5 Top Tips for a Sustainable Non Toxic Camper Van Conversion

Turning an empty cargo van into a beautiful, cosy and comfortable tiny home on wheels, can be a daunting task, especially if it’s your first time. Although resources abound on the world wide web, it’s important to do your own research, and understand your personal priorities. When we set out to convert our own van we knew that we wanted to prioritise a healthy indoor climate. For us that meant avoiding petro chemicals, i.e. plastic products, as much as possible, and focusing on natural materials.

The upside of using non toxic natural materials, besides the improved interior air quality, is that they are also a lot more environmentally friendly. Although we used the sustainable materials we recommend below for our van conversion, you could easily use all the same materials to build an eco cabin, tiny home, cottage, or even a traditional house. Below we have listed 5 tips that will help you build a healthy, and non toxic eco-friendly home. 

1. Sheep’s Wool Insulation for Walls and Ceiling of DIY Van Conversion

Use sheep’s wool to insulate your walls and ceiling. Sheep’s wool is a natural insulation product that does not off-gas. It also does not mould or rot, and can absorb up to 33% of its own weight in moisture, and release it back into the atmosphere once it dries. This characteristic of wool will help you avoid condensation building up against your walls, and causing your van to rust. It is also a great non toxic product to work with, since you don’t need to wear any protective equipment.

If you decide to insulate with sheep’s wool, make sure you buy a product that has not been mixed with any synthetic fibres, as mould can attach to those fibres. We have seen a few people use spray foam to insulate their entire rv, and some even attempt to do it themselves. That is a recipe for disaster, spray foam insulation is created by mixing two different types of chemicals together to cause the foam reaction. If you mix these two chemicals incorrectly, or apply them poorly, the foam will not set correctly. This can cause the off-gassing to be so serious that there are documented cases of people developing flu-like symptoms from the gases, having to move out of their home, and remove all the spray foam from the walls before they could move back in.

I would also avoid using fibreglass as it does not do well with moisture, and will definitely mould from the condensation that inevitably happens inside your walls. We discovered this first hand when removing the 30 year old fibreglass insulation from our former police van during our van conversion. I have also seen people use Rockwool to insulate their walls, but that is another product that I would avoid, as research is beginning to emerge showing serious health risks associated with breathing in the fibres. Instead we used sheep’s wool in the walls and ceiling of our own camper van build, and have been very happy with it. It has great sound deadening properties, and does a good job at regulating the temperature inside our camper van. If you live in N. America then buying your sheep’s wool insulation from Havelock Wool will be your best bet. If you’re in Europe, I would recommend finding a shop that sells sheep’s wool insulation made by the Austrian company, Isolena, which is what we used in our van.

2. Cork Insulation for Camper Van Floors

Natural Cork Roll

Cork is a fantastic natural material, that does double duty as a thin, and lightweight insulation, but also has great sound deadening properties. We have used it in all our van conversions.

Cork is a great sustainable material to insulate your floors with. If you don’t have a lot of height to work with in your camper van conversion, then consider using a 10mm layer of cork underneath your floor boards. Cork is a natural, and renewable product that does not off gas. Not only does it have insulating properties, but it also has sound deadening properties. This helps keep the road noise down when you’re driving, but it also makes the camper van quieter at night as it reduces vibrations from the outside. With only 193 cm of interior height to work with in our Mercedes Vario, and with me being 186cm tall, we used 6mm cork, but 10mm would definitely be better. If you have height to spare in your camper van you could also build a frame on your floor, and then use sheep’s wool in between the framing. 

3. Solid Hardwood Flooring in a Van Conversion

A great sustainable product to use for your flooring is solid hardwood . It is tempting to think that hardwood is heavier than a laminate floor, but that is not always the case. Hardwood floors come in a variety of thicknesses, so you can choose what is best for the interior height, and payload capacity of your vehicle. We ended up using 14mm thick solid pine floors, because we had enough wood left over from the amount we ordered for our ceiling, and walls. Pine is a lightweight wood, and 14mm was the perfect thickness for not taking away too much headroom in our van. Although the thickness was good, I would not recommend pine wood for your flooring, especially if you have dogs, as it will very quickly show a lot of wear and tear. I would avoid using petrochemical based flooring products such as LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile), laminate or sheet vinyl. All those products are known to off-gas for many years, which is definitely not ideal in a tiny space. 

One downside of wood is that it does scratch easier, but you can always choose a more durable wood species such as maple, oak, cherry, ash or eucalyptus to minimise that. Even if your floors do get scratched up, that’s ok. Scratches are just a natural part of the floor, and pose no threat to the integrity of the wood. Eventually all the scratches will blend together, and you’ll have a beautiful farmhouse style floor with lots of memories built in.

4. Natural Non Toxic Oils and Soaps to Seal or Stain Hardwood

Linseed Oil

Linseed Soap

Oiling wood floors with linseed oil is a centuries old tradition in Scandinavia. For the classic whitewashed look, you can also soap your floors using linseed oil soap.

Only use natural oils, and soaps to seal or stain. A lot of commercial products for wood are petroleum or plastic based. Not only do they tend to turn your wood an ugly yellowish orange after a few years, but they are also bad for your respiratory health. Instead use natural food safe oils and waxes. For example, linseed oil soap is a completely natural, and biodegradable way to give your floors a Scandinavian white washed look. 

The same tip applies to any painting you want to do. Most modern paints are petroleum based, they are not great for us to breathe in, and they also stop your wood from breathing. Instead use non toxic linseed oil based paints, or chalk based paints that penetrate into the wood, and maintain the woods natural characteristics. We used linseed oil paint for our walls, and loved not getting headaches from the fumes. If you decide to use a butcher block for your kitchen countertop, then you also want to make sure that the sealer you use is made with natural materials, especially if you like to prepare food directly on the counter. We used Osmo TopOil which is widely available across Europe.

5. Sustainable Products for Mattresses and Seat Cushions

Wool Mattress

Sleeping on a mattress made of wool, and natural latex will give you a cool, and supportive sleep. In contrast, memory foam mattresses are made up of toxic petrochemicals, and should be avoided at all costs.

Only use natural materials such as wool, natural latex, cotton or horse hair in your mattresses, and seat cushions. Avoid memory foam, synthetic latex, memory gel or any other chemical based mattresses, and seat cushions. This tip is probably the hardest to follow, as memory foam has become endemic in the mattress industry, and a lot of the ‘mattress in a box’ companies spend inordinate amounts of money on marketing their products. Their websites will make it seem that they are the epitome of scientific comfort, and that their unique design will improve your sleep. 

The unfortunate reality is that these mattresses or seat cushions are all made out of petro-chemicals, and then usually wrapped in a fibreglass ‘sock’ to make them fire retardant. I have seen videos of people cutting memory foam mattresses to fit their van, that is a terrible idea as doing so will release a lot of toxic fibres into the air, and also destroy the fibreglass cover (if the mattress uses one) causing you to breathe in strands of fibreglass. 

Instead look for more natural non toxic alternatives, such as 100% natural latex, wool, coconut, horse hair or cotton. Companies that make these  sustainable non toxic mattresses are definitely a little bit harder to find, but their numbers are increasing as more people begin to appreciate the importance of using natural materials in a space that you spend so much time in. 

If you are thinking about starting a van build or taking on a camper makeover, then take a look at our post on 12 Must Have Tools for a DIY Camper Van Conversion, to learn about the essential tools required to create a comfortable camper home.

Next, take a look at the post 5 Questions to Answer Before Buying a Camper Van for Van Life, to make sure you buy the right van for your lifestyle.