Hey Albert, I don't run a box van now , but I have had a 12 footer, 4 different 14 footers and I also a bread truck all set up as cleaning rigs.
They are great as far as hauling lots of stuff. We put a side roll up door on our fist 14' Grumman box in 82, we paid $1000 for it installed in Seattle before I drove it back to Alaska, Filled with airmovers, Dehues, a new HM Slide in TM for a different van, We put our 2nd Steam Way Power Matic in this one facing out the side.
That flippen roll up door rattled the whole drive up even tho we tried to stuff and seal it closed because of the Alaskan Highway dust.
They are fuel hogs, no matter what you do to them they are not made for good milage.
They are hard to manuever in tight drives, they don't fit in standard garages, we replaced a few home gutter systems, Hell I even wiped one out, its not just employee bad drivers, In cold weather they are harder to heat the rear section, we installed a heater like in the cab, but added a booster pump to get the fluids through it prpoerly. I had problems with the front ends on the ones where we packed water and left loaded with equipment. All mine were Fords and after a certain milage those older ones started to drip oil no matter what you did.
For us with shorter leggs steps or a ramp comes in handy and also takes room unless you find one with one that stores underneath.
I remember seeing what you had in your old CD Van, for carpet and stone work I myself if going with a ner rig would go with the 1 ton stretch, I like the Shaft drive over the slide in.
I would hire Young Jim B and his dad from Austrailia to design a set up so every thing needed had its place or a drawer to fit in. Heck I just raised my elec vac reel and store all most all my repair and reinstallation tool under it. Used to be just wasted space.
Sorry to say you are a pack rat like me and want it all in the van. The box van will give you higher side walls for shelves since most 10 footers only have single wheels so no extra with. Jim Martin Likes his rig but I believe he is the exception on a one mane show, all otheres have 2-3 people on theres.. Just my thoughts and experince on them. Good luck with what you get. Didn't Mikey get a 10footer with that steamway unit?? Go check it out if you havent already Haven't heard mikey talk about it lately.
