How to fit out a new van from scratch — what to do before your first job

A new van is a clean slate, and that's exactly why the first week matters. Before the back fills up with tools, offcuts and half-empty fixings boxes, you've got a rare window to set the van up properly from the ground up. Get it right now and the van earns its keep for its whole life on the road. Rush it and you'll be working around the same compromises for the next five years. Here's the order to tackle it in before your first job.

Protect the bare metal before anything goes in

That floor and those walls are bare painted steel, and they won't stay that way for long once tools start sliding around. The first knock takes the paint off, the next one starts a rust spot, and condensation does the rest over a winter. A new van with a battered, rusting load area also loses real money when it comes time to sell or hand it back.

This is why ply lining goes in first, before any racking. A proper floor in marine-grade or phenolic-faced ply gives you a hard-wearing, sealed surface that shrugs off dropped tools, dragged kit and wet boots. The walls protect the panels from dents and give you something solid to fix racking into later. Do the lining before anything else and you're building everything else on a surface that lasts.

Plan the layout before you drill a single hole

The temptation is to bolt your old racking straight in and crack on. Resist it. An empty van is the only time you'll see the full space clearly, so use it to plan properly.

Think about how you actually work. What do you reach for first when you open the side door? That goes nearest the door. Heavy items — battery kit, full fixings, anything dense — sit low and as close to over the rear axle as you can manage, so the van handles properly and the payload sits right. Lighter, bulkier gear goes higher. And know your numbers: check the van's payload and gross vehicle weight before you load it, because a fit-out plus a full kit can eat into your legal limit faster than you'd think. Measure the load area, sketch it out, and only then start fixing.

Get racking and secure storage in while it's empty

Fitting out an empty van is a different job to wrestling racking in around tools you can't be bothered to unload. Do it now, in one go, while you can see every panel and reach every fixing point.

Build it around the trade. Euro boxes and shallow drawers keep small parts visible and separated so you're not digging. A false floor creates underfloor storage for longer or heavier items and keeps the main load space clear. And if you carry expensive kit — testers, cordless sets, a press tool — a secure, lockable vault or drawer unit built in from the start means the high-value gear has a proper home rather than an afterthought bolted on later. Fitting it all before the van fills with clutter saves you doing the job twice.

Sort the unglamorous bits before you load up

A few things are easy to skip in the rush to get earning, and all of them are cheaper to deal with now than later. Fit any extra security — deadlocks, slam locks or an alarm upgrade — while the van's empty and easy to work on. Mark or register your tools before they go in. Tell your insurer the van is fitted out, as some tool policies expect racking and secure storage to be in place. And weigh the loaded van if you're close to the limit. None of it is glamorous, but it's the difference between a van that's ready to work and one that bites you in month two.

Set the van up once, properly

The few days before your first job are the one chance to do this without working around a load of kit. Line it, plan it, rack it and secure it in the right order, and you've got a van that works the way you do from day one. If you've just taken delivery and want it set up properly from the start, take a look at our van racking and ply lining systems to find a fit-out built for your trade, or book a free design consultation and we'll plan one around the way you work.