Sustainable Non-Toxic Flooring for Your DIY Camper Van

I’m on a mission to build-out our camper van with sustainable, non-toxic materials as much as possible within our budget (check out my guide to non-toxic campervan products here!).When I started the search for the best non-toxic camper van flooring for our conversion, we had three main requirements: non-toxic (duh!), water-resistant, and thin.

Looking to do your own DIY flooring for your van conversation? Here’s everything you need to know.

Why Not Wood Flooring

Though we love wood flooring in homes, it’s not the most practical for camper van flooring. Wood tends to absorb moisture and can warp when it gets wet. Since we have two big dogs, we knew our flooring was definitely going to get wet. On top of that, quality wood flooring is typically 1/2″ or thick. The height of the Nissan NV2500 is 76″ BEFORE adding the insulation, subflooring, and wall/ceiling paneling. This means that the extra 1/4″ headspace seriously matters.

Is Laminate and Vinyl Flooring Toxic?

Laminate and vinyl are much thinner than wood, but they’re both notorious for having added formaldehyde and toxic VOCs. If you want non-toxic camper van flooring, these materials are not the best options. Not to be a buzzkill, but laminate and vinyl can off-gas toxic chemicals for 2-10 years!  Since the indoor air in your van is limited, it’s important to ensure the air quality is a healthy as possible.

We narrowed our choices down to two products that fit our main requirements: cork and linoleum.

Cork vs Linoleum Flooring

Cork has great characteristics. It’s renewable and non-toxic, of course. It’s also sound deadening, insulating, fire-resistant, water-resistant, anti-microbial (resistant to mold and bugs). Plus, it’s durable, which is a very good thing when you’re talking van flooring. Cork tends to be more expensive than other flooring options and requires some maintenance (you need to reseal it every couple years). You can buy cork in either thin sheets that you glue down or thicker click tiles that can be snapped together and floated over your subfloor.

Linoleum is another awesome sustainable material that hits all the same “green” markers as cork– non-toxic, water-resistant, stain resistant, fire retardant, antimicrobial, hypoallergenic and anti-static.  Linoleum has a smooth sleek shine finish and it stays cool to the touch in hot weather.

What Is Marmoleum Flooring?

Linoleum, sold by Forbo as Marmoleum, comes in a ton of really cool colors with lots of options for funky patterns.  Similar to cork, you can buy click tiles that float or glue down, or you can purchase linoleum in thin sheets.

In the end, we went for Marmoleum Real linoleum, which comes as a super thin sheet that’s only .0984″ thick. Forbo sells the Marmoleum sheets in rolls that are 78″ wide and cut to your desired length. This provides a super cool opportunity for your van flooring– since our van is 70″ wide, we realized that we could make the entire van floor out of one single seamless sheet of linoleum. This means no gaps or seams so there’s nowhere for moisture to leak and installation is way easier!

Installing Underlayment Sheets

Since the linoleum is sooo thin, we decided to add cork underlayment sheets between the subfloor and the flooring. As we mentioned, cork is insulating and helps with sound deadening, so we think the addition of flooring thickness is worth the benefits of the cork underlayment.  The underlayment comes is 2’x4′ sheets that can easily be cut or even layered if you wanted a thicker subfloor.

So our flooring assembly consists of birch plywood as the bottom subfloor, cork underlayment sandwiched between, and the .0984″ thick linoleum sheet on top.

How to Install Marmoleum Flooring

Materials

• Birch plywood (we purchased CARB 2 certified plywood because there’s no added formaldehyde)
• Cork underlayment sheets (they come in 2’x4′ sheets)
• Forbo Marmoleum Real linoleum from Green Building Supply (we chose a dark gray color called Lava)
• Forbo Sustain sheet and flooring adhesive
• Vinyl & Linoleum Floor roller (we rented one from a local heavy equipment rental company)
• Cardboard Utility knife
• Trowel– (we used this 1/16″ square trowel but the adhesive you use will dictate what type of trowel to use)
• Metal tapping screws
• Cardboard
• Duct tape

NOTE: We recommend doing this installation with a friend because it’s difficult for one person to maneuver the materials and floor roller on their own.  

Before You Start 

Step 0 is Insulation. As we describe in our post on sustainable insulation, we rolled small pieces of wool along the entire van floor between the flooring beams prior to installing our subfloor.

Step One

Install your subfloor. We used birch plywood, which is more moisture-resistant than OSB.  Mark where the floor ridges are on your plywood and attach the plywood with metal tapping screws.

Step Two

Create a cardboard template of the van floor using several pieces of cardboard cut to the exact dimensions of your van floor and tape the cardboard together across the top with duct tape.

Step Three

Lay out the cork sheets across a flat surface and place the cardboard template on top of the cork.  Cut the cork sheets to the template of the van floor, duct taping the tops of the cork sheets together to create one large sheet of cork that’s the exact size of your van floor.

Step Four

Next place the cork template on top of the linoleum flooring sheet and cut the flooring to the template.

Step Five

Clean the subfloor very thoroughly so it’s completely clean of all debris. Since you’re using thin materials, even small specs of dirt can show up as small bumps in the final floor, to be sure there’s no bugs or debris anywhere on your subfloor.

Step Six

Using the trowel, spread a thin layer of the glue on top of the plywood and glue the cork underlayment template onto your subfloor.

Step Seven

Using the heavy roller, carefully roll over the flooring until it’s all flat and affixed to the plywood. Let dry and then remove the duct tape from the cork.

Step Eight

Clean the cork thoroughly.  The linoleum is so thin, you can see even a small pieces of dirt underneath it, so be very thorough again in your cleaning.

Step Nine

Lift the linoleum sheet on top of the cork, rolling half of the flooring up. Trowel the glue on the exposed side of the floor.  Again, ensure no debris gets stuck to the glue before laying down the flooring.

Step Ten

Then roll down the linoleum on to the glue, ensuring the templates match up. Roll the unglued side up and repeat the process by gluing down the other side.

Step Eleven

Lay down the linoleum smoothly and evenly on top of the cork to ensure there are no bubbles and it’s all placed correctly on the van floor.  (This step requires two people.)

Step Tweleve

Roll the heavy roller over the entire flooring until secured onto the cork.

Step Thirteen

Let dry and enjoy your sleek new sustainable van flooring!

NOTE: Our Marmoleum had a few scratches on it after installation, likely because we have two big dogs with long nails. Since the product’s color is consistent throughout the entire material, you can disguise surface scratches with a wax shine like WAXIE pro shine. For us that was an easy fix. Forbo recommends applying a top coat like Topshield to keep their floors in good shape.

YOUR Turn

Did you do a DIY camper van conversation? I’d love to hear about your experience! Tell me in the comments and let’s talk floor durablity.