Rodeo
Have read various methods to insulate a panel van .Whats the most effective way?.I priced up celotex,seems it will be around £250.Will I need a continuous vapor barrier over this as well? Anything cheaper etc?
Thanks
Thanks
derathe
I am not sure which is best, but would definitely NOT use fibrous loft type insulation, from experience , if you get even a tiny leak it soaks it up a treat!
grahamb
I used 1inch polystyrene sheets from b&q seems to work OK get me
hextal
The 2 preferred options are getting it spray foamed (the proper closed cell stuff) or cellotex/kingpan boards. I went with the boards. If you go that route you'll also need something for filling in the fiddly gaps. That can be done with either some gun grade fire resistant (pink) spray foam or recycled plastic bottle insulation (its similar in use/appearance to old loft insulation roles but much more pleasant to use and doesn't soak up moisture).
The jury is out on the use of a membrane in that closed cell foam is essentially a barrier in itself and insulation boards have a foil liner. For me, given that a membrane cost all of about 18 quid and adds maybe an extra hour of total build time, the peace of mind in having it was a no brainer.
Anecdotally there have been a few reports of the spray foam leading to a small degree of panel distortion to the unreinforced sections of skin/wall, but these may be isolated incidents and not that severe.
The jury is out on the use of a membrane in that closed cell foam is essentially a barrier in itself and insulation boards have a foil liner. For me, given that a membrane cost all of about 18 quid and adds maybe an extra hour of total build time, the peace of mind in having it was a no brainer.
Anecdotally there have been a few reports of the spray foam leading to a small degree of panel distortion to the unreinforced sections of skin/wall, but these may be isolated incidents and not that severe.
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exwindsurfer
Forum Member
when i did my van i lined the van out with 4mm bubblewrap and mean ever where then i put 25 mm kingspan in the roof as well and 50mm on the floor and the doors and sides got 50mm rockwool insulation as well never had a prob in the winter with cold lol.
mrbigglesworth
If i was going to do mine again I would definitely go the spray route. The preparation is pretty much the same ( apart from the masking) and the slight extra cost saves a lot of bother.
The vapour barrier would go under the celotex and can be a bit messy with all that high temp. adhesive.
Mr. B
The vapour barrier would go under the celotex and can be a bit messy with all that high temp. adhesive.
Mr. B
Obanboy666
Just curious as to what the professional converters use ?
Steveyates02
The best insulation I have found is a large glass of brandy good size quilt and the wife in bed to keep you warm 
hextal
On van conversions its pretty hit and miss from what I've seen. Saw a few pics of the insulation of a recent grade 3 insulated motorhome a while back, pretty damn poor effort. Its one of my pet peeves that they can use the heaters to test the insulation rating. Its a massively flawed approach in that all they do is use big heaters. I'm sure you could stick a patio heater in a convertible and achieve grade 3 'insulation'.
I've seen a few camper van companies that have simply used silver bubble wrap, which will have negligible effect when stuck straight to the bodywork.
I'm sure there's loads of good'uns but I've certainly seen some poor efforts
Rodeo
Years ago we always used rockwool ,and it didnt ever occur to me that it was dodgy itchy stuff! After all,it was sealed in behind panelling .Nowadays,the dangers of the fibres are evident.Imagine getting a strand of that stuff in an orifice! (Oo er missus) ,let alone the moisture absorbtion with a possible leak (van not orifice lol)
Spoke to someone the other day who had foam sprayed their interior.Said it was tricky to determine the expansion rate,and a lot of it had to be trimmed back to make the panels sit flat,but it was easier and quicker than using celotex.
If a bodywork repair is required then surely the spray foam would be more of a prob to deal with.
We will mainly be using the van in warmer climes,so some of the polystyrene from b & q may suffice...should it be stuck to the metal with 'blobs' of adhesive,or all over the surface?
Spoke to someone the other day who had foam sprayed their interior.Said it was tricky to determine the expansion rate,and a lot of it had to be trimmed back to make the panels sit flat,but it was easier and quicker than using celotex.
If a bodywork repair is required then surely the spray foam would be more of a prob to deal with.
We will mainly be using the van in warmer climes,so some of the polystyrene from b & q may suffice...should it be stuck to the metal with 'blobs' of adhesive,or all over the surface?
hextal
Few schools of thought on adhering to the walls etc. Trimfix adhesive is awesome stuff and will withstand high temperatures without loosing its adhesion so is great for the van (particularly when it comes to carpet lining). I had mixed results in using it to stick the insulation to the walls/ceiling with though as you are attempting to stick a flat thing to a curved thing, so you actually end up with 2 narrow points of contact, but I had much better results using spray foam. I also initially tried to be smart and used single, large, accurately cut pieces of insulation board to do large sections of wall in one go.
After initially feeling quite smug I soon realised that, due to the size of the boards and the curvature of the van walls, whilst the boards were in contact top and bottom, there was up to 3-4" gap between wall and panel near the middle (obvious but didn't occur to me initially). So, whipped them out and used much smaller pieces. I also used expanding foam to adhere them, as it fills up the gap at the rear. One issue with that is that the foam needs air and moisture to cure, so it really only cures in the 3" or so perimeter around the rear of each board. In an exercise that was anal even by my standards I then cut small holes in the centre of each board and injected more expanding foam between van wall and board to fill the gaps. I'd been reading up on interstitial condensation issues and had made myself a tad paranoid. Interstitial is the condensation that forms in the voids - so in this case between van wall and the rear of the insulation. It's likely of negligible issue given the gap sizes to be honest.
If you go the expanding foam route, get some lengths of timber to just prop the boards to the walls so that the foam doesn't try to push them out.
After initially feeling quite smug I soon realised that, due to the size of the boards and the curvature of the van walls, whilst the boards were in contact top and bottom, there was up to 3-4" gap between wall and panel near the middle (obvious but didn't occur to me initially). So, whipped them out and used much smaller pieces. I also used expanding foam to adhere them, as it fills up the gap at the rear. One issue with that is that the foam needs air and moisture to cure, so it really only cures in the 3" or so perimeter around the rear of each board. In an exercise that was anal even by my standards I then cut small holes in the centre of each board and injected more expanding foam between van wall and board to fill the gaps. I'd been reading up on interstitial condensation issues and had made myself a tad paranoid. Interstitial is the condensation that forms in the voids - so in this case between van wall and the rear of the insulation. It's likely of negligible issue given the gap sizes to be honest.
If you go the expanding foam route, get some lengths of timber to just prop the boards to the walls so that the foam doesn't try to push them out.