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
David
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