Oops! False info from me our boat is based at Mercia Marina! I’m currently working and the boat is in Warwickshire! However, it’s also raining in Sheffiel d
Sticky stuff today. Waited for the sun to warm the side of the boat for a few hours to dispel any condensation then covered the steel beams and filled some spaces around the window with the foil backed sticky 10mm closed cell foam then taped all the joins (that I can get at... hmmm.). The celotex at the top is pushed up past the edge of the ceiling boards against the fluffy 3M insulation as without taking the ceiling down that's the best I could do. Taking the ceiling down is too complicated because while I had the houdini hatch off to paint the roof, I screwed down through the steel into the oak liner to pull it up against the roof and it overlaps the ceiling board so it pulled them up as well... so, to get the board off I'd have to remove the hatch, unscrew the liner etc. Maybe if it was summer I'd have done it. Seems like I'm ready to refit the side panel but I'll sleep on it first.
Down t'other end I've hacked it all to pieces in a similar fashion but both sides and the roof. Part of the job I wanted to do involves adding a third skylight/houdini escape hatch. I got the hull maker to make me a plinth for it so it matched (they're local), then drilled holes a tapped for the hatch + c/sunk holes to pull up and fix a wood liner. The hatch was el cheapo 2nd hand and came with the liner, so £100 for what would be £7-800 new. The old hatch also matches my other 2 old weathered ones. Then got a local mobile welder to cut the hole and fit the steel plinth while I caught sparks inside. Most unpleasant. Paint, paint, paint and finally today when the rain stopped fixed liner that I'd prepared previously by fixing it all together and painting, cleaned up the base frame so it all weathers evenly and fitted that (I don't like shiny but by next year it'll look nice)... A large area around got trashed during the welding, I'll come back to that with power sander, filler and paint, but I wanted the hole filled first. And now I have three! The light is great, the breeze in summer is great and it looks like it's always been there. Just got to sort out this hell hole now.
One thing that was bothering me - could I get a full sheet of ply through the rear hatch? I know I can't get one in anywhere else but there are full sheets in there on the ceiling. No. That answered that, they must have lined it then built the stuff that's stopping me so I had to chop up the old stuff to get it out. It was close-ish, close enough to get the new boards cut and redesign the roof. Side ones came out though so it's not all bad. Van now stuffed with scrap wood ready for a tip run.
Bad to worse today, getting cheesed off. Always something in the way. I think I'm going to ditch the central heating, we never use it, the rads and pipes are peeing me off. Need to uninstall the bathroom too and ditch the quadrant shower but the marina office/shower/elsan/visitor mooring (where I can make a racket) has an ongoing mega electric problem so I can't shower up there and this job is... dirty so I need my own shower until they fix it. And coolant disposal... I can't really tip it down a drain, that's norty... and my drain is the canal which is a no-no obviously.
This plumbing malarky was mainly because I was kidding myself when I started this little project that I could leave the lower panels - so much attached to them. Well, obviously I knew really that I would not be happy with that, I was just blanking it so I'd start. They've sort of made a lazy effort to batten it out so the panels do have something to fix to that isn't just glued to the hull, but... it's just not good enough, no vapour barrier, 1/2" 3M insulation then a 3-4" gap for damp air circulation. tut tut. Close... but no cigar. This is how it should be done, or a version of this.
Very interesting thread this, I’m keen to see the finish! Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. Would you have been better off buying a new shell with engine and doing your own internal design?
I didn't expect to be doing this when I bought the boat! I don't want to do it either, but it needs doing, such is life. I considered a sailaway for about 10 seconds, fitting out a tiny T2 is bad enough. But here we are and the only way is forwards. It'll be nice when it's done in there (and the bathroom) with the skylight, a new stove, proper insulation with vapour barrier, new flooring. Bathroom converted to a corridor one with all new stuff instead of a walk though with a side hatch and a lovely but daft quadrant shower. I'm righting wrongs and taking advantage while the crew is elsewhere to do it properly. As soon as it's finished I'll forget the misery of doing it.
I did finish the test panel I was doing last autumn. Trim at the bottom overlaps next piece so not fitted yet. It's like welding up a van, you have to take apart the next panel to do the one you want to do properly.
Looking good Steve What did you treat the rust on the Hull with? Sent from my SM-G981B using Tapatalk
Yanked this one out this morning. This is what I'm up against - disgusting. Deep narrow shelves between the shower and side is a typical narrowboat thing with pumps in a cupboard below - dead air along with the poor construction... I want to take the shower out and sling it, but the Marina showers are cold only due to a major elec fault and by 'eck, I'm not that Northern. Their contractor has Police and NHS contracts so of course we have to wait in line. Meanwhile I have to leave mine installed, it's rapidly becoming an island in the chaos.
Multi tool scraper = wishful thinking. 40 grit grinder flap discs = reality. Luckily it's breezy and we have all the hatches open, lifted glass out of the portholes. It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it. Kind of knew we'd end up doing it this way, I had a pile of flap discs ready.
