| Author | Message | ||
| Thomas Griffin
Rating: N/A |
This may be known already, But I will post this here just in case..... This has to do with sound transmission. The bus will have some viberation. Noise will leak up from the engine compartment. What can be done to stop some of it after the normal insulation and sound board....etc.???? DECOUPLE.. First you must know the floor plan. After you make your normal "adjustments" you can decouple the walls and floor. Here's how. As I said, you must know the floor plan. You should have a floor already down. Now for the walls. The floor plate needs to be decoupled from the floor. To do this, just take something like weatherstripping and place it between the floor plate and floor, on every wall that is contructed. Then seal it with silcone, or calking. Do the same on the top plate, and the plate that attaches to the BUS wall. Now your structure is decoupled.viberations will not transfer sound through the bus structure to the wall. Next is the wall covering. IE.. sound board or panels.. what ever you might use. Do the same as above. Then add another layer of board (what you are going to finish with). You do not have to decouple it, but do calk it with a not harding calk or sealant. On to the floor. AFTER the walls are contructed, let's float the floor: Decouple the floor. First around every outside wall (bus walls) we place a pliable iso boundary. This will decouple it from the bus shell. Next we can go expensive or cheap. I'll describe the cheap.... You've decoupled the new floor that will be placed down on the original bus floor from the bus shell, but you have to decouple the new floor from the original floor. Remember, it it attached to the bus shell, thus the viberations are coming through. The cheapest way to do this that is effective is to place foam carpet pading over the orginal flooring. DO NOT SCREW IT OR NAIL IT.. Next we place tounge and groove plywood on top of the pad... again, DO NOT screw it down, nor nail it down. You will need to stabilize the pieces by locking them together with metal braces. Add another foam pad to the top of that, and finish it with carpet, or put plywood on it if you are putting other flooring, BUT DO NOT screw it to the orginal floor. Well, there you have it. YOur walls and floors are floating, and you have improved the noise on the bus...... Thomas | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
One of the reasons we decided not to go with Pergo type flooring, is the inherent water retaining problem of the foam padding they sit upon. Any type of water leak in the coach can end up being a major problem. If the water seeps into the underlayment and is retained there, mold will grow. The other major issue is rot, and either can put an end to your travels. Did I mention having your toilet overflow? | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
Rating: N/A |
Not to mention impossible to truly clean up if someone small and furry misses the litterbox  . Another issue: a lot of these buses are right beween 6'4" and 6'6" clearance inside. Raise the floor a combination of an inch and...well...when you're exactly 6'4" to start with and you have a cowboy boot habit, you NEED every inch  . Seriously, I don't see that it's really worth it. The amount of effort (or cost if done pro) is high enough on top of all the other drawbacks that you can spend more up-front for a quiet genset for while parked and just living with modest road noise while rolling. | ||
| Thomas Griffin
Rating: N/A |
John the New Guy, 2 things... 1- Padding will hold water, but using a floating floor will allow for easy removal of the pad. You have to remember it is a layer of wood, pad, wood, normal flooring. It would have to make it's way through a lot to make it to the decoupled padding. 2- Use can use other materials outside of padding to do get the same result such as neoprenes or fiberglass mounts. John, A little furry clean up is easy with a floating floor. I understand the loss of an inch, and agree with you. If you don't want an inch lost, don't so it. However, we part on the issue of it being expensive. It's not. I disagree with the thought of the results not being worth it. Most of the time I, (maybe not you and others) spend on the bus is traveling. I want it quiet. If you have ever been in a recording studio, this is part of the solution. A tube of non-harding calk is cheap. The stripping is cheap. Padding of the fiberglass mounts are cheap. We are not talking thousands of dollars. It's more than worth it. | ||
| Ray D
Rating: N/A |
This is exactly how they handle theaters, and it is very effective and can be very inexpensive, you just have to be creative. Water spills happen, but putting up with the noise for hours and hours of driving, no way, I will put a little more effort on water cleanup every couple of years or so. Ray D | ||
| Rick L. Rating: N/A |
I was wondering when someone was going to build a room-within-a-room! I think it would definately be possible to do it cheaply, and if you raise the roof it wouldn't affect space too much. With the floor there may be other ways to decouple and not have to worry as much about liquids, such as taking out the original flooring and decoupling at the frame. My questions: how would you do the front? how would you do the windows? how would you do the plumbing, etc. that would intrude into the decoupled room? Rick L. | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
How about a flat bed truck and just mount an Airstream to it... (sorry..... didn't mean to blurt that out....) | ||
| Ray D
Rating: N/A |
Rick, Of course you can't do the windows, you do whats practicle!! A room within a room is perfect, you have the basics now. But the plumbing lines, yes you can, they sell a sound caulking that works very well. Don't remember the name of it, but will look it up if anyones interested. On the airstream I would suggest rubber mounts with insulation packed in between, very effective!! | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
Rating: N/A |
Yeah, but try and get into a park with THAT. | ||
| Ray D
Rating: N/A |
You build plywood sides and then paint a picture of a Prevost on it and they will think you're cool and let you in | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
Rating: N/A |
Or throw about half a million LEDs all over it. "Oooooohhhh, pretty!" | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
HAR de HAR HAR | ||
| CoryDane RTSII Rating: N/A |
I'm thinking the "floating" floor is probably the ticket. You can section the rooms so the floor can be lifted if there is a leak to clean up or to replace the foam. Toilet overflow???? Can't you just shut the valve? What kind of toilet did you put in? Pipes, wrap then attach with foam rubber. Windows, CELLULAR BLINDS Ceiling, Foam insulation or acoustic panels Walls, Insulation And you need to buy about a gillion of those magnet bracelets from the other string, just to keep all the sound waves and water flowing, as well as keeping your MOON on the right side of Saturn. LUCKY they form rings so they are easy to hang, and they match your early HIPPIE 70's interiors too. LOLOlololol cd | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
CD- Funny, but I looked at some of the floating stuff today at Home Depot and Lowes. They have a felt type material to use as an underlayment, but the tag on each brand still suggests the foam.. I keep reading about this "just lift it up and replace the foam" dialog. Good grief.. No, you can't just lift it up. The stuff's not all that easy to put down to begin with. It can be like a Chinese puzzle. Each piece you set is cut to fit where you want it to. Once it's all down, you add the wall trim pieces to keep it all in place. Taking it up is as much work as putting it down. And trying to keep all the cut and fitted pieces in the order they were lifted so it'll go back together the way you had it before, is more work than tearing it up and starting fresh. But.... It's a decent way for me to cover the bus floor, linoleum and all, and have it looking good. I may end up using it anyway, just to save time. It's now a toss-up between the floating stuff and tile. I'm considering the effect of sand on the wood or simulated wood product. Florida is tough on wood flooring or anything except tile. I'm in a hurry to see this project through... A guy bought his bus last year and dropped by to the campground with it last month. It took him 6 months to convert it... Not a bad job at all, really. Not too much for dry camping, but he's happy.. So now..... I want to get this done... fast. None of this lifetime of hobby.. I want to travel while I'm still able to. Pergo may help that along.... rot, mold or whatever... | ||
| CoryDane RTSII Rating: N/A |
I too like the laminate flooring. When I thought of the "Just take it up" process, it meant sectionalized portions of floor space. In my bus, that is pretty easy since the bedroom floor is only about 2x6, the hall is 2 1/2 x 7, get the idea? The other thought is to just lay a nice carpet down. It would have to be removable for replacement, not a bad idea if you kept the original floor or put in linolium. Then you have the best of both worlds, a tough linolium floor for sandy, dirty areas, a nice carpet else where. This kinda makes the mildew issure a null point. if the carpet gets stained or mildew sets in, replace it, or use the linolium until you can. I like that versatility. My thought cd | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
Rating: N/A |
Yeah, I already considered the "basic oriental strip carpet" concept. Makes a whole lotta sense. Rug can be rolled up and taken to a dry-cleaner if necessary. Should be possible to lay strips of rubber across the bottom of the rug so it won't slip out from underneath you (esp. while rolling). Do that over hardwood, linoleum or whatever. Skip the rug completely in the kitchen for easier cleanup, do a shorter one in front of the shower. | ||
| Thomas Griffin
Rating: N/A |
Hey guys, It's nice to see a good conversation going on about this. I just started the conversion this week. And it's going well. Let me go into greater detail about how this is done... Knowing the lay out of the inside, I started with the Exterior walls. The rubber mounts as mentioned in this thread are great to use. Coming out from the exterior walls about an inch, I placed 1" strips of wood. I used NEOPRENE to decouple this from the FLOOR (existing) in between the rubber mounts. You can buy this at WALMART in a calking like tube for about 3 bucks per tube. It's made by Black Jack and is located in the paint department. Between the exterior wall and the 1" strip, I did the same thing. At the top of the bus I performed the same steps with another 1" strip of wood. What will now be the exterior wall is now decoupled. Next you do the same thing with the interior walls as I described above. Again, this is not expensive. Now back to the floor. I feel there is a bit of misunderstanding. A TRUE floating floor means that it is not COUPLED to anything. You have your existing floor and the floating floor is not attached to it by a screw or anything. If you do screww it down, you will have coupled it..... There should be isolation of the floating floor from: 1- exterior walls 2- interior walls 3- existing floor. What you choose to cover the floating floor with can touch these mentioned. I see that there has been mention of the hard wood floors that float. That is a seperate thing and should not be confussed with the decoupling of the floor. It's 2 different things. HOWEVER, it is what is going on top of my floors in the front lounge. Now to the carpet and the "problem" of replacing it. They now make carpet with padding on the back. It comes in big squares. You do not tape them together. The just "butt up" to each other. The total cost per square is about 3 bucks, and it covers 3 square feet. If you were to place this just where it would be seen, you would have not spent but 50 bucks. If something happens that a spill takes place, pick up that square, dry the floor, allow the carpet to dry, and replace it. Again, if you need help in locating anything that you might need, e-mail me, or if you want more information on the process, e-mail me.... |