Which floor to choose for a campervan: roll, planks, laminate or plywood

A van floor lives a very different life from a floor in a flat. Parked up in summer, the interior goes above 60 °C; at night condensation forms on the metal; sand comes back from the beach, and the body vibrates all the way down the road. On top of that, a campervan has two hard limits a home does not: weight and headroom.

That is why a floor that works perfectly in a living room can buckle in a van within a single summer. Let's go through the options by the parameters that actually matter in a vehicle.

What a campervan floor has to do

• Low weight. Every kilo of fit-out comes off the payload.
• Low thickness. In a van with 1.90 m of headroom, an extra centimetre of floor is noticeable.
• Indifference to water. Wet shoes, the dog, a spilt kettle, condensation.
• Stability in heat. The material must not change size between +5 and +60 °C.
• As few seams as possible. Sand packs into every seam and water runs into it.
• Easy cleaning. A brush and a damp cloth, no special chemicals.

Comparison by key parameters

The figures for the roll and the glue-down planks come from the specifications of our own materials; those for SPC and laminate are typical market values.

PVC roll: one piece for the whole floor

Vinyl roll flooring 2 m wide covers the floor of any production van in a single sheet: the interior width of a Ducato, Sprinter or Crafter is under two metres. There are no seams at all, so sand and water have nowhere to go except onto the cloth.

Strengths:

• the lightest option: the floor of a Ducato L2, about 6 m², weighs under 9 kg;
• 2 mm of thickness takes nothing off the headroom;
• it is glued to the plywood base over the whole area and does not move in the heat;
• the relief gives grip under wet shoes;
• it cleans with ordinary household products.

Weaknesses:

• the look is technical: stud or checker-plate relief in plain colours. It is not a wood imitation;
• it needs a smooth base: 2 mm will show every screw and every step between plywood sheets;
• it has to be bonded with an adhesive that withstands heat (details in the article on adhesive for vans).

PVC roll has long been used in minibuses and commercial vehicles for the same reasons: weight, water and cleaning.

Glue-down wood-effect planks

If you want the interior to look like a home rather than a workshop, the second option is glue-down vinyl planks. The same 2 mm of thickness, about 3 kg per square metre and a realistic wood pattern.

There is one price to pay for the look: seams. There are a lot of them, sand gets in, and with a weak adhesive the planks can open up slightly in the heat. The requirements for the adhesive and the base are the same as for the roll.

Self-adhesive planks and tiles from DIY stores are not worth buying. Their adhesive layer is designed for room temperature, and on campervan forums this is one of the most common reasons for redoing a floor.

Click SPC and laminate

Both are floating floors: they lie on an underlay and are held together by click joints. In a flat that is convenient; in a vehicle it creates three problems.

1. Thermal expansion. In a locked van in the sun, the floor heats up by 40–50 degrees compared with the morning. A floating floor needs a gap around the perimeter, but in a van it gets pinned down by furniture. The result: the joints open up or the floor lifts.
2. Weight. 8–9 kg per metre against 1.45. Over six metres of floor that is a difference of about 45 kg, comparable to two days' supply of water.
3. Water under the joints. The SPC board itself is not afraid of water, but moisture that gets into a joint stays between the floor and the plywood. Laminate swells as well.

Laminate in a campervan can be regarded as a temporary solution. SPC is acceptable if you leave the gaps and do not clamp the floor with furniture, but it is simpler to choose a glued material.

For the full comparison between glue-down vinyl and click SPC in a regular home, see this article: glue-down LVT or click SPC.

Coated plywood with no finish

Phenolic-faced plywood with a mesh surface (tablero fenólico antideslizante) is often used as the base. Some people leave it as the finished floor.

For a cargo van that is fine. For a living space there are drawbacks: the mesh texture holds dirt, the edges and fixing holes have to be sealed, and it is unpleasant to walk on barefoot. Usually the plywood is covered after all: 2 mm of vinyl adds a kilo and a half per metre and solves all three issues.

What to choose

Next steps: how many metres to buy for your model, how to fit it and which relief to choose.

A similar choice — laminate or vinyl — but for a regular home, is covered separately: laminate vs vinyl flooring.

FAQ

Can I put ordinary DIY-store lino in a campervan? You can, but household cushioned vinyl is soft: furniture legs and boxes leave dents, and its wear layer is 0.1–0.2 mm. A commercial floor with a 0.3 mm wear layer lasts noticeably longer.

Do I need an underlay under vinyl in a van? No. Glue-down vinyl goes straight onto the plywood. The insulation sits lower, under the plywood.

Does the floor go in before or after the furniture? Before. One sheet across the whole floor, with the furniture fixed on top through the covering. That way there are no gaps under the units for water to run into.

Will the floor be cold? The floor temperature depends on the insulation under the plywood, not on the covering. Vinyl itself feels warmer to the touch than metal or tiles.

What colour of floor works best in a campervan? Mid greys and beiges show sand and dust the least. On black every grain is visible; on a very light floor, shoe marks.

For how many kilos each type of floor takes off your payload, see the article on floor weight and the MMA limit.