle.

Silicone Sealing –  

Finally we finished sealing the sub-floor!

After the decision was made to leave the new sub-floor without screwing it in, it was time to finish sealing it. We decided to leave Shane with this task, how hard could it be? I had managed to seal the rest of the floor, surely he could do the last little bit. Again… watching from the sidelines, my brother stepped in to give him some advice. After this, Shane managed to do a good job. All the cracks, gaps and holes in the floor were finally sealed.

Roof Insulation Removal –  

This part of the renovation we had not been looking forward to; removing the bus insulation in our Toyota Coaster motorhome. Removing this insulation was one of the first decisions we made regarding the bus. After researching online, we realised that the current bus insulation in the Toyota Coaster is highly combustible. We came across a video someone had posted on a Facebook forum, comparing the current bus insulation with a new Earthwool insulation. Considering we are turning it into our home, we decided to remove the current bus insulation and replace with something a bit more fire retardant and with better insulating properties. To read about which bus insulation we chose, read our post here.

Back to the removal of the insulation. For safety reasons, we used a face mask during this process as we do not know what the current insulation is made of and being a 17 year old bus, didn’t want to risk anything. The majority of the insulation just pulled off, however, we had issues removing parts where glue was applied. We used paint scrapers to try and remove the majority and I ended up settling on a chisel because of the sharper edge. We were unable to remove it all but we were satisfied with just removing the majority.

If we could go back, we would have worn gloves and full cover clothing. The glass fibers from the bus insulation get stuck in your skin and can be very harmful.

Finalising Underlay –  

It was now time to lay the remainder of the floor underlay. We were so excited to cover the last bit of our sub-floor. It feels like we have been working on the floor so long now and both Shane and I are so excited to be able to start on something new. You all know we love to start new jobs… and if you don’t, please refer to our two part ‘Day of Halves’ posts.

Part 1

Part 2

So we cut and measured the final foam underlay. We choose a thin, 3mm, underlay so that we did not reduce the ceiling height as much as possible. This underlay is made to be laid under floating floorboards. At this stage, that is what we were thinking of using, so thought it a good idea to lay down early and cover our sticky floor. We simply laid it down and used insulation tape to join the underlay together. This is a thermal tape we purchased with the intention of also using it throughout the rest of the bus.

And that was it. I walked away feeling as though we had not achieved as much as I had wanted. After re-reading what I have just written, I can now see it was a successful day. We got multiple jobs completed which allows us to start something new and exciting in our bus conversion.

It’s always a fun day at the bus – let us know your thoughts on our progress.