Ambulance – Next Steps

Hello! Welcome to another blog post! This one will be about all of the things that we have to do in between installing our insulation and installing our walls. There also aren’t going to be any pictures in this post since all of the information is just in my head right now.

It doesn’t seem like there should be that many things to do in between these steps, but I realized that there are so many when I started listing them out.

For a very short summary I have to completely decide on where I want all of my electrical components, decide how I want my plumbing system to work, completely design a sound system, decide which insulation to use, weld some of the outside cabinets shut, remove the outside cabinets from the inside, decide where I want my skylight and window to go, and figure out the material of the walls, ceiling, and floor that I want to use.

All of the electrical is going to go under the walls and ceiling, so I have to decide on that very quickly. If I need any extra inside space for electrical components, I also need to decide where that will go before I put any of the walls in completely.

All of my outlet, switch, control panel, and wiring locations will have to be decided upon before we put the walls up. This will make it a lot easier in the long run to organize everything and also for ease of installation. I am not really looking forward to planning out my whole system, but I know it will be worth it to do it now.

I want to have a water pump, water lines, and water storage all in good places before I put the walls up because these will also be behind the walls. I’m going to have a shower with a faucet halfway down for the sink, so we have to plan this out in advance.

I also think it would be super nice to have some speakers around the house of the ambulance on the inside, for watching movies, listening to music, and playing games. Of course, this is not necessary but would be very nice. Again, all of this is going to go behind the walls, so we have to plan it now.

I have been doing a ton of research about the kind of insulation to use in the ambulance, and a lot of people are divided about it. I do think I have a good idea of what to use, and it won’t be perfect, but will most definitely be better than nothing.

Additionally, the removal of the outside cabinets that I want to get rid of is necessary before we put walls up, or even insulation because they all protrude into the interior space. I am excited to get rid of these, and I will also probably be making my own outside cabinets with what is leftover from them as well. This also includes welding them shut from the outside. I will probably just use sheet metal for that part.

I do think I want a small window on the driver side, because there is at least one window on every other side of the ambulance, and I like to have lines of sight on all sides. We should also decide this soon because we will be cutting holes into the outside of the ambulance and also the interior walls.

The same goes for the skylight/vent, that we need to cut a lot of holes and I would rather plan it out before we put the ceiling up. I think this will be very necessary for ventilation in the ambulance.

I would also absolutely love heated floors, since I want to visit a lot of cold places in the winter that have snow and such. This will be necessary to install before the floor goes in, since it goes under the floor. This will require a lot of research to decide which company to buy from, but I know I can get it done.

The last thing that we need to do between insulation and putting walls up (if I have not forgotten anything) is decide on a material for the walls, floor, and ceiling. Weight is a huge factor in deciding this, and I also want it to look nice. I haven’t even started researching these things, so I should definitely start soon.

The next steps for the exterior are removing the rest of the decals, removing the outside cabinets, making sure I have finished the remaining cabinets the way I want them, and then having it painted.

My dad gave me some solvent that is supposed to work on old decals, but it only works in temperatures about 50 degrees, so that will have to wait a couple weeks. I am super excited to try it since the previous method was very tedious and messy, and I don’t really want to do that anymore.

I am also going to have to figure out how to make my own doors for the remaining parts of the outside cabinets I am keeping. I want to have little cabinets on the outside still just for extra storage, stuff that we don’t use very often. I think this will be quite a learning curve, but I am ready for it.

I am also going to have it painted, since I do not feel equipped to do it myself and I think that buying the supplies would cost way more money. I would like to have it painted a medium grey, so it isn’t very bad in either hot or cold weather. I would love to paint it white to keep it cool in the summer, but that would make it a bit colder in the winter. I think the medium grey will be a great medium.

These are all of the future plans I have right now for the ambulance! Thank you so much for reading my post, and I will see you in the next one! I’m posting every Monday and Thursday.