For our flooring we decided to go with vinyl peel and stick. The main reasons we decided on vinyl flooring was because of how cost efficient it is, along with it being lightweight, and easy to install. We spent $120 on our flooring. We used 3 sheets of 5mm plywood for a total of $42 dollars ($14 each), 2 boxes of 12×24 vinyl tiles for $58 ($29 for each 30 square foot box), 3 10oz tubes of liquid nails for $7.50 ($2.50 each), and a carpet transition trim piece for $11.50.

Sub Floor

Since the floor of the van has groves we put down 5mm plywood to make a subfloor. Using the plywood as a subfloor allowed the floor to have more strength and a flat surface to lay the vinyl down. We used three sections of plywood for the whole subfloor. Having three big sections is going to be a lot stronger than smaller sections so it is best to use a few big pieces rather than a lot of smaller pieces. To get the shape of the plywood we laid out the old carpet and traced it onto the plywood. When we installed the sub floor we used strips of the old carpet padding to fill the grooves in the van’s floor. This adds strength to the sub floor and can also act as an insulator and sound deadening in the floor. To hold down the plywood we used liquid nails. Make sure when using liquid nails or an alternative adhesive to put weight across the plywood and let it dry.

Vinyl

Vinyl is probably one the easiest types of flooring you can do. The only tool we used was a utility knife to cut the tiles. It is important to have a plan for how you are going to lay the tiles and to keep them lined up. Try to get the tile to be as close as you can to the other tiles. Around the edges where a tile would not fit we took the paper from the backs of the tiles we already used and cut them as a template before cutting the tile. 

Trim

For the cab of the van we left the old carpet in for now. Later on we plan to replace it with newer updated carpet. When we took out the carpet in the back of the van we planned to keep the cab portion of the carpet. We cut a straight line behind the driver and passenger seats where we wanted the vinyl flooring to end. After placing our flooring, we went to Home Depot to buy a carpet trim piece. The trim piece was much longer than we needed it to be. We used a hack saw to cut down the trim piece for the exact length we needed. The trim piece really helped clean up the transition and wont allow dirt/dust to get underneath the carpet.