Shaping the Interior: Floors, Walls & Ceiling
We call it the shell — floors, walls, and ceiling. Think of it as the blank canvas for your van build. It’s what gives the space its foundation, comfort, and finished look. There’s a whole process to making it come together the way you’re envisioning it, and it’s often the first place new builders can get stuck.
Below, we’ll break down the key materials, steps, and lessons we’ve learned over the years to help you get started. And as always, if you’d rather skip the headaches, you can reach out to info@coadventurevans.com and have the pros take care of your shell worry-free.
Subfloor & Finish Flooring
The subfloor is one of the first installs in a new van build. We use a 3/4" marine-grade plywood from National Wood Products CNC-cut to fit the exact van model. It’s bonded to the van floor with SikaFlex 252 and weighed down overnight so the adhesive cures flat and strong. Once set, we sand any seams to create a level surface—this gives you a rock-solid base for everything that follows.
For finish flooring, we almost always recommend Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP). It’s waterproof, easy to clean, and hides scuffs and trail dust better than most materials. Below are a few more viable options depending on your priorities:
Marine flooring – Pros: cushioned feel, waterproof. Cons: traps debris in fibers, harder to clean, tricky install.
Coin flooring – Pros: affordable, replaceable. Cons: black shows wear fast, can bubble in heat, difficult install.
Vinyl sheet flooring – Pros: seamless coverage, wide color range. Cons: expensive, challenging to work with in tight spaces.
Pre-cut flooring kits – Pros: fast install. Cons: higher cost, less customization. Pre-cut subfloors are also an option.
We finish our floor edges with 1.125” angle aluminum. It hides raw plywood, protects the edge of your top layer, and keeps your finish flooring from lifting over time. The result: a clean look and a floor that’s built to last as long as the van.
Wall Panels
If you’ve ever spent any time trying to cover the walls of a van, you know how tricky it can be. Nothing is straight, nothing is square, and every cut feels like it has its own personality. If you decide to make your own panels, here’s our go-to process—streamlined over dozens of builds.
We start with a 1/4” substrate:
1/4” plywood – budget-friendly, lightweight, and easy to cut. If you’re fabric wrapping your panels anyways you can use the cheapest 1/4 material available - we source ours from National Wood Products.
1/4” PVC foam board – more expensive, but far more durable, moisture-resistant, and capable of holding a screw surprisingly well for its thickness. We get this stuff from Piedmont Plastics.
If you don’t want to spend hours scribing each panel to match the van’s curves, Timber Vans offers paper templates for most van models. These can save you hours of work and quite a bit of frustration.
Once the panels are cut to fit, we layer 1/8” closed-cell foam on the front using spray adhesive. The foam:
Gives panels a softer, more finished feel
Adds minor insulation and sound dampening
Helps eliminate small rattles over time
3M’s adhesive works too, but it can get expensive on larger jobs.
The final step is upholstery. We use the same Keyston spray adhesive to bond the customer’s chosen fabric to the foam. For sourcing:
Campervan HQ – good variety of van-friendly fabrics
Keyston Bros. – reliable local option with wide inventory
With the right substrate, foam, and fabric, you end up with a clean, durable panel that elevates the space. It’s a detail you’ll feel every time you run your hand along the wall or lean back to take in the view.
If you want to save yourself trouble and budget isn’t as much of a concern, there are wall panel kits available from a number of companies. We love the Adventure Wagon platform, but Serg Supply, Timber Vans, and others make kits to save you countless hours and ensure a clean finish.
Ceilings
The ceiling sets the tone for the entire interior of a van—get it right and it makes the whole build feel warm and finished. Over the years, we’ve tried a variety of options, but a few stand out as our go-tos.
Custom Milled Tongue & Groove Hardwood
Our favorite ceiling treatment is custom milled tongue and groove hardwood from Paxton Hardwoods. Material costs range from $1,000–$2,000 depending on the species. Once installed, you can stain, paint, or apply a natural polyurethane for protection.
Popular species we’ve used include:
Stained European Beech – light, warm, and modern
African Mahogany – rich tone, classic warmth
Poplar – versatile, inexpensive, takes stain or paint well
Shiplap
If you want the wood look without the higher price tag, shiplap is a solid choice. Primed pine boards from Home Depot are easy to source and straightforward to install.
Best finish: professionally painted for a smooth, uniform look (adds labor cost), or DIY for a budget-friendly option.
Works well in bright, airy interiors or to balance darker cabinetry.
Check out some examples of shiplap in our builds:
Foam & Fabric Wrapped Panels
For a softer look, you can use the same process we follow for wall panels:
1/4” substrate – plywood or PVC foam board
1/8” closed-cell foam – adds cushioning and insulation
Finish fabric – attached with spray adhesive for a clean, tailored fit
This approach can create a quieter, more insulated space while offering a custom color and texture palette. Here are a couple vans with panel ceilings:
Lighting Package
Regardless of ceiling material, we install our standard lighting setup:
8 LED puck lights – evenly spaced for full coverage
2 lighting zones – independent control for front and rear areas
3-way switching – multiple switch locations for convenience. We usually put one set of switches near the bed and one right inside the slider door so you can control
A well-finished ceiling paired with a thoughtful lighting plan transforms the van’s interior from functional to truly inviting.
Insulation
Insulation plays a huge role in making your van comfortable year-round. Our Colorado Adventure Vans regularly see triple-digit days in the summer and plenty of ski lift parking lots in the winter. The better you insulate behind your walls, the more consistent your interior temperature will be and the less your heating and cooling systems have to work.
In most vans we skip insulating the floor—adding insulation here increases both cost and height, and the benefits are minimal compared to the rest of the van. We’ve done it, but for most of our van builds it isn’t a priority. If you do decide to insulate the floor, we strongly recommend framing the insulation (example here) so that your floor doesn’t flex and move as you walk over it. We’ve seen a lot of vans with foam board insulation below a subfloor and this almost always results in an unstable floor that will prematirely degrade your finish flooring material.
Approach
Full coverage behind walls & in cavities – reduces heat transfer and helps with sound dampening.
Skip the floor – (in most cases!) keeps build height comfortable and saves budget for more effective areas.
Seal gaps – prevents drafts and stops heat or cold from sneaking in through small openings.
Material Options
For shop builds, we typically install precut insulation kits. They’re faster to work with and reduce labor time—a big deal when hourly shop rates add up. If you want to add R value beyond that, we have used Lizard skin on the sheet metal and reflective insulation on the back of wall panels, but we always use Thinsulate, wool, or an equivalent kit as the main insulation layer behind the walls. For most vans, a solid layer of thinsulate/wool will be sufficient.
For DIY builders looking to save money, buying bulk insulation and cutting it yourself is the way to go. Popular materials include:
Thinsulate – lightweight, mold-resistant, easy to work with.
Havelock Wool – natural fiber option with good thermal and acoustic properties.
The key is to be thorough. Well-installed insulation doesn’t just keep your van warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer—it makes it quieter, more efficient, and more enjoyable to spend time in no matter where the road takes you.
Pre-designed Kits
It’s easier to build a van than every before. There are tons of companies out there offering kits and systems to help get you on the road quicker. As a custom shop, we don’t have much experience with these options, but they come from highly rated companies and promise to make your “shell” come together quickly.
Insulation Kits
Floor Kits
Campervan HQ - Subfloor kit and Finish Flooring kits
Heated floor kit & Rixen’s Floor Heating Unit
Smart Floor or Mobiframe floor kits
Wall and ceiling panel kits
Adventure Wagon - can get full kit for walls, floor, ceiling, and more.
Here are a couple websites and channels that we’ve found helpful:
AVC Rig - great van build content from another local CO builders. this
video is a MUST WATCH FOR TRANSIT BUILDERS - hardened “super” steel is no fun and they show you how to get around it.
Serg Supply - panel kits, flooring, premade cabinetry. Serg Supply offers a ton of products to save you time and headaches in your own build. Their Youtube page is also worth diving into for some more in depth content.
Far Out Ride - we don’t necessarily endorse all of the techniques on this site, but it is a great resource for following along each step of this couple’s build.