Heads refurbishment

[Divemaster1]

Back in spring 2005 when we had bought the boat, I did a "temporary" refurbishment of the heads onboard. The walls were covered by a far too dark cork veneer, and as a temp measure I covered this with a waterproof material from Toomer & Hayter ... This winter will see a refub of the heads and I will remove the temp measure and the veneer and replace this with ???????

The veneer parts off easily (relatively) from the wooden wall, leaving a relatively smooth surface with just a small hint of the glue that formed the bond. All wood appears dry and healthy. So, plan was to fill in any un-even parts, but question is what to cover the walls with. There are a lot of odd shapes in there, and then there is the outwards sloping of the hull to consider, which makes any sort of tiling a bit challenging

Any advise, hints or thoughts welcome !!

 

[Bojangles]

How about this, polyclad, vinyl cladding can be welded to their flooring products.

http://www.polyflor.com/jh/products.nsf/products!open&family=cla&prodcode=pclad

I think the flooring could also be used on the walls as well. The flexible nature of this material would make it simple to get the required size of material into the area in question. If the surface is uneven, there are various screeding products that could be applied before installation. If this material interests you then look for a vinyl floor layer locally who normally fits vinyl wetfloors to carry out the fitting.

 

[Bojangles]

You could also tile with mosaic sheet tiles, quite expensive though (depending on tile choice) but they can handle contours no problem. Surface would have to be carefully prepared though to ensure it was even (screed)

 

[jfm]

Do you have a picture Alf? I think I'd want to use a mixture of materials. "formica" type material factory bonded onto 6mm ply for the wall you mention, maybe vinyl around the porthole, Avonite for the horizontal surfaces, and possibly mosaic tiles and veneered wood for some detailing

 

[Divemaster1]

Not got any good photographs, but will take some next WE ... This is a low res drawing that show the SB and Port Heads... with the sink etc., which I want to re-design as well to make more current ... looked at some epoxy based paint, which may work OK for the Sink Unit at least....

Like the idea of more than one material, otherwise it could become quite "flat"...

 

[Sandyman]

The walls were covered by a far too dark cork veneer,

Walls ? ? since when did boats have walls ??

 

[Divemaster1]

Walls ? ? since when did boats have walls ??

OK bulkheads then ... happy ?

 

[Bertramdriver]

Hi Alf. I've been down this road.
The killer is condensation if you have a well used shower. The solution for the non wet area we ended up with was arrived at after trying 4mm veneered ply (abandoned after a frustrating session of trying to cut the complex shapes), then foam backed vinyl which wouldn't stick, and painted vinyl wallpaper which looked cheap. The answer was upholstery grade vinyl glued onto the smoothed plywood surface of the "wall" and stuck with Solvite heavy duty wallpaper paste. Using a pliable but substantial material made complex shape cutting relatively easy with a rule and Stanley knife. The use of the Solvite which is a starch / pva polymer is because contact adhesive is useless at med temperatures. It cooks and crumbles, losing its adhesion.
As for the wet area we will probably paint the Formica with Homebase acrylic bathroom paint which we have tested at home in our spare room shower., and seems to have stood up well to regular soaking.
The floor was covered with 6mm teak and holly veneered ply epoxy glued onto the original plywood and then 4 coats of clear epoxy resin to give a watertight floor. Fitting around the loo and still maintaining the sump and other hatches ended up a jig saw nightmare but eventually the finished product looks great.
Will finish the job this spring but I like the idea of replacing the dark Formica sink shelf surface with locally sourced light grey marble. So the job will probably run and run until SWMBO arrives and slaps some sense into me.
Good luck.

 

[vas]

Alf,

assuming your heads layout is similar to mine (before converting the two heads to a third cabin that is...) there are a lot of complex shapes, slopes and types of surfaces to tackle.

I've stripped all formica like lining on the bulkheads, cleaned the glue (by far the hardest bit!) and used an extra-super flex glue to stick 2x2cm tiles on all vertical surfaces (ok, bulkheads)
Now, hull side is sloped in various ways, there I ripped all existing lining (plywood) and made new from 6mm ply and will glue an alloysheet-rubber-alloysheet sandwitch material (which I forget what it's called, the bloke that is fitting a small cat is using it and has mentioned it in a thread recently) on the ply.
Countersunk 6X60 ss screws with torx heads and be done
Flooring is 15mm ply already test fitted that will be lined with 8mm cedar and caulking of course.
I think there are a few pics in the MiToS thread from May-June

I agree with whoever said don't use a single colour/material and go for at least a couple. Big mirror behind the washbasin is also nice (bit more work in cleaning though...)

cheers

V.

 

[Bertramdriver]

Hi Alf
For curiousities sake. What have you decided to do? I'm currently thinking about our fore cabin which enjoys a covering of 1980's carpet and reviewing the options.

 

[Divemaster1]

Got stuck last WE at home having to do some work in the house ... (We'll be 14 for Christmas + 1 dog and 1 Cat ... so will be fun...)...

Came across these guys ... which looks like a OK alternative for the straight bulkheads... http://www.easy-tile.com/category/Marble Effect

But aim to cut down the sink unit (keep same shape for ease, but cut down lower), then install a new top and more modern sink... perhaps a frosted glass one and taps etc., for a more contemporary look.... still un-decided on that.... need to paint the unit in some sort of epoxy based product I'd think ...

Deck may be an epoxy resin based cover, or perhaps something simpler... Not decided what to do with the sloping hull side yet ...

 

[PCUK]

Walls ? ? since when did boats have walls ??

The "Wooden Walls of England"!!!

 

[Divemaster1]

So a bit of work done .... here you can see the "original" cork veneer that we were keen to overlay .... hence the white covering... problem is that part of the veneer has loosened off, generating bulges...

Plan now is to clear the veneer off the wall, sort out the plumbing, do the required on the deck.... put down a couple of layers of fibreglass and create a waterproof fibreglass tray with some sort of light grey gelcoat... modernise the sink unit, some sort of epoxy resin hull-side wall (not decided yet) and white tiles from the post above...

Well, that is the plan for now ......