A Guide To Building Walls In Your Campervan (Insulation, Cladding, Plywood)
We thought we would combine these two campervan conversion tasks into one post – how to build walls in a campervan, and how to insulate your van too!
Insulating your van is essential as it will help maintain a comfortable temperature, can reduce condensation, and provide soundproofing.
Constructing solid wall structures and your ceiling will offer even more insulation and provide a sturdy surface for you to screw in any interior furniture, fixtures and fittings.
(NOTE: we may reference this in the post, but before we started on the walls and insulation, we cleaned and prepped the van beforehand AND we also built/insulated the floor!)
In this specific blog post we will walk you through the process of how we constructed the interior walls of our van and insulated them as well.
So without further ado, grab a pew – and let’s get into it!
* DISCLAIMER: There are so many ways to convert a campervan, different materials you can use & methods of doing certain things. We are not experts, we are simply sharing what we have chosen to do & what has worked for us after hours and hours of research. So although we write our blog to help others with their build & recommend products and materials that we have used - please always do your own personal research and do choose methods that you feel comfortable with or that suits your van build & needs!
Materials & Tools We Used To Build Our Walls
Affiliate Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links as part of the Amazon Associates Program. If you choose to purchase anything through one of our links, we make make a small commission (at no extra cost to you!) Thank you for your support!
| Aluminium Foil Tape |
| Glass Mineral Wool |
| SuperFoil Insulation Roll 1m x 7m |
| SuperFoil Insulation Roll 0.6m x 25m |
| Self-Adhesive Spikes |
| Self Tapping Screws |
| Measuring Tape |
| Stanley Knife |
| Jigsaw/Circular Saw |
| Mitre Saw |
| FatMax Drill |
| Spruce Tongue And Groove Cladding (from B&Q) |
| Plywood (bought locally from Haldane Fisher) |
To check out all the products & materials we used in our van conversion, visit our Amazon StoreFront!
Step 1: Measure, Cut And Fit Wall Battens
The first step we took to build our interior walls was to fit the wooden battens, which would act as a frame/structure.
We simply measured the length we needed the battens to be, then cut them to size with the circular saw.
Next, we screwed them onto the walls of the van (we planned where beforehand) with self tapping screws.
TIP: Do make sure to space the battens out evenly and try to place them where you are planning to screw something in.
Step 2: Insulate The Walls
There are many different types of insulation that you can use to insulate your campervan, so it’s helpful to do some research to decide what’s best for your build.
After a good bit of research we decided to use Glass Mineral Wool (which we purchased from B&Q), as it was the cheapest option and the reviews seemed pretty good.
It was a fairly straightforward process, we cut the wool with a knife for the areas we needed, then stuffed the it into all holes, gaps, nooks and crannies in the campervan walls!
TIP: If you have sensitive skin, we recommend wearing some gloves as this wool can get a bit itchy!
Some of the larger bits of the glass mineral wool we used were sticking out a bit, so we simply put masking tape on it to secure it more – see photo below!
Step 3: Cover With Foil Insulation
Once we had the glass mineral wool in, we then wanted to cover the insulation with SuperFoil – which yes, makes the van look a bit like a spaceship as you can see below! 😅
The foil will act as a vapour barrier & also give us even more insulation.
So pretty straightforward – we cut the foil to size for each section, then stapled it to the wooden battens, then taped up all our joints with the foil tape.
TIP: As we went along, we marked on it with a pen where the battens were so we knew were to screw the plywood and cladding into! (which was the next stage!)
Step 4: Install Plywood And Cladding For Walls
Once we had insulated the walls and got our vapor barrier on, it was time to actually build the walls!
Again like most things van-build related, we would recommend doing a bit of research on what material you would like to use for your walls before you do anything else.
We chose to use plywood & cladding.
We would use the plywood on certain areas of the van, as well as bits you couldn’t see, like in the shower or behind the kitchen area.
- For the areas we wanted to put the plywood, we measured then cut the plywood to size. Then screwed the ply to the battens.
Then we wanted cladding for other areas (simply because we liked the look of it lol!), such as beside the seats and behind the bed for example.
- Similarly with the cladding, we decided where we wanted it on our walls, then we cut to size and screwed to the battens.
Conclusion
If you are self-building your campervan, we hope this post has given you an idea of how to build your campervan walls and insulate them at the same time.
Once you have this done it, honestly it really feels like the van is coming together!
If you have any questions, feel free to pop them in the comment section below! (We aren’t van experts yet, but Andy is pretty pretty handy at DIY, so we will do our best to help!)
Enjoy this post? You may also like:
- How To Strip Out Your Van And Prep It For Converting
- How To Build The Floor In Your Van (Battens, Insulation, Plywood)
- How To Install Ceiling Fans & Vents In Your Van
SAVE THIS POST ON PINTEREST FOR LATER!
