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Crazy Paving, Anybody ?

alan_fincher

By alan_fincher
in Boat Building & Maintenance

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alan_fincher Veteran II

alan_fincher

Posted
Posted

Chalice has always seemed a bit lightly ballasted, and sits significantly "nose high", even with it's massive integral water tank fully filled.

 

We have known for some time that it had had extra ballast packet in under the kitchen units.

 

As we are refitting the kitchen, it was possible to take up another 8' x 4' floor panel, and see what's underneath.

 

The answer is crazy paving - one layer of broken paving slabs, not that tightly packed.

 

BallastBefore.jpg

 

We decided to redo the jigsaw, and also stash some of the steel ballast from under the old sink units in the gaps created.

 

It now looks like this, and there is a fair bit more under that bit of the floors than previously.

 

BallastAfter.jpg

 

It may be necessary to sort out the trim from left to right once the new kitchen is in, but we can now hopefully achieve this by much less added ballast under the new units on whichever side sits higher in the water after the refit.

 

The good news is that the bottom proved to be bone dry, and almost entirely rust free.

 

I'm curious that people say that condensation on the baseplate is unavoidable in cold weather. Even with bits of it fully exposed, we had none.

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casper ghost Influencer

casper ghost

Posted
Posted

I too have removed the floor from my bedroom and I had some steel end caps, concrete slabs and concrete sections from an old garage. I too was pleased that the steel was dry with no rust after 10 years, even the red oxide paint looked new. Too much scare mungering by so called experts about these things..

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PaddingtonBear Rising Star

PaddingtonBear

Posted
Posted

If it looks right it is right?

 

We have this amazing ballast on Warrior, small hessian sacks filled with what appears to be small circular stainless discs - washing machine drum punchings. Sensationally heavy, each bag weighs over 1cwt but a bit of a bugger when they split. When we bought Warrior the boat was very front end up even with the water tank full, when we got to Keith Ball's we put over a ton of concrete crusher teeth around the water tank, now is level and low. Chertsey on the other hand might be more of a problem :lol:

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dave moore Influencer

dave moore

Posted
Posted

Hi all

As I understand it, the best brick ballast are engineering blue seconds...heavy and waterproof in the event of water in the bilge. Broken paving would tend to absorb water in the event of a leak and be harder to dry out subsequently. Scrap steel, painted, is even better, IMHO tho' probably more expensive. We have a mix of 12mm baseplate scrap and engineering seconds.

Cheers

Dave

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nb Innisfree Veteran II

nb InnisfreeDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted
Chalice has always seemed a bit lightly ballasted, and sits significantly "nose high", even with it's massive integral water tank fully filled.

 

We have known for some time that it had had extra ballast packet in under the kitchen units.

 

As we are refitting the kitchen, it was possible to take up another 8' x 4' floor panel, and see what's underneath.

 

The answer is crazy paving - one layer of broken paving slabs, not that tightly packed.

 

BallastBefore.jpg

 

We decided to redo the jigsaw, and also stash some of the steel ballast from under the old sink units in the gaps created.

 

It now looks like this, and there is a fair bit more under that bit of the floors than previously.

 

BallastAfter.jpg

 

It may be necessary to sort out the trim from left to right once the new kitchen is in, but we can now hopefully achieve this by much less added ballast under the new units on whichever side sits higher in the water after the refit.

 

The good news is that the bottom proved to be bone dry, and almost entirely rust free.

 

I'm curious that people say that condensation on the baseplate is unavoidable in cold weather. Even with bits of it fully exposed, we had none.

 

We have some condensation in the winter due to sprayfoam finishing at floor level leaving about 5" of vertical steel exposed which slowly produces condensation that then runs down to the baseplate and drains to the back cabin (we must inject some foam one day) the amount of condensation depends on how cold the canal is and how hot we have the cabin space, the colder the canal the more difference in temperature between the two and therefore more condensation. When I have needed to lift floor panels to adjust ballast the bottom plate is dry but starts to condense slightly as warm cabin air hits it. When we leave the boat for a few days the bilges are bone dry in the coldest weather when we return. The best solution I think is to insulate under the floor panels leaving the underfloor air space cold and make sure all vertical surfaces are insulated

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alan_fincher Veteran II

alan_fincher

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Yes,

 

I personally think steel or engineering brick ballast is the better, (but presumably costlier) option.

 

If it stays dry, and you can get enough in, then Chalice seems to prove that paving is OK too, although clearly the original builders could have fitted it much better.

 

As the floor boards sit directly on top of nominally 4" deep girders, and as the slabs (in ours at least) are marginally over 2" thick, then doubling the depth is not quite possible.

 

So all in all, if ballast density was important, probably about the least efficient use you could make of the available space.

 

Still our boat is relatively shallow draughted, so I'm OK with what we have.

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blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

Posted
Posted (edited)
I'm curious that people say that condensation on the baseplate is unavoidable in cold weather. Even with bits of it fully exposed, we had none.

I'm not curious because I know it's nonsense! :lol:. I've had large sections of my floor uo and it's bone dry too, so condensation on the baseplate is certainly avoidable...

 

I'm not saying that others haven't found condensation on their baseplates, but I wonder if they've just had a leak at some point and what they see as condensation is actually the remaining water that they neglected to dry out.

Edited by blackrose
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Robbo Veteran II

Robbo

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Posted
I'm not curious because I know it's nonsense! :lol:. I've had large sections of my floor uo and it's bone dry too, so condensation on the baseplate is certainly avoidable...

 

I'm not saying that others haven't found condensation on their baseplates, but I wonder if they've just had a leak at some point and what they see as condensation is actually the remaining water that they neglected to dry out.

 

I'm currently doing my barge up and have one room basically back to the hull + sprayfoam, the baseplate doesn't get condensation but on the side the exposed metal studs are dripping with condensation.

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Liam Veteran II

LiamDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted (edited)

No underfloor insulation for me, I can't see its really needed?

 

And since I tightened my stern gland up, there's no water down there... just a sh*t load of coppers which drop out of my pant pockets each night on my return from the pub :lol:

Edited by Liam
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