Flooring
We have four different floors: Wheelhouse, Aft Cabin, Salon, and Master Bedroom. Each presented a different construction requirement. First we tackled the space under the Master Bedroom. This was quite confined as there is a step down from the Salon matching the drop in ceiling height. The plywood floor was supported by 5 x 5 cm boards mounted across the steel beams. They were spaced such that we could locate ballast between the boards and place another support board on top of the first. Between these we fitted styrofoam sheeting for insulation. It was a lot of work to move the ballast which came in 15 to 30 kg pallets. They had all been located in the middle area of the ship until we relocated some 3 tonnes to a locked in position under the bedroom.
In the Aft Bedroom we needed a crawl space for access to the stuffing box and drive shaft. The steel floor supports were spaced such that we simply fitted styrofoam between the girders and screwed the plywood floor back down. We left a large hatch for access and glued styrofoam to the back of the hatch, completing the insulation task.
The Wheelhouse floor had to be raised as it left quite a step down from the door sill. We placed wooden 5 x 5's across the steel supports, leaving an area cut out so that if we needed to remove one of the larger pieces of equipment we could do so without too much trouble. We filled in between the wood with styrofoam and then repeated the process so we had 10 cm of rigid insulation above the noisy bits of equipment. This reduced the step down adequately and because the wheelhouse is particularly tall, had no real impact on headroom.
We couldn't use styrofoam under the Salon because the oil tank prevented sliding the rigid pieces in place. Instead we elected to support fibreglass insulation by first laying a screen under the girders, tied in place by pieces of wire. On top of the screen we placed 10 cm of fibre, and on top of the fibre we spread a plastic sheet as a vapor barrier. Then the plywood floor was put back in place with a couple of hatches located to provide access to the bilge and the oil tank manhole.
We have been quite pleased with our insulation methods but we should point out that we have not noted a dampness or cold floors on other barges that have not been insulated below the floor. We have some 1.8 cm of plywood on top of the insulation and a further 1.8 cm of hardwood flooring on top of the plywood and this might be enough to keep the boat warm underfoot. However, Barbara's sister and her husband are in the construction biz so we took their advice and are warmly satisfied.
