what wood would to use in a bilge area.

[Samp94]

what type of wood to use in the bilge area?

 

fuel pipes are currently secured to a bit of ply which is delaminating and rotting..

 

its a semi trad stern without a a pram hood, so does get a little damp in the heavy rain

 

id like to replace it all.

 

cheers 

[robtheplod]

Buffalo board?

[Tony Brooks]

A bit of second-hand teak if you can find it and afford it. Otherwise, mahogany. I would say oak but have a feeling it rots badly in fresh water, I will let the carpenters confirm or deny that.

[Samp94]

12 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Buffalo board?

i deal with buffalo board quite regularly, and have several off cuts. wouldn't expect it to last more than a few years though

[matty40s]

Buffalo board is not much better than ply when subjected to long term water immersion 

[PaulJ]

You want something ideally that a proper timber yard may keep- Iroko or my second choice would be Sapele. Not stupidly expensive, attainable and will last.

Assuming this is more battens than decking..

Edited March 8, 2023 by PaulJ

[Richard T]

I would use treated softwood decking board or similar.

[Samp94]

15 minutes ago, PaulJ said:

You want something ideally that a proper timber yard may keep- Iroko or my second choice would be Sapele. Not stupidly expensive, attainable and will last.

Assuming this is more battens than decking..

indeed, 

 

itll just be stuck to the swim area and have fuel pipe clipped to the top.

[sueanddaren]

Tricoya board if you can find it.

[Tony Brooks]

How about a bit of recycled plastic gravel board. won't rot and should accept screws well enough.

[BEngo]

A better solution would be to get some steel angle about 25 mm x 25mm stitch   welded  onto the swim and drill and tap that for the pipe clips.  Paint it and forget it. 

 

N

[Samp94]

3 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

How about a bit of recycled plastic gravel board. won't rot and should accept screws well enough.

Now that's not a bad idea. 

 

 

2 minutes ago, BEngo said:

A better solution would be to get some steel angle about 25 mm x 25mm stitch   welded  onto the swim and drill and tap that for the pipe clips.  Paint it and forget it. 

 

N

I only have a very large mig welder, much to big to drag to the towpath. And as truck mechanic I refuse to pay anyone to do work, that's I can do myself. haha

But it's not a bad idea. 

[magnetman]

A length of square plastic drain pipe stuck down with polyurethane sealant might work. Easy to drill for clips. 

 

Cheap at Wickes. 

You could always cut it lengthways and just make it into a channel.

[dmr]

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

A bit of second-hand teak if you can find it and afford it. Otherwise, mahogany. I would say oak but have a feeling it rots badly in fresh water, I will let the carpenters confirm or deny that.

 

Oak should be fine. Alder is an interesting one, it lasts forever if its wet, but not if it dries out, so might be good if your bilge is always full of water 😀

[Ronaldo47]

Did you use Marine ply?  I used marine ply for the back board when I put up a basketball net in our back garden for our children. Some 30 years later it is still intact with no sign of delamination  despite being in an exposed location on top of a pole and never having had any maintenance other than its initial coat of paint.

[Samp94]

Just now, dmr said:

 

Oak should be fine. Alder is an interesting one, it lasts forever if its wet, but not if it dries out, so might be good if your bilge is always full of water 😀

well, the plan is to keep it dry. i dont like a dirty bilge,

1 minute ago, Ronaldo47 said:

Did you use Marine ply?  I used marine ply for the back board when I put up a basketball net in our back garden for our children. Some 30 years later it is still intact with no sign of delamination  despite being in an exposed location on top of a pole and never having had any maintenance other than its initial coat of paint.

ive had the boat, just under a year and decided the bilge need a clean and coat of paint, may aswell replace the delaminating boards 

[Jerra]

What about Elm if you can source it.   Used for pier piles in the past as it stood up to water well.

[ditchcrawler]

4 minutes ago, Jerra said:

What about Elm if you can source it.   Used for pier piles in the past as it stood up to water well.

And the bottoms of Narrowboats 

[bizzard]

Venice is built on Piles, piles of Elm.

[LadyG]

1 hour ago, Ronaldo47 said:

Did you use Marine ply?  I used marine ply for the back board when I put up a basketball net in our back garden for our children. Some 30 years later it is still intact with no sign of delamination  despite being in an exposed location on top of a pole and never having had any maintenance other than its initial coat of paint.

Thirty years ago marine ply was water resistant, nowadays a lot of this is fudged marine p!y. So you need to source from a good source.

I would not use oak as it stains and there are other woods. It is not used in boatbuilding it's not flexible of course.

Any end grain should be sealed with clear epoxy, its better than yacht varnish.

[dmr]

6 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Thirty years ago marine ply was water resistant, nowadays a lot of this is fudged marine p!y. So you need to source from a good source.

I would not use oak as it stains and there are other woods. It is not used in boatbuilding it's not flexible of course.

Any end grain should be sealed with clear epoxy, its better than yacht varnish.

 

Oak is often used as the bearers for rigidly mounted/vintage engines 😀.   but otherwise you are correct, oak does not get on well with steel due to its acid content, the oak stains black and the steel corrodes surprisingly quickly.

[magnetman]

Oak certainly is used in boatbuilding !

 

Oak trees are forced to grow in a bent shape to produce grown oak frames.

 

These people use them 

 

https://westcountrycutters.co.uk/construction/

 

 

I think the stern section on wooden narrow boats might be oak as well. 

[dmr]

32 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Oak certainly is used in boatbuilding !

 

Oak trees are forced to grow in a bent shape to produce grown oak frames.

 

These people use them 

 

https://westcountrycutters.co.uk/construction/

 

 

I think the stern section on wooden narrow boats might be oak as well. 

 

"mahogany on oak" was quite a common construction, including sailing boats 😀.

[Ronaldo47]

My late brother-in-law's Old Gaffer that he had imported into France from the USA, was constructed from oak.  In view of its age, before he had it shipped over, on his surveyor's advice, he had  Brooklyn Dockyard, that was dealing with its sale and shipping,  replace all the gunmetal woodscrews that held it together,  by slightly larger ones.  Apparently this is good practice  for this sort of construction, given the reactive nature of oak, even when gunmetal fixings are used.

Edited March 8, 2023 by Ronaldo47
typos

[BEngo]

Wooden craft quite often need refastening.  The 45ft MFV I was responsible for on the early 90's was refastened  in Chichester basin because the screws wre getting quite dezincified.  They also renewed the injector pipes on the the twin Foden FD6's which drove it.  Pity they did not check the new pipes were not chafing. Bigger pity I didn't look more closely at the new pipes. All the way from The Needles to Plymouth in half a gale,  on one donk.

 

N