Bus Conversion Phase 1: Demolition
Before Emmett and I could get started on transforming the empty shell of our bus into a tiny home, we had a lot of tedious demolition to complete. As I mentioned in our last post, we were fortunate enough to have purchased the bus with all of the seats and flooring already removed. We really wanted to do our bus up right, though, so we decided to go ahead and remove all of the ceiling panels, walls, and old nasty insulation. We weren’t sure if this was the right way to go or not - it would have been much more time consuming and much cheaper to just leave the original walls and ceilings. However, we ultimately realized that removing the walls, ceiling, and old insulation would allow us to prevent and block any leaks we might have. Keeping your bus/tiny home watertight is definitely necessary. Nobody wants to invite mold/mildew or water damage into their home. Here’s a good digest of everything we did during this first phase.
Disclaimer: We are not professionals. We are learning this as we go and I created these posts merely to offer guidance to other bus conversion novices like ourselves.
How We Demolished the Original Bus Interior
Project 0: Seat and Floor Removal
This was our starting point with our school bus conversion. No seats or floors, just original ceilings and walls to remove.
Again, we were lucky enough to be able to skip this part. If you’re here and looking for help with this portion of your bus conversion, check out these helpful videos by ColaVentures below. If you’re not doing this yourself and just want to see the work we actually did, keep scrolling on.
Project 1: Wall + Insulation Removal
One wall panel down, six more to go! (That curled up piece on the right is the just-removed panel).
I know this is a terrible closeup. But it’s unfortunately the only picture I have of the process we used to remove the walls.
Wall removal was probably one of the most time consuming parts of our conversion so far. This was for several reasons but mostly because we are doing our conversion on a site that does not have access to power. Thus, we were trying to figure out a way to keep power tool use to a minimum. Ultimately, we ended up using a hammer with a punch to pop the center out of each individual rivet… Of which there were hundreds. Once the rivets had been loosened, we used a wrecking bar and a hammer/chisel combo to pry the panels off the wall. This did not happen easily. Each long piece of paneling took upwards of two hours to remove this way. Needless to say, it was a relief to be finished with this project.
Project 2: Ceiling + Insulation Removal
Emmett angle grinding the ceiling at the very back of the bus - quite the tricky angle.
Yours truly, almost completely finished with another piece of original ceiling.
This process was very similar to the wall removal: we began it all by punching out all the rivets first. The rivets on the ceiling panels were much more stubborn, though. I’d say about half of all the rivets in the ceiling did not budge when we came at them with a punch. Thus, we used the battery-draining angle grinder to completely grind off the outer section of many of the ceiling rivets. Again, like the wall removal, this process was incredibly time consuming and involved a wrecking bar and hammer/chisel combo. We were only able to remove about one or two ceiling panels per bus-worksite visit.
The Final Result (NO FLOOR, CEILING, OR WALLS)
We were really busy during the months that we worked on this project, so it had felt like the demolition lasted even longer than it should have. Emmett and I were incredibly relieved to be at the stage you see above. Demolition can be fun but we were very excited to begin actually adding to the bus as part of the build portion of the conversion.
Tools and Materials Used for Interior Demolition
(Two Count) 16 oz. Claw Hammer
Irwin 4.5-inch Pin Punch Set
3/4 inch Hardcap Chisel
24 inch Wrecking Bar
Ryobi 18V ONE+ Cordless 4-1/2 in. Angle Grinder
30 Gallon Outdoor Trash Bags (For Old Insulation)