The Toad was built in 2008, and RV insulation standards have come a long way since our little home on wheels came off the assembly line.
To put it briefly, our fifth wheel’s threshold for extreme temperatures is a lot lower than that of newer units made for year-round enjoyment. We do our best to control our climate by supplementing our furnace and AC with space heaters and fans as needed, which is often.
The most obvious area for improvement: the basement ceiling. There’s nothing between those aluminum joists but air — air that does nothing to help us control the temperature in the bedroom, which sits right above that storage area.
The joists are not spaced at typical household intervals (ours weren’t even spaced at consistent intervals) so we had to do a lot of trimming to make standard pink insulation fit between them.
Please note that my footwear coordinates with the fiberglass insulation.
Materials
- Single-faced fiberglass R-13 insulation
- 2” HVAC tape
- Tape measure
- Utility knife
There’s not a lot to say about the “how to” part of the installation. Our day went kind of like this:
- Pull everything out of basement
- Measure
- Measure again
- Cut
- Contort
- Shove
- Tape
- Uncontort
- Put everything back in basement
- Look forward to enjoying a warmer bedroom this winter*
We went out for Thai!
*Even after complaining loudly and often about spending a whole day in May on the project, inhaling pink insulation fibers and wondering why your husband can’t just wear pajamas when he’s cold.
Author’s note: A version of this post appears at Heartland RVs. It is printed here with permission.
