Now that all of the plumbing is buttoned up on the interior (video and post), we’re going to be handling the bus sink & counter installation in the loo of the Wanderlust Bus. Our handy neighbor, Dwayne, happened to have a thick 100-year-old barn timber laying around the woodshop and he was glad to donate it to the project as our loo counter.
Let me clarify. I keep saying “loo” instead of “bathroom” because our showering/bathing facilities are in a different room from the one we use to do any…. eh-hem… personal business.
Once we had our timber, we cut it down to the dimensions it needed to be to fit into the space between the walls in the loo. The boards are roughly 2 inches thick and needed to be straightened on the edge to get a good surface to join the two pieces for the bus sink & counter installation. We ran them down the table saw to accomplish this. Then, once they were flushed, we added some Kreg screws and glued and clamped everything together.
After leaving the glued boards to dry overnight, I came back, chisels in hand, ready to channel my inner Roy Underhill. If you know who Roy is, good, then you can appreciate what I said. If you don’t, check out the video over there, on the left, for a little taste of Roy. Continue down the rabbit hole if you want, but make sure you come back here to finish out the bus sink & counter installation.
I used a wide chisel and dadoed a 3″ channel about a third of the length of the board. This is the channel the missus wants to use to grow live moss. This allows us to wipe off the counter and the water can be used to moisten the moss as it grows. This will also act as a small natural air filter. Once this channel is made. we can then move on to the EcoPoxy coating.
Proper prep for epoxy is essential to ensure a clean finish and result in fewer problems with the bus sink & counter installation.
We prep for the EcoPoxy pour by cleaning the surface of any contaminants and taping around the back and side edges. This serves a dual purpose in the bus sink & counter installation. First, it protects the back and sides from getting too much epoxy on them, which could cause the fit in the allotted space to be too tight. Second, this creates a very small ridge around the perimeter of the counter to, at least somewhat, alleviate any water from getting behind the countertop.
Once things are taped off, we can start pouring the epoxy. Since this is only a finishing coat and there are no major voids to fill, we can simply pour a 1/8 inch layer of EcoPoxy across the entire counter and spread it out, making sure to cover the front edge completely.
After letting the EcoPoxy cure for a day (though it will take a week to completely harden), we drilled and relief cut for the plumbing fixtures.
Check out the entire bus sink & counter install process in the video below. And don’t forget to check out EcoPoxy on their website here.