Stage 3 – Framing the Roof

Before we make the cuts for the rooflights we are going to frame the roof ready to take rooflights, fixings for top lockers & ceiling boards

As we have a high roof vehicle we can afford to drop the roof slightly, this will allow us to make a flat roof, making the finish look nicer and making it easier to fit furniture to.

You will notice in all vans there are the roof ribs which you do not really want to start cutting if you can help it

To make the flat roof, on the bench we make timber frames to fit between the ribs, this timber frame consists of 4 outside edges a couple of strengthen bars going across. There is also an additional blocks in the centre of these supporting the middle of the frames. We also add at this stage any additional timbers to allow for any rooflights or fixings for top locker to screw to.

With each frame it is a good idea to make sure they are running level as you progress, this will ensure you end up with a good looking finished product

For the rooflight themselves, we have made some sub frames which will be ideal thickness for the rooflights we are fitting. These then sit within our main frames to make the whole thing a complete structure

On this roof we will be fitting a 280 Crystal Fiamma Vent in the bathroom, a Mini Heki Rooflight in the kitchen area and a larger Midi Heki in the living area

This seems like allot of work and we are aware others simply screw plywood to the ribs, but this allows us to have a flat roof which we feel looks better when finished and also much easier to get a good finish on the furniture.

As we are using White Lopez roof boards which are 4ft wide we also need to make there there is a timber at the 4ft mark to allow us to get a fixing for the joints between the boards.