uner floor. plastic sheeting or not

[garyslaw]

I just ripped up the floor and plenty of dirty mess. all cleaned and disgusting plastic ripped up and off. 

I thought about putting a new sheet down but after a few words from the vloger of narrowboat Helen, he recommended not putting plastic down. then I read here to put some down. now I am confused.

I have de rusted, red oxided, was going to put the concrete slabs straight down with 25mm celotex and 25mm air gap followed by the ply then square carpet thing which will be changed to laminate soon enough.

 

so plastic or not? maybe something else down

thanks in advance

[FadeToScarlet]

I'd lay the concrete slabs on something, e.g. cable offcuts, lengths of pipe, running front to back so they won't trap water 

[Neil Smith]

As above lay on plastic strips to allow any water to drain to the stern where it can be cleared, when I did mine I waxoiled my bilge before ballasting, just belt and braces I suppose but I sleep better.

Neil

[widebeamboy]

I've seen people use the plastic trims you get with double glazing. You might get some for free if you go and ask some local ones for old stuff they are just going to scrap.  Otherwise I've also heard of people using old hosepipes a they squish down nicely.

My posh Polish interlocking paving bricks sit on a felt style membrane which is pretty intact, however I would have preferred it to be raised properly.

[Bee]

That part of the boat that lies beneath the floor is important, in my opinion the floor is not a 'fit and forget' item, if I did another narrowboat I would probably use floorboards and rugs and maybe not even have any floor under fixed cupboards and things, certainly not cover everything with laminate or anything that made it impossible to get at the bottom. At the end of the day it is a boat and not a luxury yacht / cottage with fitted carpets. Others will disagree.

[Tony Brooks]

I agree. In my view its plain stupid to lay the floor and then build the bulkheads and fixed furniture on top of it. If I even built a narrowboat I would do it the cruiser/yacht way with lift up floor sections and loose fixed furniture bottoms.

My boat (Colecraft/Rugby Boat Fitters) seem to have a plastic membrane above the ballast and below the floor. I assume this is intended to be a vapour barrier to help minimise condensation and damp from any water that has collected in the bilge.  Maybe this is what the OP is talking about. I am not sure about its use in a typical narrowboat but if I was sure of excellent bilge ventilation to/from outside I would think its a good idea and will do no harm.

[garyslaw]

thanks for the info guys, much appreciated. i have an old water hose i was going to throw away, i guess that will do the trick. how about coins if i run out of hose?

[Taslim]

No.  Not coins for fear of setting up electrolytic corrosion if/when things got damp in the bilge.

[system 4-50]

I took a little time a while back to calculate if it would be cost-effective to use copper coinage as ballast. It was not, and anyway, you don't want to inflict a loose change on your baseplate, it would slide around.

[ditchcrawler]

2 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

I took a little time a while back to calculate if it would be cost-effective to use copper coinage as ballast. It was not, and anyway, you don't want to inflict a loose change on your baseplate, it would slide around.

Is there such a thing, you can pick up a 2p with a magnet

Edited February 28, 2017 by ditchcrawler

[system 4-50]

1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

Is there such a thing, you can pick up a 2p with a magnet

Ok, the brown stuff. What is the generic term for this?

[Chewbacka]

41 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

Ok, the brown stuff. What is the generic term for this?

Old money was copper, but it is not a good idea to make coins that cost more to make than their face value, so now they are steel with a copper plate.  As an aside the old florins (2 shilling coins) were made of silver and rang with a clear tone when tapped.  When we went decimal, some people collected up the old silver coins as the scrap value was greater than the coins face value.

[WotEver]

I've got a couple of silver threepeny bits which I'm sure are worth more than 1.5p each.