Layers of Floors

     Last Sunday, while I was in MA selling my art at the Flywheel Flea Market,  Phil continued pulling up the rubber floor. This is the top layer of floor that you see on a school bus. He used a crowbar and hammer to pull up the metal strip down the aisle and along the walls, and pulled up the rubber, which is glued down to the wood underneath. It didn't let go without a fight, I'm told. But here is the bus with all the rubber removed and a pretty nice wood floor.

     When we started pulling up the rubber, we saw that the plywood layer underneath looked really good, without too much rot. It was only around the wheel wells and some small places that were pretty rotten. We considered keeping this wood as our sub-floor. Many people recommend taking this wood up, so you can put down a moisture barrier on top of the metal to prevent more water from getting in and rotting your nice pretty wood floor. So on Saturday we decided to pull up the areas that were rotten and needed to be replaced anyway, and see how easy it would be to take the wood up.

     It wasn't taking Phil too long to pry the wood up, so he just pulled it all up! I followed him, grinding the nails that were sticking out of the floor. (more holes to fill later) We felt better about this decision because now we can put down a moisture barrier and properly insulate, and start fresh with a new sub floor. Under the wood, we found some very rusty spots around the wheel wells and near the back door. These will have to be cleaned and the holes by the wheel wells will have to be patched up.

A lot of rust under the wood near the wheel well. Rusty spots near the back door. Some holes. 

 More Surprises....

On the rainy Sunday while Phil worked, he noticed some leaks. This is to be expected with most buses. Usually rain comes in through the windows, the roof emergency exists, doors, etc. We have all these leaks. We also have a leak coming from one of the speakers in the ceiling. Before we can do too much more, we will need to seal these up to prevent more rotting and rusting. 

            You can see a crack in the plastic around this emergency exit on the ceiling. Water is somehow leading to the speaker and dripping out. We thought that speaker looked suspicious when we got the bus.

Phil prying up the old ply wood floor.

Making progress, getting that wood out.

Look at that clean metal floor!