Installing Lifeproof Flooring in our DIY Tiny Cabin on Wheels

It was early January when we were traveling in California and we decided to look for land to build a potential Airbnb cabin. After only a few days of searching, we chose a plot of land and began making our way East. Fast forward to early April, we began constructing this magical cabin from the trailer up.

We had a vision of a recycled window wall, after loving the plethora of windows in our bus for many years. We decided to make this cabin on-wheels so that we could transport it throughout the country. We started with a base of a 24’ x 8.5’ flatbed trailer which we scored for about 5k.

In our bus conversion and our previous camper van conversion we used the ultra-durable
Lifeproof flooring. With 5 dogs on the road, let me tell you, this flooring is indestructible and was a no-brainer that we’d use it in our cabin project. A home on wheels, you can only imagine the spills of plants, dog water, etc. Having waterproof and scratch proof flooring is a must for a tiny home that will be on the road.

Lifeproof
flooring comes in various materials (i.e. carpet, tile, wood-looking vinyl) and is absolutely gorgeous. We love the wood-looking vinyl as it truly resembles the character and rich values of wood, without the worry of wear and tear.

Installing the flooring took Joe and I all of 2 hours! We love the ease of the
Lifeproof’s
floating and interlocking installation.
Lifeproof
Vinyl flooring also has its own built-in underlayment- which means you are buying an all-in-one flooring! For this cabin, we used wool insulation under our floors, a layer of plywood, and then the
Lifeproof flooring right on top.

It’s important to leave about a half inch border on this floating vinyl flooring to allow for expenditure and contraction during the seasonal changes. We chose the color
Copper Hillfor it’s gorgeous warm orange tones.

Lifeproof’s
vinyl flooring is a breeze to cut and create the design of your dreams. Inside the flooring boxes,
Lifeproof
includes instructions that recommend 2 different patterns for your flooring layout in order to achieve various aesthetics and have the least amount of waste. We went with the zig zag pattern in which we only needed to cut the beginning pieces and end pieces to varying lengths. To cut the varying lengths we simply scored with a blade and snapped it to size. The vinyl flooring already comes in varying widths for a natural look.

Our hope is for others to come to our cabin,
Gardenbelle
Cabin, and enjoy the glory of living tiny. We want to give others the opportunity to experience less-is-more. We have decided at this time to continue shopping for property to place our cabin until the right space lands in our lap. In the meantime, we look forward to offering this space for others to enjoy for a night or a week.