PVC Cladding for headlining

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StuE

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I was thinking about using PVC cladding to replace the old headlining in the saloon area.
The plan is to glue wooden batons to the fiberglass roof ( evostik 528 ) . cut foil insulation to fill in between the batons and then velcro the PVC panelling in place. If anyone has tried this or has a better idea or can suggest better materials to use, then please reply.

Cheers
 
Fixed width panels meeting tapering cabin edges and possibly a compound curve to the cabin top. Used a lot in the states tho.. Quite shiny reflective surface so avoid dips and dives if you can
 
The shiny surface is likely to "strike" and get condensation on it I would think in cold weather, even though you have the air gap behind it.

Better to use foam backed vinyl or similar IMHO.
 
In the first boat (Roberts 34) we replaced the original foam backed vinyl with PVC cladding.
It worked very well and was extremely effective. We screwed plastic channels (capping) at each end and side of the ceiling and then slid long lengths of cladding in.
Lasted years. Made the saloon much brighter. Gave a good DIY finish to the ceiling. Easy to maintain.
 
A line of ply blocks, rather than battens would be easier to conform to the curved and possibly uneven surface. If there is any failure of the adhesive joint it will be in individual blocks, rather than the whole batten. I used this method when I re-headlined my previous boat, a UFO27. I used 10mm electrical box trunking with 16mm teak strip glued and screwed to the 'lid'-section as a trim strip, screwed up to these blocks to support corriboard panels (recycled election posters !), covered in foam backed vinyl.
 
I had seen a couple of boats that looked terrific with PVC "tongue and groove" cladding so I did my boat main cabin with it. 3 years later I am still very pleased with it and it looks great. This stuff is a hollow box section and is completely condensation free, has not yellowed at all and gives a clean bright boat interior. I just used tiny stainless screws through the concealed lips of the grooves into the thicker parts of the cabin roof. The beauty of this stuff is that as it is so light the number of fixings is very low relative to other systems and the cost of materials 3 years ago was only about £80 for a cabin roof about 8.5 ft x 12 ft. It took me a couple of days to remove old headlining and fit the cladding. I did not remove all the old glue etc that was stuck to the cabin roof as this would have been a really messy job with lots of perhaps sticky particles all over the boat. Even though some sheets are 3/400 mm and some only 100 mm no joints are visible.

Things to think about with this system:-
Some manufacturers supply 400mm, 300 and 100 widths. careful use of the wider widths speeds up the job substantially. Most supply 2 and 3 metre lengths but some up to 4m.
Some but not all manufacturers supply a good range of edge trims.
You have to give real thought as to how you would take off the cladding in the event of needing to get at say a deck fitting bolt. If you plan the fitting well, removing a side strip will reveal the screws fixing the next strip and the cladding can easily be removed. If you do not plan it well you may have to remove large sections to get at wiring, fittings etc. I used an H section at the centre with the back flaps removed so that when the centre strip is removed this reveals the fixing screws of the central cladding going both ways from the centre.
Light fittings can easily be fixed to the cladding and wires run inside the section.

the only problem I have had is where I had 240V/150W light fittings on bulkheads below the cladding and the cladding was a bit close (2") and got a bit too hot and started to distort the edge trim, this was easily rectified by moving the fittings down about 6". No problems over the cooker at all.

If I was doing this on a boat without thickened sections to screw into I would use battens 8mm thick only about every 2ft across the lay of the cladding and around the perimeter to fit the edge trims. These battens could be stuck on very quickly using builders external grab adhesive.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. Catalac can you remember the manufacturer of the panels you used. What about insulation between the panels and the roof. Good idea to use box conduit. I was going to use pine strips , however conduit sound more flexible and maint free. Any recommendations re glue for the plastic conduit, as I said previously I was planning on using evostik 528.

Thanks

PS re down lighters any recommendations - thinking about the 12v chaps from Ikea and just not use the transformers.
 
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