Putting down insulation before plywood floor of van?

[dc843]

What i would like to do is cut thick insulation board and use adhesive spray to put inbetween the floors cross members and have them be slightly taller than the crossmembers. Then use spray foam insulation to cover the cross members and everywhere else. When it cures trim in down to be level with the sheet insulation. Then attach plywood floor to the cross members with self tapping screws.

Will this gap of foam insulation (no more than 1/2 in thick probably not even that.) Be able to screwed through so the screws attach to the cross member beneath it?

Also will adding a layer of refletix or a sound proofing material under the plywood be benefitial, and can it be screwed through as well?

My other option will be to trim the ins board to be flush with crossmembers and use spray foam to fill in any gaps, also trimmed to the cross memebers. But i feel this will not be as much insulation.

 

[ntimevan]

You have 68 1/2 " of door clearance (without removing the top door latch) you add what your talking about then you will be close to 67" for freight clearance... doesn't work for my PM vans ... but its your van

All i want is a Piece of the Pie ..

 

[dc843]

You have 68 1/2 " of door clearance (without removing the top door latch) you add what your talking about then you will be close to 67" for freight clearance... doesn't work for my PM vans ... but its your van

All i want is a Piece of the Pie ..

Been expediting in promasters for over a year now and ive only gotten one load that was within 2 inches from the top.

But the question is it going to make enough difference to be worth losing that rare really high load

 

[RoadTime]

Also will adding a layer of refletix or a sound proofing material under the plywood be benefitial, and can it be screwed through as well?

I added reflectix under my wood floor.
Is it beneficial? I can't say, floor still gets very cold . But I figured every little bit helps

 

[Turtle]

Reflectix should be viewed in most cases as a "better than nothing" insulating alternative. It's way better when there is air space between the Reflectix and a wall (or whatever). Even gluing strips of Reflectix, say 2 inches wide, every foot or so, and then putting full sheets over the raised strips, will result in some air space there. It's the difference between R 1.1 (no air space) and R 4.2. The Reflectix by itself provides just a R 1.1 value. Putting a lot of air space between the wall of a van and the Reflectix isn't really practical, though. If it can be torn, it will be torn.

Glued directly to the metal walls of a van (or under a plywood floor), you're only going to get about an R 3 out of it. No air space, but it will reflect n amount of radiant heat in either direction. A popular use for Reflectix is to insulate the inside of a garage door. You measure the door panels, cut Reflectix to fit, and then affix with double-sided tape, glue or staples. It will reflect about 96% of the radiant heat that would normally pass through the door. That's significant on a hot summer day. But the R value is R 3.

Put fiberglass insulation on a wall and then cover that with Reflectix, and the R value skyrockets. For example, if you use R 13 fiberglass batting insulation on the attic, and then cover that with Reflectix, the Reflectix is R 14. That's R 14 on top of the R 13 fiberglass. Significant.

If you have fiberglass (which I don't recommend in a van, unless you like inhaling glass), foam board or canned foam, covered with Reflectix, will make for an excellent insulation installation. You can use fiberglass as long as you seal the Reflectix covering seams with silver foil tape.

People insulate their coolers with Reflectix. Cut sheets to fit the inside of the cooler, bottom, sides, lid, and it works great. If you have something you don't want your Espar heater blowing directly onto, put a sheet of Reflectix in front of it. It's great for wrapping around Espar duct. Also makes good window coverings.

 

[BillChaffey]

as far as screw length goes any hardware store or lumber yard will have any length you need.

 

[dc843]

I think what I'm going to end up doing is filling in the space between the XM's (cross members) with sheet and spray insulation so the gaps are level with the XMs. Doesn't sound like refletix will do much good under the plywood so e track down on the cross members with pre drilled holes for the bolts in the XM. lay the plywood over that with holes drilled so the bolt goes through the plywood and etrack. The hole in the plywood wider toward the top so the bolt head in sunk. Then self tapping screws everywhere else needed for the plywood. marks on the plywood where the XMs are underneath.

Then for the rest, stuff all the XM openings with as high R value denim insulation as possible. As for the walls ill use sheet insulation and spray foam insulation to make all the ways level with the XMs, perhaps a little bit past the XMs and fill in the XMS to be level with the rest of the insultation. then refletix over all the insultation on walls and roof, with marks for where the XMs are for drilling into, when I put up shelves, TV mount, etc.

Think that should keep me pretty comfy.