Build A Tiny House On Wheels

My first school-bus conversion (skoolie) was an escape.

- Will Sutherland

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 (as desired). Then there are odds and ends to remove, as well as wiring issues to address.

The two most useful tools you will need for the demo process are a power drill and an angle grinder. For hand tools, you should have a standard and a metric set of socket wrenches, a combination wrench set, screwdrivers, a pry bar, and a couple pairs of locking pliers.