Looking forward to sealing and painting all the manky oak faced stuff. Lots to do first, though I have now taped up 99% of the insulation, removed the rest of the heating plumbing, tidied the back cabin with hooks for hosepipes and ropes and elec hookup cables. Also untangled the 12v wiring and hooked a lot of it out of the way and built conduit into the insulation for the 240 ring main (not the bit stored on the pile). The trick to working on a narrowboat is to keep throwing out anything you don't need and constantly tidy/work tidy. If you don't you spend more time moving things than working.
2x1 Roof battens screwed to the steel sections, more insulation between the battens then finally plywood.
I kept a piece to prop the insulation up in a curve. The wider pieces need it, the narrower fracture into place and stay there if cut tight. Still need it for the bathroom section.
No pics but progress is being made. We got battens TEK screwed back on the ceiling, added some more to the lower side and actually fitted the first piece of ply. Woot woot!
Bottom half of the sides complete Under gunnels ply and as much of the wiring trunking we can do at this point fitted, wires tucked into it. Batten framework constructed/ fitted to one side top half this morning using pocket hole jig and screws @Louey reminded me of recently and Tek screwed to what steelwork there is - pocket jig and screws made the job super easy - I'd forgotten they existed. That was the part the original fitter-outers messed up and needed a redesign so I'm very happy it worked out. Day off tomorrow then battens on t'other side and we're ready for round 2 of the insulation. I'll grab a photo at some point. Just going to order porthole liners...
Slowly slowly, but progress is progress. I'm wondering if I should add some horizontals above/below the portholes. Probably not, I want insulation over the horizontal steel (the slightly recessed bit) which would be the place for the timber.
In the world of bricks, timber and mortar - and especially houses with drylining or internal insulation lining - a timber batten over the windows comes in pretty handy when you want to install curtains. Especially heavy ones. Perhaps less of an issue with your little portholes or with the cladding you’re following up with
I know exactly what you mean having had old houses with basically dust and loose bricks held in place-ish by plaster above the windows! Luckily this will have 9mm ply lining and tiny curtains on brass rods. The thing here is to ensure the ply stays the same distance from the hull so that when I fit the porthole liners to the ply, air can't get through the gap where they end against the steel hull. I'm probably over-doing it based on how terrible the previous effort ended up, I think I mentioned earlier in the thread that I pulled the wobbly ply/glued battens off with one hand in 2 seconds, it was quite funny (looking back).
Framework done on the other side, no point posting a photo. Collected more sheets of insulation ready to start tomorrow. It's going to be a sad day when I go right back to square one to start on the bathroom/ side hatch corridor conversion. One day finished, next day starting all over again.
Look at it as progress and remind yourself you will have peace of mind when it’s finally done to your satisfaction!
Any progress is progress but we've a lot to do still and once autumn comes there's the added problem of condensation if I haven't got far enough. Much better doing ANY work on boats in the summer while it's warm and dry I reckon. In the winter there's a good chance of making / sealing in problems for the future. It's only the rust removal part that's unpleasant in a confined space TBH, once past that and cleaned up it's just normal building type stuff and quite enjoyable.
Don't forget yesterday! Seriously though it's a dewpoint thing, the rain barely makes any difference if it's warm enough. But I think I picked the right year for indoor work, I'd be going nuts painting the outside trying to get a batch of coats on with chemical bond to save keying.
