[tighe]

I am starting to think through adding a ceiling to my van. I notice most add wood first then screw the paneling to the wood. I am 6'1" and added a thicker floor so I am trying to minimize the thickness of the ceiling. If the wood supports are screwed to the beams, why not screw the ceiling panels directly to the beams? Am I missing something?

I'd love to not have exposed hardware though I have no idea how to do that. Any suggestions?

If these questions are answered in your build, please forward the link. A quick search was somewhat unsuccessful.

thanks

 

[Roblee]

I'm 6-2. Have 3/4" floor mat. Added 3/4" polyiso between roof ribs & screwed 1/8" luan directly to roof ribs (beams). I have just enough headroom. No trim so not the finished look of others; that's tradeoff for max ceiling height.

 

[keeponvaning]

I screwed ¼' plywood directly to the roof ribs then covered it with carpet (glued the carpet on with carpet adhesive).

 

[RDinNHandAZ]

Mine is just 1" Polyiso between the ribs with headliner fabric glued to it. I did add covers for the ribs so it ends up being the same as KOV and others under the ribs. I couldn’t see adding a layer of wood when the insulation is up and only the ribs need covering.

 

[keeponvaning]

A new "wrinkle" in ceiling treatments.

 

[MsNomer]

I added wood spacers on the beams only to add insulation depth. My painted luan ceiling could be applied directly to the beams instead. Hardware is covered by ribs attached with pin nails.

 

[El Guapo]

I added 1/2" plywood strips to the ceiling ribs using 5 riv nuts. I first tried using one strip spanning the entire width but it was too hard getting holes to line up so I switched to 5 separate strips each bolted to the rib with one riv nut and flush head bolt.

Then I nailed 1/4" thick cedar planks from Home Depot to the 1/2" plywood strips. I used combinations of polyiso in 1/2", 3/4" and 1" thicknesses between the ribs for insulation and backing for the planks.

 

[GaryBIS]

Hi,
I screwed the white hardboard ceiling panels directly to the ceiling ribs.

The curvature of the ribs near the sides of the van was to tight to bend the hardboard panels to, and I ended up using spacers in these areas to lessen the curvature.

full details here: http://www.buildagreenrv.com/our-conversion/our-conversion-paneling/

I'm thinking that someday I might replace the white hardboard with some nice tongue and groove lumber just for the look. The white makes the van brighter inside, but kind of boring.

Gary

 

[tighe]

Thanks so much all. Very informative. We will probably do wood as well for the ceiling. Maybe add a veneer to the Luan.

super helpful thanks for your response and wisdom