BUILD A TINY HOUSE ON WHEELS
MY FIRST school-bus conversion (skoolie) was an escape. I was living under the dual thumbs of my student loans and mortgage, working two jobs to pay for a life I didn’t have time to enjoy. After a crash course in turning a 16-seat school bus into a dwelling, I had both an outlet for adventure and an income source I loved (West Virginia’s top-rated Airbnb since 2015).
Why on Earth did I turn a retired school bus into a mobile tiny home? Simple: In the US, big yellow buses are cheap and durable. A used bus at auction goes for about 10 per cent of the cost of a used RV. And where RVs are designed to be lightweight, buses are designed to work. That gets you a steel-framed body and steel panelling on top of a heavy-duty commercial truck frame. And under the hood, most school buses feature commercial-grade diesel engines that have been reliably maintained by fleet mechanics.
My book, Skoolie!: How to Convert a School Bus or Van into a Tiny Home or Recreational Vehicle, covers every step of the process, along with every hard-earned time-, sweat-, and money-saving insight I’ve picked up. But to show (and hopefully inspire) anyone who can hold an angle grinder that they’re capable of building a home on wheels, I’ve shared the basic process for turning a bus into a clean, well-insulated room to outfit as you please.
1 DEMOLITION
You’ll start demolition by removing the seats, followed by the floor, then the wall and ceiling panels
