this bus has a bunch of "soft spots" in the isle and in between seats. a few other spots where the vinyl is cracked due to the plywood swelling. this will be my first flooring project. if anybody cares to render some advice before i get started id really appreciate it. also suggestions on materials.
You will need 8 sheets of 1/2 to 5/8 plywood. 2 rolls of smooth vinyl flooring. 1 roll of ribbed flooring. 1 to 2 gallons of contact cement. Some paint brushes. Plan on all new screws that hold the flashing down as well as many bolts that hold the seats in. I couple of 5/16 and 1/4 drill bits. Long ones as well. A nail gun with steel ring shank nails 1 1/2 to 2"nails. A good pair of knee pads.
Remove all of the seats of course as well as all the trim and flashing and anything else bolted or screwed to the floors. Use tire irons to rip all the old stuff out. Measure and cut your plywood carefully. You won't have much left over out of 8 sheets. Make sure to cut an access area for the fuel tank sending unit. Really important if you have a rear center mounted tank. DO NOT nail this cover in place at this time. I found it best to lay them long ways from side to side. Start at either the back or front and work your way from there. We start in the back. Nail each piece in place before you measure and cut the next piece. Take an air hose and blow the plywood clean. What we found next really worked well. Roll and cut your smooth pieces of flooring that go down each side from back to front and cut along the wheel wells and full tank filler as you go. Unroll it back wards from the way it is on the roll. After you have both sides cut and laid out, let it sit like that over the weekend, if its warm out even better. Now on Monday morning we rolled the front towards the rear wheel well and the back towards the rear wheel well. Apply adhesive to the plywood and the flooring and lay the back portion from the wheel well to the rear door and do the same working about 3 feet at a time towards the front off the bus. Repeat on the other side. A "J" roller work well in rolling it in but we used a hand roller. We placed some weights along the sides to keep buckling from happening. Let those sit over night. In the morning roll the center piece out, cut and clue. Put weights on it and let side over night.
Drill as many hole from the underside of the bus for the seats as you can, the rest measure and drill. You will find you need a long bit or punch for the bolts that end up in the floor channels. Have fun with the ones around the fuel tank. If you have a rear tank it is best to glue the flooring to your access cover you made earlier then screw the whole thing to the floor.
Good luck, have fun and enjoy. We did 1 last summer and it took 2 of us almost a full week on each. We have 4 more to do this summer. Worst PIA job I have done on a school bus. The demolition phase was the hardest part.
Best way to prevent this is to tell your drivers to keep the water hoses out of the bus.
unfortunately before i took over the fleet about 5 years ago, the hose was standard practice. they'd park on a slope and put the hose through the back window and let water run all the way out the front door. i flipped out the first time i saw it and i don't think anyone has done it since but the damage was already done. thanks for all the detail Ron.
We just sent one of our buses out to get the floor re-done as we are swamped and understaffed where we work. It was a heck of a lot more than $1k....so if you have the time, that sounds like the way to go.
96 TC2000 floor
Posted - 02/29/2016 : 08:59:36 AM
