Monday 15 September 2014

LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 56 15 September 2014



I started this blog one year ago this week – can it really be that long?  What a journey it has been! Simon has put and is still putting an awful lot of work into the deckhouse living space, but soon it will be time to turn his attention below deck.  In the living room (or should that be the salon?), he will be finishing off with some special wallpaper. That shouldn’t be too difficult as that is what he does for a living – hanging special wallpaper!  Then there are the three stoves that must be installed and hopefully they will be in and working in a week or two.

It is time to get serious about that exposed deck. The teak planks having long rotted away, there is no insulation between the outside and below deck, which not only makes it very cold down there in the winter, but also creates a great deal of condensation. When we had our first thoughts about this last October, we imagined a series of ‘joists’ made out of scaffolding type boards to provide a frame work. I even included some mock-up photos of this in my post at that time. Getting down to detail now we find that scaffolding planks are too thin – the step is 4 inches, not 1.5 inches – so we are now thinking of 4x4 fence post timber and the build-up will be in five stages and I apologise for my lack of skill in photo–faking:-

Stage 1.  Simon acquired some time ago a number of big tins of bitumen and this will be melted and poured all over the deck (area by area) and the timber framing pieces wedged into position between the deckhouse and the 4 inch step. Hopefully the joists can also be secured to that step by angled screws. I know it looks like water in the photo, but it is supposed to be runny bitumen!

Stage 2.  The insulating panels will be placed in between the frame joists.

Stage 3.  Plywood boards will be screwed down to the joists to cover the insulating panels and the whole of the 4 inch step up to the large baulk of timber which runs right round the ship. All this so far we can tackle ourselves.

Stage 4.  Call in the local flat roofers and lay a carpet of roofing felt over everything, with a small rise up the side of the deckhouse and again up the edging baulk. This will make the whole thing watertight – apart from drainage holes which are already present in the 4 inch step at the lowest part of the deck.

Stage 5.  Simon has found some thick rubberised tiles which interlock and have channels cut into their underside. These will protect the roofing felt from wear and damage, while allowing any water to run underneath them and out of the drainage holes.

That’s the theory anyway!
David

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