finished the last few bits of the floor today went to lay the last sheet and realised there was a puddle on the floor where i had the side door open water was langing on the exsposed side and running under the floor so laid the last sheet and the fixed a small strip with glue and silicon along edge by door to stop any more rain getting in
seem to have spent all day getting not a lot done
now the floors complete ive scribed a line down the center of the van as after doing the floor ive realised there is no straight edges in a van so every thing is going to have to be measured from center
im thinking of doing another on the ceiling so i can drop a line to get an upright measurement to keep it all plumb but i'll probaly use a square from the floor
mind is a malestrom of bits of info im trying to hold on to dimensions probable layout etc think i might have to start a list everything seems to be linked in to another item changing one thing changes everything
forgot to do pics today will take some tommorow
Of to buxton for easter so apart from watching ebay for bargains it will be a break from building for a few days

spent today dodging in and out of the rain whilst finishing the floor tried to make a paper template for the sides and gave up ive decided paper is harder to controll than wood so laid a full sheet down the center this leaves two smaller pieces each side much easier to work with
cut two strips to the widest measurement and scribed them in usin a squar and pencil to trace the shape onto the board cut it in several stages to keep checking but in actual fact the first line i marked was pretty acurate
used the right hand one as a template to cut out the other side as its prety much a mirrow image apart from the bit near the sliding door
used the router to cut two slots through the battens and insulation and laid two lengths of 15mm hep to get water from one side to the other
most of what ive seen on various websites shows campers using flexible 12mm pipe but i didnt have any and im sure i will be able to join on with something at a later date
so the back 8 ft is now boarded and screwed down every 4 inches the front sheet is scribed in and ive just got to sort the last couple of battens at the front but didnt have the right timber to finish it all so back to selcos tomorow
pic shows wet footprints mostly

first steps

hi we already own an old but reliable talbot rambler motorhome (my wifes tells me im not allowed to call it a caravanette as it makes me sound old ).However lack of power steering,the fact that its petrol and its age has made us decide to replace it for something newer and easier to drive .
The high cost of pro built conversions has sent us down the self build route a decision im sure i will come to question several times over the next few months .having used our motor home for two years we had some idea of what we wanted initially we wasnt going to include a shower as we never use the one we have then we realised we probaly didnt use it as its so small so now were going to include one .one thing we did want was a rear bed originally this was going to be fixed but after doing lots of measuring we decided to get this the van would have to be bigger than we had room to park it so a compromise was to have a rear bed that can double up as a table and fixed seating
The choice of vans came down to either the relay/ducato or the movano/master in the end we bought an 2007 ducato with 3700 miles on the clock its navy blue so should be easy to find amongst all the white ones on site after visiting the local hostelries
first job was to remove the partion ply lining and the ply flooring and sweep out the dust and rubbish from its previous life
eager to start i decided to raise the floor to remove the big step which was now apparent from cab to rearafter spending 2 days laying 4 x1 on edge and fixing with angle brackets i decided i didnt like it and spent an hour ripping it out. a few more holes in the floor to fill .
going to live with the step and have now battened out the back with 25x 34 battens and screwed straight to floor using grip fill and 40 mm self drilling scews sunk in to the wood to set the heads below the surface
30 mm foil faced celotex insulations is fitted tight between the battens and also fixed with gripfill
one thing ive learnt about vans in the last few days is that the floor that looks flat actually isnt and working without a level is going to be a steep learning curve still onwards and upwards
notes to self
water pipes need to go in before ply is laid