Cork Insulation in a Van
What is the goal of insulating your van?
- Thermal Insulation: The human body releases water vapor to regulate its internal temperature. The van walls are cold (especially at night), turning this vapor into droplets when they come into contact, creating a condensation phenomenon inside the vehicle. The goal is to cover the van's walls as much as possible to prevent thermal bridges and push the dew point outside the van.
- Sound Insulation: When sleeping in your van, even though a peaceful environment is the goal, sometimes noisy surroundings are unavoidable, and it is best to have good acoustic insulation for vans to ensure peaceful nights.
As a bonus, cork spraying offers an unmatched aesthetic result, including the ability to pigment the mixture to personalize the outcome of your sprayed cork insulation.
We are excited to test this insulation for you in one of our vans to convert into a camper van.
To go further, our team takes on the challenge set by our community: convert a van from A to Z in one day (with, of course, the addition of a Combeing conversion kit):
An Eco-Friendly Insulation with Thermal, Acoustic, and Hygrometric Performance
After extensive research, Combeing selects Soliège as the material for sprayed cork insulation.
This high-performance insulator is also eco-friendly and aligns with our environmental values.
This cork granulate comes from the manufacturing waste of the Landes forests, ensuring it supports the local and solidarity-based economy.
Moreover, originally intended for the insulation of yachts and boat cabins, its performance matches its aesthetic appeal:
- Thermal Insulation: Thermal conductivity tests have been conducted at 0.039W/mk (reporting the thermal energy transfer per unit time).
- Sound Insulation: On sheet metal, the acoustic efficiency is effective up to 19DB.
- Hygrometric Insulation: Since it covers the entire bodywork, sprayed cork pushes the dew point outside and protects from condensation.
- Durability for 10 years: Laboratory tests show an insulation effectiveness for vans lasting at least 10 years.
Step 1: Preparing the Van Before Insulation
Cork spraying is an effective and quick solution.
The longest part of insulating your van is protecting the areas you do not want to cover with insulation using painter's tape and masking film (very practical and commonly used in bodywork):
- Windows
- Seals
- Plastics
- Protecting the van's exterior edge (in case of overspray during application)
- Insert holes if installing a wood kit
It will take about 2 hours for this van masking step before insulating.
If there are adhesive traces or anything that could affect the cork’s adhesion, we recommend lightly sanding these areas down to the metal before applying the final product.
Step 2: Preparing the Mixture Before Cork Spraying
The sprayed cork solution offered by Soliège is very easy to use. Everything is available in the natural kit, and you simply need to add water to your mixture.
In our product kit, you will find:
- 2-3 bags of cork (depending on the size of your van, use 2 bags for vehicles like Trafic, Jumpy, Transporter, and 3 bags for larger ones like Master, Jumper, etc.)
- For coloring, 1 black pigment and 1 white pigment, to be dosed according to your desired cork visual result (for this gray, we used 200g of white for 100g of black)
- The spray gun for application (with an 8mm nozzle)
You will need a compressor with a minimum of 90 liters capacity and 3-4 bars of pressure.
The steps for mixing the insulator are:
- Pour water into a bucket (maintain the 1:1 ratio, 6kg = 6L of water)
- Weigh the pigments (to remember the mixture for the second layer) and add them to the water
- Slowly pour the cork into the bucket and mix gradually until achieving a uniform texture and the desired color
Step 3: Spraying the Cork into the Van
After pouring the mixture into the cork spray gun reservoir:
Apply a first layer (primer) followed by a filling pass (second layer), then wait 12 hours for drying
Try to maintain a 40cm distance between the spray gun and the surface to be covered with sprayed cork.
Then, apply a second or third pass depending on the use and desired thickness (in this video, we applied 2 layers and are satisfied with the result):
For a smooth finish of your sprayed cork and to avoid small grains on the floor, we recommend lightly sanding manually with a 240-grit sandpaper.
It is important to insulate all parts of your van: from floor to ceiling, ideally applying multiple layers.
Step 4: Installing a Wood Kit and a Combeing Kit
The aesthetic result of sprayed cork is very satisfying, but we added a wood kit to the walls of our van conversion.
Place the different wood kit panels in the designated spots, then insert them into the holes in the van's body reinforcement
We're almost there. The most important part, as you will agree, is adding a Combeing conversion kit to create a true camper van:
The Combeing team took on the challenge of converting and insulating a van with sprayed cork in 1 day.
With this conversion and insulation, all that remains is to find beautiful camping spots without worrying about the weather conditions.
Here’s a video summary of all the steps for applying sprayed cork:
What other insulation materials can I use for my van?
There are different insulating materials available to improve comfort in your van and make your camping experience more enjoyable:
- Adding Armaflex behind your panels can enhance the thermal performance of sprayed cork inside the van. You can also place it on the floor, under the flooring, if the added thickness doesn't interfere.
- Fiberglass is another option, commonly used in construction. It offers cold protection and is priced reasonably. It comes in rolls or panels. However, fiberglass is sensitive to moisture, so you must add a vapor barrier film; otherwise, it may compress over time due to condensation inside the van. The thickness of fiberglass can be quite significant, which is an issue in a confined space like a van, especially if you leave an air gap between the insulation and the panels to slow down the cold.
- Extruded polystyrene is more durable over time as it is not sensitive to moisture. It comes in panels and is relatively expensive. Polystyrene offers good cold protection but is less effective acoustically, and it is not fire-resistant.
- Multilayer insulation is a great product and one of the most commonly used in van conversions. Like Armaflex, it is very easy to cut and install because it is flexible. You can add multiple layers to improve the product's performance. Multilayer insulation is not sensitive to moisture in the van.
- Biofib Trio, made from three plants—flax, cotton, and hemp—is a more natural solution than Armaflex. It can be used behind panels to avoid reducing available space in the van. It offers good thermal performance inside the van.
- There is also the Seacork product, applied in pots, but we did not choose it because it is designed more for external use. It releases odors due to chemical adhesives with resins, and Seacork dries quickly in the pots (thus a fast drying time).