Van Flooring
Flooring Selection
Based on my experiences with prior vans and campers, I’m tough on floors. Camping, fishing, skiing, boating, biking, dogs, and all the other various activities and associated gear take a toll on the van floor. Based on that experience I looked for something that is waterproof and durable yet easily cleaned. I considered a number of different materials including laminates, wood, vinyl flooring, rubber tiles, and carpets. I’m sure there are a lot of opinions out there for flooring (as there is for most conversion topics) but my prior experiences were with vinyl flooring, wood, and carpet – none of which could handle the sand, snow, salt, grit, equipment, and ski boots that they were subject to. I settled on rubber coin-flooring: it definitely fit the durability and waterproof factor and I thought for my build it would look good. I should note that laminates seem to be very popular in the van conversion world, but I don’t personally have much experience with them. (Please leave comments if you’ve found something that works or doesn’t for you. My review of my flooring is at the end of this post.)
Removing the Stock Sprinter Flooring
The stock Sprinter flooring in my van is a honeycomb plastic that lies directly on the ribbed sheet metal floor. Although this is touted as “insulated” it really isn’t. I quickly realized that I would need to remove the stock flooring – even if I was going to keep it in my build so I could put an underlayment on the metal van floor as an initial layer for insulation and sound deadening.
In order to remove the flooring, I removed the trim around the sliding door step as well at the back doors. My van has rear wheel well covers but these are made of rubber and although they overlapped the floor, they didn’t need to be removed. I then removed all of the seat rails and D-rings (load tie-downs) which were bolted to the floor. Removing the seat rails involved removing the plastic trim covers on the rails and exposing the bolts.
The trim, D-rings, and rails are the only things that held the floor in place, so it was ready to be removed. I removed the floor by working it up and allowing it fold at a couple of natural joints. (I was naive in thinking I could easily do it myself, but it was very-very awkward – so I highly recommend having someone help you work this out.)
Measuring and Cutting the Van Flooring
An added benefit to removing the factory floor was that I could use it as a template to cut my new flooring as a single piece. Before this bit of insight, I was struggling with how I was going to accurately cut the new flooring. I simply laid out my new flooring and placed the factory floor on top (making sure the top of the new floor would end up on top!) and marked the cut lines and cutout for the auxiliary heater vents. Although it was a pain to take out the factory floor, this made it worth the effort.
Installing the New Flooring
Once the factory floor was removed the structural metal floor was exposed for insulation. I chose a 1/4″ foam flooring underlayment, but I’m sure folks will insist that the various brands of sound-mat material would work as well. Just be sure that what you use is non-absorptive so it doesn’t hold any water that may work its way through the upper flooring layers. I installed this with a light coat of spray adhesive to hold it all in place and contour it to the ribs.
After insulating the metal, I re-installed the factory floor. Note that this process is much easier if you have any side wall panels removed. If you are planning a full conversion, just schedule the floor project to occur while the panels are removed.
My passenger van came with full front-to back seat-mounting rails for the three rows of seating. I was hoping to retain the ability to reinstall one row of seats in the front position while removing the extra two rows that I didn’t need. I only wanted two extra passenger seats and I read in the Sprinter Forum about folks that had modified the 3-passenger bench to 2-passenger bench. The rails are in sections so my plan was to simply retain a set of shorter rails that I could re-install in the front position for a modified factory seat. This was all planned as a future project but for now I was going to leave all of the rails out and keep the new floor as a single piece. The factory floor has cutouts for the seat rails, so to bring everything to level for the new floor; I cut wood filler blocks that ran the length of the old rails. I bolted these in place using the factory seat-rail bolts (which was probably overkill).
After the factory floor and filler board were in place, I installed the rubber floor. I then installed the trim and D-rings that I had removed which, in my case, fit over the new flooring without any special modification.
Rubber Flooring Review
After about a year and half of heavy use, I am pleased with the flooring. There are definitely some pros and cons to using this type of flooring that you may want to consider:
Pros
- Very durable
- Waterproof
- Easy to work with
- Industrial look – if you like that
Cons
- Slick with some footwear
- Can be scuffed and marked with heavy use
- Can be cut by dropped sharp objects
- Cold to touch (good in summer, bad in winter)
In summary, as base flooring, this stuff does the job. I have taken to installing interlocking foam floor tiles over the rubber floor in the winter for added insulation and comfort. This has worked well since they are relatively cheap, easy to install and customize, and can be replaced if they get damaged or worn. I also put an industrial carpet mat in the load area which works very well to keep moisture in place and prevent gear from slipping around. Would I choose this over laminate? Many of the con’s are the same as with waterproof laminates, so I think what it comes down to is what looks best to you.
