Ford Transit high top extended conversion in Portugal

Appreciate the concern and the opinion. Its something that has been on my mind too. I was even thinking like you mention, of increasing the suspension on the rear. When I'm going over speed bumps, I hear something, but i actually don't know if its the encasing or not. I had a look under the van today and i found something loose and banging. So i think thats what was making the noise. Certainly as you mention, it may become an issue if there is a camper van build load in it! I will add it to the list of things to assure is safe and verified before adding much load to it.

On the under side, I saw absolutely nothing that indicated a problem to me. I only have average joe level of knowledge on such matters. There was no rust or scraps on the exterior/underneath of the wheel casing that indicate to me the wheel has ever bumped into them. I will keep and eye on it as i said, and ill also look into improving the suspension which seems like a good idea anyways for what im planning. Thanks!

Hey Folks,

Been working hard on the sub floor. I decided enough progress has been made that it might be time for an update. Part of the reason for choosing to work on the floor first is because I'm avoiding cutting into my van for windows and solar panels. I'm having trouble finding suitable roof racks for the panels, and the window part is just too scary for now. Its fine though, plenty of work to do. Over all I am on Day 17 of work. 10 days of that has been on the sub floor to date. A day is a full weekend day, or a full week day evening.

So the subfloor is made of 60mm * 40mm support beams with 60mm insulation XPS boards. First I made some basic horizontal cuts. Partially to get over the fear of making my first cuts :D

Next I focused on just one section of the van so i could get a learning experience of the complete process. I made many mistakes but the result turned out ok even in this first part. I must admit. It took 6 hours to get a RECTANGLE working. There were so many unknowns.

1: The van floor is not level. 2: The wood is not perfectly straight. 3: I forgot to buy wood glue. 4: My screws were too short. 5: I bought a device for making screw holes at an angle, and i had no idea how to use it.

I bought a MITRE saw which has been absolutely amazing. Allowed me to cut angles and precision straights really well. I'm far more likely to do things again when they require so little effort as this saw.

It took many many days to do the other sections. I expected the van to be a bit more symmetrically even. My cuts had errors, and screwing the beams together sometimes moved things, or twisted things, which threw off the next piece. I took the approach of just doing one single piece of wood at a time, Constantly compensating as i went along. It was long, but every piece that worked motivated me more.

I bought a hot foam board cutter for the boards. Don't bother. They are so ridiculous slow compared to a Stanley knife that its not worth it at all. It also has the limitation of only being able to cut a certain width but my knife i can cut anywhere.

When i got the wood cut, i screwed it together in a way that allowed me to remove it in 3 manageable parts. I wanted to do this because i wanted to treat the wood before fully screwing it together as one single unit. I took each of the 3 pieces out. One is shown below. I painted each section with a termite/insect repellant, a fungicide and a water repellant (all one chemical). I decided to make some insulation blocks to size while it was outside too.

I put it all back into the van, still in 3 separate sections, and filled more insulation in. Its a tedious job getting the fit just right, and you can see i made some mistakes. That hole in the insulation 2 levels from front is the biggest. Ill just push some insulation bits into it to fill it i think.

Then i got to this beautiful mile stone. All in, still in 3 sections. Just needs to be glued down to the van floor and 3 sections screwed together. It will be glued down with a MARINE adhesive which provides a lot of bonding but also flexibility. I read this is super important because hard non flexible adhesive eventually vibrates apart in a van. Marine adhesive offers enough flex to survive travelling and is moisture safe.

So at this point.. I felt pretty good. It was a long 10 days of work for me. I learned alot about wood work and how crazy precise it needs to be and never is! Then .. unfortunately.. I got a bright idea.. lol...so i took the whole lot of the work back out. My bright idea was from watching more videos from a british youtuber who seems to really know his stuff. I decided to fill the space between the van metal ribs with the underflooring that you use under laminate flooring. The reasons for this is debatable. The space between the ribs has air with moisture. On cold van days, this air makes a lot of contact with the van metal floor and will create condensation. Removing this air by filling the rib space with more insulation means less potential moist air, and also a lot less air to metal contact points. The roll of underflooring is quite cheap so other than labor, it seemed like worth a try. The alternative thinking is that have some air flow is good for drying out condensation since you cant stop all of it.

So i took out all my floor and placed two layers of this stuff in each cavity. I glued it to the van floor. It took 5 hours for about 70% of the van.. then i ran out of glue again :D

It was 28C in that van during working time. A tough day, but i loved the pride i felt. While the floor was out of the van. I also read more about protecting the wood, and i found another protector that would protect the wood more from deterioration rather than fungus/bugs. I've taken the time today to paint all the sections with this second treatment.

That is where i am currently at. About 90% complete on the subfloor i think. Tomorrow ill finish the insulation in the cavities, screw it together, and glue it down i think.. i might hold off on gluing it until i complete the bathroom incase i need to more access to the van floor for plumbing reasons.

Any feedback is appreciated, criticism or agreement. Happy to learn and grateful to those who gave good feedback to me on the wheel encasings, and insulation.

Questions i have too!

1: Is the second layer of insulation a good idea or bad idea?

2: does wood really need to be treated like this? insects and then environmental?

3: Anyone know any transit L4H3 roof racks that don't cost 2k?

4: There was this cool tool that i used for making holes in the wood at an angle. I was thinking of uploading a video of using it, but i didn't know if videos were a good idea or not, as they can be quite time consuming compared to pics.

5: I have some time lapse videos too, but should i just stick to pictures on this thread?

A small update. I didn't work much on it recently because im having A LOT of trouble ordering supplies from amazon.de with my new bank account. Waiting over a week for it to be resolved.

Last week i put the floor in on top of the sub floor. It was really easy compared to the subfloor. Only took 2 days and that includes protecting all the wood with insect/wood treatments.

I made stencils out of cardboard and traced them on to 15mm plywood. The plywood is quite heavy but feels super sturdy. Im pleased with it.

I remembered so much from my wood working classes as a child that i was super proud of my teacher.

After fitting it all. It all had to come back out for treatment of the wood for insects/moisture protection etc.

Then after treating it all. I put the floor back in and spent 2 hours using duct table to map all the support beams so i know where i can screw! I've decided not to glue the floor down as i could easily see me needing to get underneath it again for some situations while building.

I then got some sound deadening material for the wheel encasings. its like really heavy sticky paper that absorbs a lot of vibration so the wheel encasings and large flat surfaces are perfect places for it. First i cut it into the right shapes and then i stuck it on. I spent about an hour rolling it on to each encasing using a special roller i bought for it. Its just a hard plastic roller. The sound difference is very noticeable.

Portugal has many regulations so very soon i need to employ an engineer to make all this super legal. Its a lengthy process with comprehensive plans etc in Portuguese. Roughly costs about 1k extra in fees but its not ok to get on the wrong side of authorities here if they are in a bad mood at English speaking van dwellers. Best to have as many boxes as possible ticked.

I bought a new camera phone this week so ill have much clearer pictures from now on. It was really difficult using my previous phone due to low disk space!

I made a big decision this week to stop using wood for many things. Its too heavy and my friend over here has had terrible problems going over the max weight limit of 3500kg. I have decided to use aluminum 3030 to build any future supports. I was a bit afraid to use it on the floor but after looking into it more, it was a really safe option all along. The connectors and accessories available for it are pretty amazing. I think ill end up with a higher quality finish that weighs less and is strong.

Here is a link to the one i like. https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B075NB5HKQ

If anyone has any experience with it. Let me know.

Humble roads is exactly where i first came across the idea. I hesitated alot on the floor due to potential for thermal bridging. It felt odd to insulate so much but then to use a crazy great conductor.. In hindsight, i think i was overthinking it. I also think the floor is the least likely place for it to be a problem since most heat will come from the sides/top. Heat is what I'm aiming to reduce in my climate.

The 3030 is a relatively strong piece of extrusion. 2020 looked a bit too thin, and 4040 looked a bit too big. As for mixing, in theory i agree with you.. but if i use different extrusion grades, many connectors need to be purchased differently. The link i gave above has 'good' deals on extrusion in larger sizes (12 * 2 meters). Large boxes of connectors are.. affordable (though still some high expense).

I felt like wood was pretty pricey. Definitely cheaper than extrusion but as you said, i also love the flexibility with the extrusion in terms of lego play. I will use for shower room structure/supports for work tops/cabinets/Bed frame/storage. This should help remove alot of the wood weight, and ill use a thin plywood for backings/sides. Another thing i will use the extrusion for is the roof rack for the solar panels. The roof racks pre built are CRAZY CRAZY money. Absolutely silliness. 2-3k for something that i think i could build for 300.

Appreciate the comments/opinions. Be sure to drop me a line when you start your own build so i can follow!

Ah I realised I can put these corner brackets on the bracket to extrusion. I can easily attach 2 underneath that will keep it extra supported.

It would mean 4 different connectors would need to fail with 2 completely perpendicular load directions. Sounds very safe to me

Big update since the last one.

First, the Roof rack. After some consultation with the reddit community, My roof rack turned out to have some potential issues with lateral/side loading. If there was a very large storm, the brackets i used could potentially bend. It was a bit unlikely but better safe than sorry.

So I redesigned my roof rack to be more lateral safe. I purchased larger brackets made of thicker steel, that also came with the gusset fold you can see. I had no idea gussets were a thing, but they are designed exactly to stop this type of bending.

I then attached a secondary bracket to the back of this to support the load from the vertical plane. Each bar is now bound to bracket support through 4 different bolts through 2 planes. It might be a bit overkill but im happy for that when im on a motorway carrying a solar panel kite. I added some washers that allowed me to tilt the bracket a few degrees to compensate partially for the tilt of the roof curvature. I cant believe ford didnt just make the mountain points parallel to the ground.

I replicated this on the 8 mounting points and added in 2 horizontal bars at same level to help distribute the load across the sides. Its been 2 weeks up there and absolutely rock solid.

I still have to add locking washers and sealant to the mountain points, but I wont do that until I get the solar panels incase I need to move anything. It rains so little here i have not even had to consider it.

Overall I'm super pleased with the roof rack. I feel its as sturdy as i could ever wish for, and i'm quite pleased with the cost of it. About 250 euros worth of equipment (the 3 rebuilds of it). The store bought racks were close to 2k and offered so little customizability. Absolutely crazy money.

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Next up. The interior framing and installed a bed! :D

I played around learning how to install a Riv Nut which is absolutely the best device I've ever used in the build. It is a nut/insert that fits inside a hole and allows you to screw in a bolt. It has given me huge confidence in how securely I can bind things to the van structure. Far more holding than glue and screws, with the ability to dismantle things easily.

I began framing the bed area. Its a square metal frame sitting on those horizontal supports. I believe this is the best way to distribute any weight.. In hindsight, its overkill. Its so structurally sound that it was never going to be a problem. I'm happy for that problem!

I decided to use aluminum profile (3030) for all my framing as its proved to be very very easy to use, far faster to assemble and disassemble, extremely forgiving of mistakes and prototyping. The strength and weight of it far exceeds wood qualities. I have rebuilt nearly all my bed framing 3 times now. The bolts and connectors make that infinitely doable.

I'm very pleased with the results of this too. It took a lot of trial and error, but slowly made its way towards the quality I wanted. The best thing about the aluminum is that I can afford to make very large design mistakes and simply, undo everything and fix it. I made some bad cuts but its less waste than wood because even small parts are super strong and useful.

Next i began to build the bed bottom. My hole saw broke half way through so i need to redo that part of the wood before i can treat it for bugs/wood protection. Getting the corners correct was a huge amount of time because NOTHING in a van is straight, even the straight walls. The van is 1.5cm wider at the back than the middle on the same wall, so a straight piece of plywood needs to be cut at an angle just to press flush against the van wall 'straight line'

Then the scariest part was installing the mattress. There was 26cm of area at the rear door wasted if the mattress was not cut to fill that odd shaped area. Far too much to waste. No other idea seemed good enough. I cut the mattress. It was simple enough. Unzip it, remove the fire protection cover netting (temporarily), and then cut it using a sharp Stanley knife. I used the wooden boards as the template (AFTER I MADE A CARDBOARD CUT OUT!! lol)

It fit! :D

Now i have a bed :D

Next week I am going camping in it for the first time. I have a cooler and fan that needs power to be comfortable. It's a huge heatwave here in Portugal. I installed a battery also in a temporary solution so i could connect the ventilation and food cooler.

I will do temporary wiring to allow me to use it. The correct cables and Victron Orion 48V to 12V DC/DC convertor will arrive early this week. I THINK its a matter of just running wiring from Orion converter to both 12v fan & cooler. The battery should have enough factory charge to last me a weekend easily. I can't charge it until my solar panels arrive :D It took 6 months to get one of these batteries. There seems to be a massive delay.

Anyways. That's all my progress so far. Its been really tough working in 35C heat. Just constantly using sunscreen and soaking my t-shirts/head wraps in cold water. I'm very proud of the work so far.

Any suggestions or feedback welcome!

Hey Hey! Long time no update. I took a huge break from the van for many personal reasons.

Sickness, relationship stuff, travel, mood, weather. I've been back working on it and have some progress worth showing.

Solar power install:

I installed 4 solar panels on top of the van. 175W panels at 48v each. I have the wired in parallel. Open circuit voltage is about 55-61V on each panel so it meets my requirements. I first attached them each to two aluminum bars. This was pretty easy. I simply drilled holes in the side frames of each panel. Put some connectors on to my aluminum protrusion, and just screwed in from the back.

As you can see, it means two bars double up beside each other between panels. For the 2nd last, and last panel, i placed the two panels sharing the same middle bar. This is purely to save 2cm. Its important to me to save room on the roof so that i may add a 5th panel. 6 cm is a useful amount of room to me. It gives me enough to add a 5th panel should i need to.

Solar panel hell

Now.. all of this took a couple of weeks..but there was HUGE problems awaiting.

I got VERY little output into my battery. It took many many weeks of debugging before i came to the conclusion that my installation was correct. The only logical theory was that 3 out of 4 panels were broken. It seemed insane. Of course i had to have made a mistake. Its my first panel install. After many weeks of debugging. I was certain i made no mistakes. Panel 1 worked perfectly. Panels 2, 3, 4 were about 10% of the output.

After working with the sales rep, we shipped the panels back to Ireland with the agreement of no charge. It helped i had weeks of debugging data and various experiments with pictures. Couple weeks later, the manufactuer confirmed panels 2,3,4 were indeed malfunctioning. It took 15 more weeks to get replacement panels delivered because the next batch of these panels was not in stock. They are not super common. Most people get 12v and put them in series, I wanted 48V panels so i could put them in parallel to allow me to use my 100v MPPT controller from victron.

Only the other day did the new panels arrive. I tested them and they seem perfect but i have to do all my work again to put them on the roof. I am not in a rush for that. There was lots of heavy rain so it wasnt possible anyways.

Interestingly the broken panels outputted the correct voltage, but no amps.

My one working panel has been able to slowly charge my 3.5Kwh battery from pylontech (3000c). It takes a VERY long time, and i think it only brings it to about 90%. I think this has to do with the fact that the controller is 'dumb' without the devices that make it smart. It has a 48V profile setting but it has no temperature sensor or battery management system cable connected. This will allow the battery to inform the charge controller more accurately. Its not a priority for me at all at the moment. I'm not working on the electrics yet.

First proper trip

Myself and a friend went to El Choro in Spain for some Climbing. We spent a week camping in the van on a camp site (showers + kitchen). It went great. The ventilation, and bed worked perfectly. The solar panel ALMOST kept the battery with enough power for our fridge for 7 days. It only ran out on the last day. It meant we had cold drinks, milk and meat fresh. I have an eating disorder which requires me to have lots of milk so I felt super liberated by this. Ive never been able to camp like this before partly due to the eating difficulty. I felt super motivated and its really put the step back in the van progress.

Its worth mentioning that the roof rack got stuck in a tree at one point, and i pulled a large branch off the tree accidently before i noticed. The roof rack didnt budge at all. Super solid, so im very pleased with that :D

I have completely quite a bit more work and i will post very soon about. Sometimes jobs just take LOTS of time, and pictures from during it just dont provide much value i think. Currently working on the shower room, the scariest part of the whole build for me!

Any questions or feedback, please feel free!

I do not have one at the moment no. When i create one, ill remember to post it up for you.

I have a 48V battery, a dc to dc 48v to 12v converter. Converter will power the lights + fan + usb sockets... maybe a fridge.

The 240v will power everything else from induction cooker, computer, and whatever other sockets..

Water heater element is diesel. Its a bobil van air + water combo. Excellent product. Electrical heating element is back up or time saver.

Air heating is same product, so diesel.

Definitely cheaper.

Can you tell me any thoughts you have on efficiency? Ive read that 12v would be more efficient because they are designed for lower power situations so have better insulation, and im not aware of how DC->AC would be more efficent than DC-lower DC? (as in i generally dont know how conversion even works)

Hey Folks

Another update.

Shower/toilet room progress.

So first thing first. The van is not straight, level or boxy. The drive way is a slope so i cant even hang a piece of string for straightness. It has been really hard for me to learn how to make a square room in a round environment. I see people adding lots of wood and distance from the edge but i truly want to maximize every inch of space so i decided to do it my way. The curvature of the room is 10cm less wide at the top than the bottom because it hugs the walls of the van. I don't notice it when standing in the room, and I'm comfortable with it.

I want the shower room to be as tall as possible, and to have a sizeable tray in the bottom. I want it to start from right behind the driver seat.

First i had to build a bulk head wall. I pulled out the metal bulk head wall and began replacing it with my own wooden one.

I put the tray down and built a floor frame around it for other wall frame beams to fit into it.

I attached beams to the van structure by using bolts. I used cross nuts to provide the threaded hole. These are invaluable in the build I find. I can put a bolt anywhere and its rock tight/super strong.

It took a long time to figure out where to place beams, how to get them roughly straight, and how to have the structurally sound. A huge help was a beam on the ceiling which was within 2 cm of where i needed a beam. So i just put two together and put it in the roof. It provided a huge stability and a place to work off.

This was 1 of 2 super hard parts. The curvature of the roof affects the bathroom shape. I felt i would lose too much room moving the bathroom back. It was a judgement call. I wouldn't blame anyone for moving it back, and maybe adding a swivel seat so you can make good use of the space.

Its structurally very very sound. You could do pull ups off any part of this. The reason I used a particular bracket here is because a crack appeared in the wood. So I just wanted a little extra safety. I need all sides, even these at angles, to be flat surfaces so i can add a sheet of wood later as a ceiling. This works here well enough i think. It took effort. I never really worked at angles before. Everything got about twice the amount of screws or brackets as was required.

I just kept adding more and more support beams for structural support in different locations. I also needed places were i knew i could screw panels to at the edges to make sure the corners are super tight and water proofed.

This corner piece was an absolute disaster. I spent several days working on it. I think it looks like **** and i plan to just cover it up. Maybe i can make a shelf from it. I hate it. I hate it so much. Every single side of this was angled. Every piece of wood would encounter the van edge at an unusual angle at different lengths. In the end, i attempted to just build a square box around the curves. However there was nothing i could bolt into well. So i had to built extensions and then join them all. Its a horrible mess and i wish i had a better idea. FEEL FREE TO SUGGEST SOMETHING

That gap in between the wood is deliberate to compensate for the curves of the van.

I felt this was enough frame for now. I knew i might need to add more wood for screw positions but at this stage, this room is super strong.

I got started on the shower basin and drain.

Drain

This was the a very scary part of the build. I hate the idea of a leak under the floor. I drilled a pilot hole and checked it was in a good location underneath. I then just cut! The offset distance is intentional. I bought this 1 single molded piece of drain. It minimizes the risk of leak. The end of it comes out the bottom of the van. The ONLY place this can leak into the van is between the 'drainer strainer' and the rubber gasket/drain compression fit under the tray. Its a compression fit and i sealed the edges of it with marine sealant. I think its safe, ive tested it.. but ill never not worry about it!

The drain looks a lot like this: Its just more Bulbous shaped with a slightly offset pipe. The offset is irrelevant to me.

I then just connected some waste pipe to the drain bottom. That small hole is the pilot hole. I sprayed the area and edges with hammerite white metal paint. Im going to squirt some expanding foam up into that area to fill the air gap around the drain. Is this a good idea?

There is it. Water coming from the drain. I didn't find any leak but unless its super obvious.. I cant really see how. The shower tray is glued down with Marine adhesive. Its super strong, sticky and flexible. The wood frame alone is super tight around it so the glue is just extra helpful.

Any suggestions or questions. Fire away!

Update time: A fair bit of progress has been made since my last update. Ill update part now, and part next week since there is so much changed.

Lets finish with the bathroom and shower room first! I was delighted with this outcome!

Added vent for sucking out the humid air from the shower room. That vents through the roof through an inline fan (yet to be installed)

One of the many things that makes and breaks this room is obviously its water tightness. I decided to go with a tanking membrane solution. Its essentially thick rubbery paint. First you paint on the corners and joins. You then add this rubber backed tape onto the wet rubber paint. This is somewhat not needed according to some people. The rubbery paint is quite effective. However, it never hurts to be cautious about water in a van. For the little extra cost, I used it.

The room got 2 coats of this stuff, and the corners/joins got 4. Its quite fast drying, and makes a mess. Its thick going on and dries thick too. It is a wonderful substance and is very very effective. Its pretty obvious the room is waterproof through the walls pretty quickly.

Next up i added the tap plumbing holes. It comes as one unit. I tried a couple other things but they were all too weak and flimsy. This solid (ish) piece of plumbing ordered from amazon proved very effective. It has half inch threaded tap holes at the appropriate distance from each other by standard expectations. I would like the backing piece to be a little stronger. Its not as strong as it looks but there has been no problems so far.

Then i joyfully added my first 'functionality' item. Everything else up until this point just felt like infrastructure. Nothing i would physically use myself in a day to day sense. Here are my taps. (well here they are being test fitted). It has an thermostatic value which i think might come in quite useful because my hot water tank is not too big. As the hot water leaves and is replaced by cold water. The % ratio of cold to hot will change very very fast. I hope the thermostatic value goes some way to regulating more hot water in to compensate as the shower continues.

Before putting them in permanently. I wanted to add a feature wall so:

Here is the shower installed also in the feature wall. It took me HOURS to figure out how to install the shower bar lol. There was no space at the top and the top was already on the wall n sealed lol. The shower head has a ON/OFF button which i really wanted. I also attached a longer hose to it. This allows me to easily take it outside the side door of the van to use it to wash off things before coming into the van. Like surfboards or dusty/dirty items. You may also notice that i have silicon sealed the entire rooms joins and edges. Ive used the shower a few times now, and so have my friends when camping. No water has ever been detected outside the room so I'm pretty pleased with this. It is probably the scariest n biggest risk to me.

This vent is for the natures head composting toilet. It comes with a extractor fan built into it. It helps dry the solids area and keeps a negative pressure in the toilet. I must say.. i was pretty disappointed with this fan. It comes with a 50mm pipe to extract the air from.. however the fan is EXTREMELY weak. I don't think ive seen a smaller weaker fan in any desktop computer even cooling memory down. It seems like a type of fan that might come attached to a graphics card but weaker. It just seems silly in hindsight to cut a 50mm hole for such a lack luster fan.

The natures head toilet is SUPER comfy to sit on, but if i was to do it all again. I would pick a much much cheaper box toilet for 200 euro that allows you to put a bag into the poop area. Far easier to clean, and that means far more hygienic to me. 5 times cheaper and doesn't require a fan/hole. It IS super super comfy though.

So that's my toilet/shower update portion.

Water, water, where are you?

I decided to go with undermounted water tanks to try save as much room as possible in the van. I don't ever intend to be in freezing conditions so im not worried about that risk.

This is my 48 liter grey water tank that i mounted under the van. Its quite difficult finding places to put something like this. This is near the front, just behind the drivers seat. It was quite easy to make sure there was enough clearance height wise. I think i could even have larger tanks.

Here is the 78 liter fresh water tank. It is dead center near the back. I don't have a spare wheel. So i put this here. In the future i would like to move it and put a spare wheel in.. but atm the moment, this will do. The NUTS are anti slip nuts and perform great. One issue i have is that the ground is never really level. There are some air holes on the top to allow air to leave the tank when its being filled up.. however since the ground is never level. These tend to leak small amounts of water even though the tank is not full. Its kind of annoying. In hindsight i wish had a 120L tank but a 78 liter will do me for now.

Here is my under mounted pump, and accumulator. I must admit, that it took maybe 5 versions of this just to get them to work. The filter on the left came with a NON screw ending so i had to use plastic hosing to connect it.. Well how do i connect that to my tank which had a far different size? I had to use metal female connections to plastic male threads. It is not advised BUT it worked perfectly. You just got to make sure not to over tighten. The plumbing had tiny leaks in almost every part over a few weeks of testing. To others, i suggest.. go to screwfix, get a half inch brass female adapter on each end of every plastic component..and work from there with your normal piping. The plastic threads wear out too easily.

Im super pleased with the shower room/toilet so far. Its been working just fine and offers a very nice facility to make it feel more homely. There are some design mistakes in it, but nothing others will notice i think. If anyone wants any lessons i learned from it, please feel free to ask or DM. Its been solid and watertight for a couple months now. No issues with that part. Overall, the infrastructure and room took about 4 months to build (weekends)