Boarding out before electrics

[Banford1]

Hi guys!

 

We have a boat were renovating and have gutted it, started the boarding out etc. Next up is electrics but should we wait to board the cabin walls before electrics or can we get away with boarding first?

Were tired of looking at insulation on the cabin walls, under gunnels are all boarded but we would love to lose the ugliness of the insulation if we can. 

How much more difficult would it make doing the wiring if we did this first?

 

Thanks guys

 

[BEngo]

Electrics first.  You will curse having to fish wires behind the panelling. Especially if the insulation is sprayfoam.

 

DAMHIKT.

 

Think carefully about your electric cable needs. Mark out what is going where with a felt tip on the insulation and plan the route to them  from your main runs. Cables should run horizontally and vertically, not just the shortest diagonal. Add a few spare cables.

 

If you are going up from an under gunnel main conduit you can always tape the wires in place (or stick them with a hot glue gun) them panel over them and do the connecting up later.  You do need to label the wires if you do this ?

N

[Detling]

If not sure of how many or what size cable, just run a length of trunking with a bit of string in it to ease fitting later. 

[OldGoat]

3 hours ago, Detling said:

If not sure of how many or what size cable, just run a length of trunking with a bit of string in it to ease fitting later. 

 

In a similar vein - when building, I had no idea how many (extra) cables might be needed if I added extra bells and whistles after the lining was completed - thus I put trunking under the gunnels as suggested AND 6" wide slots in the ceiling area. Thies are covered by timber panels running the length of the boat on both sides. The wlld is stained to match the oak T&G on the sided and give a contrast to the white ceiling.

Well I like it and The Management has never disagreed (on that matter)...

[Ally]

Definitely stay patient and get your wiring in first, it will really pay you in the long run . Use conduit and trunking, plan your layout, so you can get all your feeds in for 12 and 240v. Remember things like pumps, ignitions, loo flush if required,  etc , aswell as lighting and power points. Lay a draw wire into the trunking incase you want to add in. If building in sound systems, get speaker cables in, power to any appliances or panels etc. Leave long tails, then do your boarding out. If you lose patience now seeing the foam, you'll lose more patience as the build progresses slower than you expect.  

[David Mack]

Belfast has all its wiring behind the panelling and it's a right pain. A bunch of wires from the fuse board in the engine room disappears through a hole in the bulkhead, and none is seen until it reaches the relevant pump, light fitting, fridge etc. There is no intermediate access to any of the wires, and no way to get at any of them to add a light fitting, or look for let alone repair a fault.

 

If you are going to put wiring behind the panelling I strongly suggest you put it all in trunking, with access panels (with screwed on lids which can be removed with the complete fitout in place) at intervals of no more than about 8 feet, at every change of direction and at every point where the trunking tees off to a light fitting or appliance. Fit draw cords in all sections of trunking, and remember that whenever you use a draw cord to draw a cable through the trunking you must also draw in another draw cord.

 

My preference is to fit a longitudinal cable duct under the gunwale wherever possible with a continuous removable lid (in sections) for all the main longitudinal cables, and then you only have to worry about trunking the vertical runs in the hull and cabin sides, those across the ceiling (e.g. to a central light fitting) and those areas where the main duct run has to be trunked, such as through a shower compartment. Some folk also put a similar duct down the centre or on one or both sides of the ceiling lining, to accommodate the lighting cables.

[Slim]

When I fitted my boat out from a shell I dropped the cabin side panels a couple of inches below the gunwales. This allowed me to create 'ducts' immediately underneath the side decks. Equally I created 'ducts' at high level where the ceiling panels met the cabin sides. All of my services (except water) run through these 'ducts'  

[Tony Brooks]

Another one for never fixing services behind fixed panels. It's an almost certainty that you will need to work on something at some time in the future.

[Bee]

Most of my wiring is not behind panelling.  most is under the gunwhales, its a fiddly and time consuming job to fix wiring, pipes and such like under there but it has to be done. All the power sockets and suchlike are along the 'lining plank' at that height. Nearly all the lighting wiring is under a  piece of trim where the roof lining meets the sides, all the lights are along there. Some of the wiring is below the lift up floor panels (its not a narrowboat so there is more room) Some of the wiring is indeed hidden and I wish it wasn't as its a sod to get at and the tunnel light hasn't worked for 2 years because the wiring disappears into a hole then re appears with no electricity in it right at the front of the boat.

[Tony Brooks]

1 hour ago, Bee said:

Most of my wiring is not behind panelling.  most is under the gunwhales, its a fiddly and time consuming job to fix wiring, pipes and such like under there but it has to be done. All the power sockets and suchlike are along the 'lining plank' at that height. Nearly all the lighting wiring is under a  piece of trim where the roof lining meets the sides, all the lights are along there. Some of the wiring is below the lift up floor panels (its not a narrowboat so there is more room) Some of the wiring is indeed hidden and I wish it wasn't as its a sod to get at and the tunnel light hasn't worked for 2 years because the wiring disappears into a hole then re appears with no electricity in it right at the front of the boat.

 

Illustrates the point about ensuring you can get at all the wiring beautifully. Pity they did not run the hidden bit through a decent sized plastic pipe.

 

Hopefully its only one of the two wires that has broken so if it were mine I would go against all good practice and make the good wire the positive and wire the lamp as earth return. After all it not as if the hull will be carrying current for more than an hour or so unless you do a lot of night boating. That is pending me working out a way of doing it properly.

[BEngo]

You could always try using one cable as a draw cord to pull two fresh ones.  It is helpful to do a bit of preliminary tugging to check that the existing cables are not trapped,  wound round something or otherwise rendered unhelpful.

 

It is also worth cultivating a good wireman.  The things those folks can do with a fish tape are amazing.  

N

[tehmarks]

58 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Hopefully its only one of the two wires that has broken so if it were mine I would go against all good practice and make the good wire the positive and wire the lamp as earth return.

Another neater alternative, if there is appropriate power at the bow end of the cabin, would be to use the good cable to switch a relay and power the tunnel lamp from an existing circuit. Might still need some fiddling with panelling at the bow end, but at least you wouldn't have to try to run new cable the length of the boat.

Edit: or just use the existing circuit's negative, no relay needed. Makes much more sense than my first attempt!

Edited March 15, 2021 by tehmarks

[Tracy D'arth]

Battery powered LED lantern, no wiring needed is far simpler than fixing wiring.

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Battery powered LED lantern, no wiring needed is far simpler than fixing wiring.

If you use a Tilly Lamp it saves on heating as well