Interior
Interior Remodeling
In short: The difference between an RV interior and a house interior is that everything in an RV has to survive being driven at highway speed, which rules out most residential fixtures and all residential fastening methods.
- Typical range
- $1,500 to $50,000+
- Labor hours
- 20 to 250 hours
- Updated
An RV interior is a small, heavy, mobile building that experiences an earthquake every time it goes down the road. That single fact governs everything about how it can be remodelled.
Residential renovation logic mostly does not transfer. Weight matters because payload is finite. Fastening matters because everything is being shaken continuously. Flex matters because the structure moves, so rigid materials spanning between two points that move independently will crack.
What we do
Full gut and rebuild. Everything out to the shell, structure and systems inspected and repaired, then rebuilt to a new design.
Partial remodels. Kitchen, bath, bedroom or living area, leaving the rest.
Layout changes. Moving or removing walls, converting a bunk room, changing a dinette to a workspace. The largest and most involved category because plumbing and wiring live in the walls being moved.
Refreshes. Flooring, paint, soft goods, lighting, hardware. Large visual change for comparatively little money.
Vintage restoration. Retaining original character while rebuilding structure and systems underneath.
Conversion builds. Van conversions, bus conversions, skoolies, and mobile business builds where the interior is commercial equipment rather than living space.
Weight, and why it decides the design
Every coach has a gross vehicle weight rating and most are closer to it than their owners realise. A remodel that adds 400 kilograms of granite, tile and hardwood can take a vehicle over its rating, which is a safety problem, a legal problem and a tyre and brake problem.
So we track weight through the design. Where a material choice is going to cost you payload you need, we say so and offer alternatives: solid surface instead of stone, engineered flooring instead of tile, lightweight ply instead of solid hardwood in carcases. The visual difference is usually small. The weight difference is not.
Movement, and why fastening matters
A house cabinet is screwed to a wall and never moves again. An RV cabinet is subjected to continuous vibration plus shock loads at every expansion joint on the freeway.
That means mechanical fastening into structure rather than into panelling, adhesive plus fasteners rather than either alone, positive latching on every door and drawer, and no rigid material spanning between two parts of the structure that flex independently. Get any of that wrong and the failure shows up 500 miles into the first trip.
Sequence
Design and specification. Layout, materials, weight budget, and confirmation of what is behind every wall you want to move.
Demolition and inspection. Stripping back reveals what is actually there. This is routinely where water damage is discovered, and it has to be dealt with first. A beautiful remodel over wet framing is a very expensive way to hide a problem.
Structure and systems. Framing repair, plumbing, 12 volt and 120 volt routing, insulation. All of it before anything visible goes back.
Substrate and finishes. Walls, ceiling, flooring.
Cabinetry and fixtures. Built, fitted, secured.
Soft goods and finishing. Upholstery, window treatments, hardware, lighting.
Commissioning. Every system tested, every door and drawer cycled, road test to shake it down.
What it costs
| Scope | Typical range | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh: flooring, paint, soft goods | $1,500 to $6,000 | 20 to 50 |
| Single area remodel | $6,000 to $14,000 | 45 to 95 |
| Partial remodel with cabinetry | $8,000 to $20,000 | 60 to 130 |
| Full gut and rebuild | $25,000 to $50,000+ | 150 to 250+ |
Labor is $210 per hour for interior work, $260 where plumbing and electrical are involved. See the pricing page.
Layout changes carry the biggest premium, because moving a wall means rerouting whatever runs inside it.
Vintage work
Restoring a vintage coach interior is a different discipline from remodelling a modern one. The goal is a vehicle that reads as original while being structurally and mechanically current.
That means retaining original cabinetry faces and repairing rather than replacing them, sourcing or reproducing period fixtures, matching original materials where they can still be had, and doing all the structural and systems work invisibly behind. It takes considerably longer than a modern remodel because restoration cannot be parallelised the way replacement can.
Related work: cabinetry and countertops, flooring replacement, upholstery repair.
What we find when we open a coach up
Demolition is where remodels change shape, and it is worth going in expecting that rather than being surprised by it. The recurring discoveries, roughly in order of frequency:
Water damage nobody knew about. Soft subfloor at a slide opening, wet framing in a sidewall, a rotted panel behind a cabinet. On a coach over about eight years old that has lived outdoors, finding some is closer to the norm than the exception. It gets fixed before anything new goes in, because a remodel over wet structure is a very expensive way to hide a problem for another two years.
Wiring that was added by somebody in a hurry. Aftermarket solar, inverters, stereo and lighting installed by a previous owner or a quick-turnaround shop. Undersized cable, unfused branches, connections made with twist caps rather than crimps. All of it is a fire risk in a vehicle that vibrates continuously, and an open wall is the cheapest moment in the vehicle's life to correct it.
Plumbing routed through places it should not be. Lines run against sharp framing edges, unsupported spans that have been vibrating for years, fittings buried where they can never be serviced.
Structure that was already marginal. Framing that was light to begin with and has since been drilled through repeatedly by accessory installations.
None of this is unusual and none of it is a reason to abandon a project. It is a reason to build contingency into the budget rather than committing every available dollar to finishes, and it is why we quote demolition and inspection as a stage rather than folding it into a single fixed number.
Living with the result
A remodel that looks perfect on delivery and rattles at 60 miles an hour has failed. Before a vehicle leaves we cycle every door and drawer, load-test shelving, and take it out on the freeway to shake it down, because vibration finds the things a static inspection does not. Anything that moves, buzzes or works loose comes back to the bench before you take it.
Estimates are $150 and credited back against an authorized repair.