floor hatches

[number four]

how many floor hatches do you have?

what do they give access to?

do you use it for storage if so what?

how deep are your builges?

(we will need to know the boat type for refrance also draft would help)

not engin compartment i am intrested in the living space.

 

thanks

[Keeping Up]

One hatch in the floor at the rear, to give access to the bilge so water can be removed if it ever gets there (from a burst pipe for example). Since there is only 1" between our floor and the baseplate, there is no prospect of storing anything there.

 

Edited to add: fairly conventional-looking modern boat, 2ft draft, but extra-thick baseplate so no need for any under-floor ballast

Edited October 30, 2009 by Keeping Up

[number four]

One hatch in the floor at the rear, to give access to the bilge so water can be removed if it ever gets there (from a burst pipe for example). Since there is only 1" between our floor and the baseplate, there is no prospect of storing anything there.

 

Edited to add: fairly conventional-looking modern boat, 2ft draft, but extra-thick baseplate so no need for any under-floor ballast

 

do you have any condensation problems and is the space vented in any way? whats the floor made of?

[nb Innisfree]

how many floor hatches do you have?

what do they give access to?

do you use it for storage if so what?

how deep are your builges?

(we will need to know the boat type for refrance also draft would help)

not engin compartment i am intrested in the living space.

 

thanks

 

We have standard flat bottom NB so about 5" deep bilge. When fitting out I fixed floor ply individually to each room by joining with a ply strip underneath and screwing through from the top on each side leaving a gap for wall to slot into. I can now unscrew floor panel on one side of wall and lift it leaving wall resting on ply strip. I also left a gap between floor ply and side of boat with a removable box skirting. Bit of a bother doing all this in the first place but makes lifting of floor and access to bilge and ballast much easier.

 

Make sure sprayfoam, if used, goes all the way down to base plate or condensation will form on side plate and run down into bilge.

Edited October 30, 2009 by nb Innisfree

[Keeping Up]

do you have any condensation problems and is the space vented in any way? whats the floor made of?

No I don't know of any condensation issues. But I do know that if you dump the entire contents of a 200 gallon water tank intop the bilge, it comes over the floor in the rear cabin.

 

The space is not vented, except in that it is not deliberately sealed. See the page about our boat's construction. Looking at the 5th October picture I think there's a gap at the edges. It's nothing special, the floor is just good thick sheets of exterior-grade plywood (not sure if it's 15mm or 20mm), lyinhg on the bottom ribs (see 14th September picture)

[koukouvagia]

how many floor hatches do you have?

what do they give access to?

do you use it for storage if so what?

how deep are your builges?

(we will need to know the boat type for refrance also draft would help)

not engin compartment i am intrested in the living space.

 

thanks

 

On either side of the cabin I've got 3' removable floorboards. I like to check for any condensation and/or water leaks and find that it's easier if I've got access to the bilges throughout the length of the boat. There's only a 3” gap – no ballast is needed.

 

It's an ex working boat (josher) drawing about 3'

 

[Guest]

We have standard flat bottom NB so about 5" deep bilge. When fitting out I fixed floor ply individually to each room by joining with a ply strip underneath and screwing through from the top on each side leaving a gap for wall to slot into. I can now unscrew floor panel on one side of wall and lift it leaving wall resting on ply strip. I also left a gap between floor ply and side of boat with a removable box skirting. Bit of a bother doing all this in the first place but makes lifting of floor and access to bilge and ballast much easier.

 

Make sure sprayfoam, if used, goes all the way down to base plate or condensation will form on side plate and run down into bilge.

Wish you had psoted this BEFORE I did my fitout.

Clever idea.

[nb Innisfree]

Wish you had psoted this BEFORE I did my fitout.

Clever idea.

 

Sorry, but you're not alone, I think that we all wished we had done something different

[carlt]

My floorboards are always made up as pallets, either side of the keelson (They'd meet in the middle, in a clonecraft).

 

That way I always have access to any part of the bottoms, at any time (no fixed furniture, either).

[Lesd]

We have 4 18'' square framed access hatches, 3 down one side one per cabin area all hidden under beds/sofa. The fourth and most important is hidden under the rear access steps and its just in front of the bulk head seperating cabin and engine areas so is where any water would run down too.

[Batavia]

On Daedalus we have a hinged "lid", about 18" square, in the middle of the galley floor, which gives acess down to the base plate. Steel "walls", about 4" high, were welded to the base plate to form an open-topped box on the floor, about 24" square. There is about 1/2" clearance between the top of the walls and the underside of the floor.

 

We use this for storing vegetables and have never had any signs of condensation. The walls prevent the vegetables from esacping into corners of the bliges and would also stop any bilge water (not that we have ever had any (yet) - the bilges are bone dry, complete with resident spiders) from reaching them.

 

Daedalus draws 2' 6"+, and everywhere else the underfloor space is filled with engineering bricks and lengths of railway line.

 

This has been very useful/successful and we are repeating the idea on Batavia - possibly with several of these, as there is no underfloor ballast in the main body of the boat.

 

Chris G

[Ally]

We have a storage box that is flush with our wood top floor, deep enough to take beer cans on their sides..made narrow vents in the wood surround walls of the storage box, so if we were to keep veg, the cool air would move around them...but we just use it for beer. It is fitted between two floor stretchers, mid galley, and has a hinged lid that lies flush to the floor....it is our 'beer cellar' and I wouldn't be without it!

We are on a Mel Davies Tug.....not yet finished, so draft not certain till all is fitted. We will also have an inspection hatch for the bilge, at the stern end of the back cabin....eventually!...at the moment we don't have all the floor down there, so have permanent visibility to our bilge still!

[DHutch]

Our floor is in sections, they cant all be lifted, but enough that you can get to or atlease see most of it. We access at the back of the living accomdation for end of the main cabin bilge (engine room has own bilge).

 

The floors about 5inchs from the base plate, with two layers of 2 inch conreate slabs over 90% of it.

 

Ive never really needed to access it, bar to check for water, and about two years ago when i was keen/instested too what it looked like. Although currently there is a leak somewhere (one of the windows, i think) so it sadly is a little damp in there.

 

There not ventialated other than as said, not being sealed at all. But did play with a 120mm computer fan in the access hatch at the back of the cabin bilge and that had a good effect of drying it before it got wet again when it rained next. Error!!

 

The cabin is insulated with polystrine, with a sheet of plastic behind the tonge and grove to form an air tight mambraine for condestion prevention.

 

 

 

My one resounding peice of advice however would be to make sure you paint the bilge really well before you put the floor down. Its the only place you can paint ever again without a lot of arse ache. All very well reblacking the outside with drainpipe paint every 6weeks but if the inside it rusting fit to bust you loose the hull anyway and boats do get damp even modern steel ones.

 

 

 

Daniel