Disclaimer: The following is purely opinion and represents my personal experience with boats I’ve seen over my years working on the waterways. I am not a surveyor, and neither I nor Cluett Carpentry Ltd accept liability for any decisions made in purchasing a boat. Remember, buying a boat is Caveat Emptor, and it’s strongly recommended that you get a full survey before any purchase.

I’ve seen hundreds of boats in my working life. Here are my thoughts on what to look for to get the best start in a life afloat.

Finding a Boat

Get on Apollo Duck and the marina websites to compare what’s out there. You’ll get a good sense of the market and what your budget will get you before you even set foot on a boat.

Don’t be too firm on essentials until you’ve lived on a boat. Is that trad stern you’ve set your heart on really what you want? Personally, I find them awkward for practical usage—give me a good cruiser stern any day, but everybody is different.

Be wary of outliers. Project boats (especially with wood or GRP tops) and older hulls can seem like bargains, but there’s a reason they’re cheap. Often you’ll spend more than you save within a year and have a boat worth less than you’ve spent. A sound hull, decent engine, and metal cabin are the real non-negotiables for me.

Anything older than 30 years and you’re potentially into overplating territory. If it isn’t done well, then the hull may still be rotting away, with water trapped between two skins of steel. Even over plated, an older boat will have significantly less value than a newer hull, which is worth considering before putting a lot of resources into refitting.  

Hull age, length/beam, price, and engine should be the first things listed on any ad. A little “much beloved home, selling with a heavy heart” is fine, but it’s not really relevant. BSS is BS and, in my opinion, not worth the paper it’s written on for determining a boat’s viability. It’s not like an MOT for a car—it guarantees almost nothing for you. Many rotten boats still have a BSS, it is no kind of guarantee!

Finally, unless you’re prepared to spend twice as much and take three times as long as planned, be very careful when considering a project boat or sail away. If you can do the work yourself, great. If you’re paying someone, it’ll cost far more than buying a boat that’s ready to go and just needs minor alterations.

Viewing a Boat

First off, red flags:

• Damp smell
• Mould
• Wet/damp cabin bilge or very rusty bilge (i.e., was wet often/recently)
• Spongy/bouncy floor

Be very careful of a boat with any of these. If you’ve got a hull rusting from the inside and a rotten subfloor, or black mould on the back of wall linings, it’s potentially time for a full refit. Very expensive and a lot of work.

If you’re tall, check headroom before viewing. If you’re bending over to move about, question whether that’s sustainable.

Beware of “small jobs” left to do on cheaper boats. These ring alarm bells—small jobs often take much longer than expected and turn out expensive. If they’re that small and easy, why hasn’t the seller done them?

Buying a Boat

You’re ready to make an offer. I feel people rarely pay the asking price on a boat. Don’t go crazy, but it’s worth trying for a bit off.

Expect the seller to take you out on their boat either before or after a deposit is paid, but before the out-of-water survey. You’ll see the engine running and get a sense of the boat in action, plus it’s crucial for the seller to show you how everything works—electrics, heating/hot water, isolators, and more. Boats aren’t uniform, and if you don’t find out now, you may spend ages wondering how things work.

Finally, and most importantly: you absolutely must get an independent surveyor of your choice to do an out-of-water hull survey. A full survey (rather than just hull) is great but check what it covers. No fault of the surveyors, but some people think a full survey covers more than it does. If you aren’t paying specifically for detailed electrical inspection, you’re probably not getting it.

Final Thoughts

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Lead with your head, not your heart. Boats are an emotional purchase—much more so than houses—but a cute interior may be hiding trouble for later.

There are lots of great folk on the water, but also some rogues, so speak to a range of people and get all the advice you can. The boating community is welcoming and friendly, and lots of people will help you out just to be kind.

Good luck finding the perfect boat. May you have many years of happy cruising ahead of you.

Materials for a magnetic spice rack

NOTE: Links are for suggestion and idea purposes only. We have no affiliation to any of the companies listed and receive no payment for clicks or orders, nor do we know of their current stock quantities or even if they still have them. Feel free to source your own.

Jars

I love the honeycomb jars, they tessellate well and make interesting patterns. However, any clean, food safe small jar with a metal lid will do. Plastic lids might work, I haven’t tried it. You want a jar of around 190ml, but you can use bigger/smaller jars to suit your needs.

Magnets

Getting the strength right is key. I used neodymium magnets, they are stronger for their size than ferrite magnets and less brittle too. Around a 3-5kg pull strength is ample. 

Backing Board

Any magnetic (ferrous) material.  I used a piece of metal sheet I got from our Blacksmith neighbours. You can get steel or iron sheet online and cut to size, or find something to repurpose. How about an old iron frying-pan? It may be possible to stick the jars directly to a fridge, cooker hood or other metal surface.

Be aware that not all stainless steels are magnetic!

Labelling Material for a Spice Rack

My partner has a vintage Dymo label maker from her grandparents, which made our gorgeous labels. If you have a label maker, then great, but it’s not essential. You can write paper labels and tape them on, or use a marker that will write on glass. The latter may rub off with time.

Fixings / Adhesive

If you are mounting a backing board to the wall or a cupboard, then you will need to fix it off.  A combination of grab adhesive and screws will be nice and strong. Most narrow boat walls are wooden, so you can screw straight into them (Mind Cables!!). To drill metal, you will want a 4mm HHS bit for a clearance hole and a 8-10mm HSS bit to countersink the hole. 

Tools

(suggested, but not all essential)

• Drill and drill bits
• Screwdriver
• Adhesive applicator gun
• Label maker

Method

Once you have all your materials, it couldn’t be simpler. Put a magnet into the lid of each jar. Use two if they are too weak.  They stick to the inside of the lid and the jars will now stick to your backing board/fridge/cooker hood. 

To mount a metal backing board, I drilled holes and then countersunk them. You need HHS metal drill bits to drill a clearance hole and then countersink, so the screw heads don’t stick out too far. I used a little grab adhesive on the back to be belt and braces, though a screw in each corner will likely be sufficient.  You can screw straight into the walls of most narrow boats, as they are typically ply or MDF. Make sure to check for pipes and cables beneath. I would suggest not using screws longer than required.

Label up each of your jars with your chosen labelling method. Putting the names on the bases makes it easy to see what is in each jar and avoid any culinary surprises! You can make these as elaborate and ornate as you care to. 

Finally, decant your spices and arrange in a pleasing pattern. It is good to leave a few gaps so that you can get fingers in to grab them. 

And that is How to DIY a magnetic spice rack. I hope that you have found this guide helpful. Why not have a go at making one for your kitchen. If you do, then tag us #cluettcarpentry

In this article, I will go through some good ways to use the space. A lot of this is things you can buy or make at home. You don’t need to be an expert to make the most of bulkhead walls.  So, if lack of storage is driving you up the wall, then read on!

Summary

Space: Bulkheads

Size: Widely varied. Generally, half or full height (900mm or 1800mm) tall. Widths from 400mm to 3000mm

Type of storage: Shallow storage. Good for pre-made items, as it’s typically vertical.  Shelving, hanging and racking. Nothing that sticks out too far

Suitable for: Books and trinkets, but also great for hanging kitchen items and such. Coats, bags and boots.  It is also useful for ‘active’ use, like a draining rack. It’s a dry internal area, so anything that will fit

Materials: Almost anything, especially if it is off the ground.  Damp shouldn’t be an issue, so pretty much anything goes

Difficulty rating: Very easy. The flat vertical surface lends itself to almost anything you would do in a home so “off-the-shelf” items will readily fit, as well as being prime for upcycling and DIY

Bulkheads for Storage

After the cat, I think one of our favourite things on the boat is the draining rack. My partner found it on eBay and it revolutionised our washing-up. It’s small. Only a couple of square feet. It can hold an amazing amount of crockery and cutlery, though. For a fairly cheap internet purchase, it has made the space in the kitchen feel so much bigger. It is wall mounted and has a drip tray underneath so we don’t lose any worktop space. With three tiers, it can hold loads. A really handy addition.

On the other side of the kitchen, we have more bulkhead storage. This is simple. The idea is the same as our curtain rails. Copper pipe and Munsen clips. A touch more advanced on the DIY front, but still an easy beginner job. Hanging items is great for pans, spatulas, sieves etc. This takes a lot of clutter off the side and can be more flexible than shelving, with large items hanging vertically. If you hang some baskets off them, you could put pretty much anything here. Elsewhere in the boat we have used the same idea to hang our kindling basket, hats and gloves basket, you could even have a cat basket for your feline friend.

Walls are great for hanging pre-made items to use as storage, as bulkheads are mostly plumb. It is easiest when they are vertical walls, unlike the sides of boats, which can be almost any angle. You can get lots of interesting pieces, very cheaply, and with a few screws you’ve got extra shelves. An example of this on our boat is that we use a cute little hexagon shelving unit from my wife’s old flat to store bathroom items, we have plenty of space to stash toilet rolls and a bottle of room freshener spray. The latter is important when you live in a small shared space. Anything like this can be fitted to the wall for instant storage.

Upcycling

Upcycled items are cheap, fashionable and can add character to a boat. While the inside is our ‘medicine cabinet’ as it were, the top is space to hide away more bits and bobs. Spaces like this help keep sides clear. A clear side makes a small home feel more spacious. Clutter can be oppressive. We aren’t always the best at keeping things tidy, but having a home for things helps.

If you have the space for some custom shelving, then you can really go to town. Wide beams especially have big open bulkheads.  The sky is the limit here. Any material, any design. You can have bookshelves, display shelves, even a full home entertainment wall.  Open shelving is great, but you could also have cupboards if you have the space. We have two cupboards in the front of our boat. It does take some of our lounge space, but without them, we wouldn’t have any hanging space. 

Wide Beam Bulkheads for Storage

In a wide beam, then a bulkhead of full height cabinets across the boats can make a real statement, especially in a dark colour. Like a feature wall, but more useful.  Using interesting materials can make for some gorgeous pieces. I love industrial and steam punk looks, as well as drawing on the natural beauty of wood and metal.  Scaffold board, as made famous by East London coffee shops (excuse the tongue in cheek joke) looks great stained and varnished. It’s a lot cheaper than slices of hardwood live edge timber. With some well-chosen brackets, it looks great. We have also used veneered ply to good effect, finished with a hardwood lip.

There are loads of ways to DIY your bulkhead storage. I think it might be the most approachable of all the spaces in our series. It certainly has a wide spectrum of uses. Why not upcycle some shelving, or plan out an intricate Welsh dresser style steam punk creation from reclaimed timber and oversized copper piping! Make sure you make the most of this prime boat real estate and if you want something really beautiful and practical then why not get in touch, let us design something just for you. 

In this article, I want to show you a few ways that we have made use of this space. Both shelves and cupboards, you can fit a variety of things in underneath. Plus, having a little depth means you can build storage in without interfering with the thoroughfare.

Summary

Idea: Gunwale Storage Ideas

Space: Under Gunwale

Size: Typically, around 100mm deep and 900mm high on a narrowboat, 300-400mm deep and 800mm high on a Dutch barge

Type of storage: Cupboards, shelves or even a hanging space

Suitable for: Storing anything. Clean and dry, so clothes, books, shoes, trinkets. Really just determined by the size of the space

Materials: Normally already clad out in a ply, adding birch ply shelves with doors if required

Difficulty rating: Quite straightforward on a narrowboat where the space is reasonably regular. Much more challenging on the swept curves of a Dutch barge

One of my favourite uses of this space is the shelving. I have in the bedroom on my boat at home. It’s a simple birch ply structure, stained and varnished. The different sized openings make it perfect for a whole host of items. Shoes, books, trinkets. It’s only about a hands breadth deep, so it won’t take deep folders or hardbacks. Still, it’s ample for a pair of trainers, paperbacks and lots of other things.  My wife has a love of storage boxes and has found lots of wicker boxes that fit the holes. We have one each and fill them with all the odds and ends from around the room.  The cat loves them. If only so he can scratch the wicker to pieces.

Lots of Gunwale Storage Ideas

A Dutch barge has a much deeper recess beneath the gunwale. That’s too good to waste! With a space like this, you can have full depth storage cupboards. The shape of the space makes it fiddly to build furniture to suit. Dutch barge hulls move in more dimensions than seems possible, which creates beautiful lines that are a pain to work with. It’s a great space.  One boat we did, had enough space that there was room for a clothes rail tucked in under there.  What would be a hard-to-use alcove and wasted space at the edge of a room can be a cupboard for plates, glassware, linen, clothes, files, anything. The tricky thing is making something that is sympathetic to the lines of the hull. Keeping the line plumb down the wall to the floor can make for a seamless storage that melts into the background. 

Where there isn’t as much depth, there is still space for cupboards. Like the bathroom. Our boat has cupboards beneath the gunwale in the bathroom. They’re small, but functional. Like the bedroom shelving, it’s a shallow space. This is plenty of room for all the tinctures and ointments of a bathroom. Toiletries, perfumes, oils and lotions, as well as space for medicines. The doors are simple slab doors with soft close hinges. This keeps dust and dirt off everything and leaves the space looking tidy.

Bathroom Storage Space is Great

Another bathroom we did had a piece of cladding missing beneath the gunwale. We had removed the old shower and put in something more modern, but this left a hole. True, it could have just been clad with a board. Covered up. But putting in a shelving unit tidied it up and added storage. Another bonus was it allowed us to cover up pipework that was sitting proud of the wall lower down.

Deep or shallow, shelves and cupboards can fit either and make use of a dead space that would otherwise be left unutilised. It can be a little difficult to make something to fit the space well, but it can be achieved by an amateur with decent DIY skills. If you want something tailor made to suit you, then why not get in touch with us. We have some great Gunwale Storage Ideas.

Space: Drawers

Size: From 200mm wide and 400mm deep, to giant drawers over a metre wide, breakfast bars a metre deep and up to 700mm tall

Type of storage: Very varied, though typically not over about 1.2 metres in the largest dimensions and often much smaller.  Generally shallow, though not always

Suitable for: Anything that isn’t too long and large.  Everything for the kitchen, from crockery to cutlery to pantry items. Clothes, shoes, linen. Toys, books, DVDs

Materials: Varied, though Birch ply, clear lacquer and a soft-close undermount runner for preference

Difficulty rating: Medium to hard.  Not for amateur DIYers, but very effective if done properly

Storage Drawer Ideas

1) Breakfast Bar

My favourite drawer, though it might be a stretch to call it that, is a breakfast bar we did. It’s 900mm long and marble. The body is birch ply and the runners are heavy-duty locking runners, designed for fire trucks and similar. They can take an even load of 250kg! We were able to fit such a deep bar as it was a Dutch Barge and there was a lot of space under the gunwale, behind the kitchen. It gives a big additional kitchen surface and an elegant table for breakfasting with a loved one.

2) Coffee Station

Here we have my coffee station. My partner arranged this and I love it. It is a good example of how a drawer can help organise and be beautiful. Everything is together; one drawer for mugs, the next for coffee, filters and other supplies. It is very ergonomic and feels great to use.

3) Pull out bin

Drawers are nothing if not versatile. On the other side of the kitchen, we have a pull-out bin. It is not glamorous. It is very useful though. With two sections to keep general waste and recycling apart, it is clean and green. It’s nice to be able to hide the rubbish away and this gives you plenty of space when you are between refuse points, keeping you going as long as possible.

4) Plinth drawers

A relatively new type of drawer, plinth drawers, have been growing in popularity. We fit these in pretty much every kitchen we do now. The plinth (the area beneath the units) is dead space and is normally unused. A plinth drawer gives you a space you never knew you had. It is ideal for odds and sods. It also makes an adorable pull-out for pet food and water bowls. They can be fitted with most kitchen units and add a good amount of additional storage.

5) Chopping board

Another fun kitchen addition is a pull-out chopping board. It provides extra working space in a tight galley kitchen. It feels good to use and can help you keep things clean and clear while you cook. I’ve seen some with a hole to put a bin beneath for easy clearing of peelings and scraps, something to try on a future project.

Have you got Storage Drawer Ideas

All things considered, drawers are a really great way to access deep spaces, keep things organised and make the best use of the space you have. They can be integrated into most pieces of furniture and modern drawers runners are reliable, look great (undermount are effectively invisible) work brilliantly and will last and last. All sorts of spaces, shapes and sizes can be made and with heavy-duty ratings on some runners the uses are almost endless. If you want some help getting the most out of the space in your home, then give us a call and let us come up with some Storage Drawer Ideas for you.

Wet-rooms, when done properly, are a great solution for a boat bathroom. Sod trying to find the right size shower tray and screen, then squeeze them in to place. Or, worse still, pay through the nose for a bespoke setup. Instead, put all your blood, sweat and tears in to building a fully waterproof room then simply spray water everywhere with gay abandon.

What is a wet-room

I will try and go through a little of; What a wet-room is, how it’s made and what that entails, why they are a bit of a bugger but also great, and generally that sort of thing.

Let’s start with the first and last point. A wet room is a room that you can get wet…. Hm, true but unhelpful. A wet-room is a room that has been water-proofed, often to make an open plan shower, but essentially an area that can get soaking wet without any of that troublesome water getting in all the places that you don’t want it; bilges, electrics, walls etc. They are amazing as you can have a great big shower of any size and shape, use the whole room really. They’re pretty stylish and slick. Not only that, but they just sound cool, and all your mates will want one.

Why are wet-rooms such a pain

Why are they a pain? Well, beyond the fact that plumbing is always a pain on boats (household and marine plumbing systems rarely making convenient bed fellows) and you have all the usual problems of getting the required trap and plumbing under the floor in a near non-existent gap. Beyond that, you’ve got to create a room that is completely waterproof yet still have holes for things coming in and out, and if you bugger it up you’ve a lot of work to do getting it right. If your tanking is no good then those beautiful antique crackle glaze tiles are all coming back off the wall, and they ain’t gonna be coming off in one piece

The water must get out, so you have to put a hole through your carefully constructed tank. You’ve got to seal all the floor and a good chunk of the wall up, so good luck getting to anything that was below or behind that!

Do you still want one

Assuming, at this point, a wet-room still seems a desirous and glorious addition to your boat, how does one go about it? The starting point is, first fix plumbing. Get all your feeds and all the parts of the drain and pump assembly in place. Where this all is will depend on the set-up, previous and desired. It’s a pain to move existing things and best avoided, but not always possible.

The big bit to get right is how to fit the drain. You’re cutting a whole in your waterproof floor! That’s trouble but can be worked around in a number of ways. There are formers available, these are composite boards that fit in or on the floor and can be tiled.

As they have a pre-made hole with a trap especially designed to go with them, these are a good bet. They also have built in fall. You can make your own from scratch; ply, firings, tanking kit and frustration (I know, I chose this path for my own boat). Or you could use an available tray but build the floor up to match. A bit of a cheat but as the ‘off shelf’ trays are so cheap they can be useful and using them to make a wet-room gets you round the fact they are always too damn shallow.

The wet-room walls

The walls will want something decent on them. Maybe you already have the walls in place maybe you have nothing there, maybe you need to move what is there. Almost certainly there’ll be things to box out, areas to square off and tweaks that are required. If putting walls in a then Wedi board is ideal, but a good quality ply is also a reasonable bet.

Both cement board and Wedi board need a frame, so you can’t beat ply for keeping it trim. I’ll let you decide if WBP, Birch or Marine is your cup of tea, I honestly think if you’re doing your tanking properly any of those three will be fine. If you are cladding existing walls then cement board was the go too, but it’s ruddy heavy. Wedi board, a relative newcomer to the market, is a great alternative. Loads lighter, similar price, cuts with a knife, it’s hard to think how we got by before it. The clouds of carcinogenic dust created by grinding through cement board make me shiver in memory.

Right, floor in, walls in, floor up again as the trap wasn’t in, floor back in, trap tested, feeds in wall for shower, sink, pump in accessible point to pump out said trap, sink waste in, great.

At this point I might mention that you don’t have to use a trap and a whale gulper, but, you’ve come this far so why muck about with anything else.

The right way and the wrong way

To my mind, a sump and pump system, particularly one that uses the bilge of the boat as the sump, just doesn’t make the grade. That said, a small grey water tank with a gulper with a float is great if you want to go that far, Can I endorse products on here? Yes, this isn’t the BBC, I can do what I ruddy well like. Whale gulper, Wedi board and now time for our Mapei tanking kit (edit: I’ve been trying out Topps Tiles tanking kit too, and it’s not bad), easily available from Toolstation or Screwfix for around fifty squids (or pounds, if you are at a branch that doesn’t accept seafood as currency).

The Mapei tanking kit is pretty good. Cheaper than some rivals (Bal) and fairly comprehensive. I feel it does fall down on being a bit mean on the jointing tape they provide. I wouldn’t mind so much, but as it’s £20 for an extra roll it seems a bit like a stealth tax. Anyhow, read the bucket, tape it up, gloop that liquid waterproof membrane all over the wall! Maybe this is a good point to tally up the time spent on this little project so far….

Table 1

People are welcome to dispute these figures. As I have pulled them completely out of the air it’s hard to say if they are truly accurate. The way I produce numbers will be a subject for discussion in an upcoming blog on pricing and project managing. I shall try and give some real world examples when we get there, but till then you are welcome to accept these figures or not. Point is, you can see that even with a fair wind and a calm sea we’ve clocked up the best part of a week, If it’s been a right fiddle it could easily be more like two.

We’re ready to tile, hooray! At this point, I cross my fingers and hope I’m not going to be asked to fit metro tiles. My apologies to existing clients who have requested this, I have previously made my feelings clear so it can’t be a surprise, and I am prepared to respect other people’s tastes and opinions being different to my own. For me though they are old hat, boring and dated.

Alternatives

There are various brick tile alternatives, check out the Lampas tile range at Topp’s Tiles. They’re even on offer at the moment (no, I don’t get kick-backs). If you are DIYing then silicone can be a good way to fit wall tiles on a boat. Takes a bit longer but does a good job, is forgiving and lets you start and stop when you please. If you’re tiling like a boss then a cement based flexible rapid set adhesive (grey or white depending on grout line, makes your life easier) is your go to. Again, I use Topp’s Tiles own brand. I find it as good as Bal, and it’s half the price.

Do clean your grout lines out before the adhesive goes off too hard, i.e. same day, and not with the silicone option! Take care not to damage the tanking as well. Don’t put the spacers in the actual corners of the tiles, this is truly schoolkid and should not be permitted. They stick in perpendicular to the wall and are removed after. You can thank me when you come to grout, and you don’t have loads of stupid bits of plastic showing.

Wet-rooms grouting cheat

Another good reason to do them this way is it allows you to cheat your grout lines. It’s more important to have the lines running through well than to have a grout line that is always perfectly the same size. Not all surfaces, or come to it all tiles, are true and flat. You need to step back, check your lines and cheat them where required. I might do a ‘tips on tiling’ sometime soon. For now, when it comes to the outside wall, just remember Pythagoras!

Tiles on, get that grout in. Good, we’re really making some progress now. I shan’t dally about too much longer, and we shall assume at this point that everything has been done correctly and is working. Second fix plumbing should be easy if the first fix was done correctly, if not be prepared to sweat and cry. Stick in a vanity unit. We’d make you one but, to be honest, you can get them so cheap off the internet that unless you have very specific requirements then there is very little point shelling out for a bespoke item.

There are always other things to spend money on in a boat. You might still want a screen, a piece of custom glass is going to set you back a little, but peanuts compared to a full custom shower enclosure. Really, though, I think we are about there. Not so bad after all. Shall we have a quick tally of those last bits

Table 2

Again, we seem to have a week on the easy path, two on the fiddly one.  Assuming there was no electrics and no decoration (lies, damnable lies!!!) then we’re gravy.  You could have a wet-room fitted in as little as 80 person hours, or perhaps as many as 160.  I won’t crunch numbers too much here as that’s another blog but you can see it’s not a quick job. You’ll also have shelled out a fair wedge on materials, though if you DIY and don’t count your own time (or frustrations) then this could be considered a cheapish job to do. 

We had one client who opted to do all their own plumbing on a bathroom we did for them. Never done any plumbing before, no experience of that or any other trades, went in blind. You know what, they did a decent job. Took a little while and they had to rethink their plans at points along the way, but goes to show that if you put sufficient time and care in you can achieve most things. 

Moral of all of this; Wet-rooms are awesome, they are expensive but they are definitely worth considering if you have the inclination to upgrade your bathroom.  Be warned though, don’t cut corners or you’ll have made some a very expensive problem for yourself. Enjoy!

Well, the less marine based puns the better, lord knows I don’t want to expose my shocking lack of knowledge of sailing. Carpentry, cabinetry, tiling, boat fitting in general. Of the many things I do know about, I must admit that actual sailing, sadly, is not one of them. Sailability or saleability.

This article is nothing to do with that so, moving swiftly on, today will be a little bit about readying boats for sale (not sail, if you go out in to open waters with a narrowboat then best of luck to you, but it is a seriously silly idea unless very well-prepared). I do hear people talk about flipping boats in the way they do houses, and you can probably make a few quid doing this. However, unless you are doing the labour yourself and can add value at a greater per hour rate than you’d earn doing your day job, then I would be wary of looking at boat renovation as any kind of gold mine

That said, people will want to sell boats. Be it a project that has come to an end, moving on to a different boat or, heaven forbid, on to land, perhaps you’re going to move in with a partner, and you’ve lost the coin toss and your boat is the one to go under the hammer. Whatever the reason, you may be looking at sprucing up your boat pre-sale to either add value or improve saleability.

The most important thing is going to be the same as with any house or flat, and that is decluttering. We all know boats aren’t the most spacious places to live, so best to maximise what space you have. If it’s full of your junk, then it’s never going to look appealing. So, get as much out as you can, get it organised, get it clean and clear, and you’ll be halfway there.

The cheapest fix and the easiest, for those with less advanced DIY capabilities, is a good coat of paint. While I wouldn’t suggest trying to cover a boat’s problems with a layer of emulsion (for a start it’s a boat, let’s push it out and go acrylic ay?) simply repainting the interior can go a long way to brighten and revitalise a space. The veneer throughout look can seem very dated, and the yellow varnish and stained walls will often look great with a decent bit of redecoration. If the veneer and trims still look good then a wood and paint mix, e.g. panels painted and trims left or an above below gunwale split, can give a much more modern look but retain an aquatic favour

If you’re going to do further improvements, then I would suggest leaving the painting till last. You don’t want to ruin your good work with a load of other work going on. For my money, then paint/varnish is the final thing, the icing on the cake.

Look at how you’re using your space. People love some clever storage. What about some chunky floating shelves or a new cupboard to use a dead space? When I first moved on to a boat, I was amazed at how my van load of possessions quickly disappeared in to the nooks and crannies of a boat. Again, if you’ve got cupboards and shelves a plenty, why not repaint tired old doors, keep it simple, or, add some colour. White and white is the rule for houses, but I think that a bit of character sells a boat. People aren’t looking for that same beige life experience that they want with a half million one-bed flat in Hackney (75% now sold, buy buy buy!!)

For those of a more daring disposition, then the real gems of a boat are often the bathroom and kitchen. Done well they really make a boat, if they are damp, mouldy and smelly then there is nothing surer to send a canny purchaser running for the hills. It is a bigger endeavour to redo a whole bathroom or kitchen, but there are some easier fixes if you don’t want to rip everything out and start again. Replacing the kitchen doors, worktop and sink, and you have a new kitchen. New tiles and a new vanity unit in the bathroom, and it can look like a whole new room.

I do feel that if you are getting somebody in to do the work then you are unlikely to add more value to the boat than you are spending, it is just the same in houses. Good quality work is not cheap and while it will increase the value of the boat, you shouldn’t expect to make a great net gain. That said, what you can get is greatly improved saleability. With the market in boat sales having taken a slump over the last year (anecdotal only, don’t expect me to back this view with evidence) then having something to make your boat stand out can help get it off the shelf. The world and her wife are all in the boating game these days, and the number of boats for sale in London and round the country seems to be increasing near exponentially.

When I bought my boat I fell in love with the headroom, the feel, the value and the ‘well put togetherness’ of it. I looked at hundreds of boats online and tens in person before finding the one for me. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it, let alone sell it (edit: since writing I’ve made good progress, possibly helped by sharing her with a partner these days.) Should I sell, I know I’ll never recoup the value of all the hours I have put in? I shouldn’t say, but at the end of the day, I think a lot of us would rather sell to somebody who we think is going to love our boat the way we did, over the person who is going to pay the most. Still, we do what we can to try and get value for what we are offering, and boating is becoming more and a more a commercialized area.

Final thought; pick your battles and make it stand out. Do what you can yourself, that which you can’t get an expert to do it well. Quality shows and people love boats in a way that I feel houses rarely achieve. We all hear the horror stories of people buying lemons, but most people selling boats are decent, and most people buying them are looking to love and own that boat for many years to come. A well looked after boat with a few stand-out features is always going to have value.

Happy boating!

Disclaimer

 Just a quick disclaimer, as ever, that this is an opinion and I can accept no liability for any choices or actions you make based upon reading this. Always defer to manufacturers recommendations. I hope you find this useful and interesting.

There’s a wide range of flooring available now, retailing at anywhere from £5psm (per square metre) to over £100psm. People will swear blind that you should use this or that, that they’d never lay vinyl or that there’s no point spending £100psm on fancy wooden engineered floors. Personally, I think all floorings have a place. I’ll go through some of the common types and why you might want to use, or avoid, them.

A quick thought about subfloor and underlay is probably worth a paragraph, before we move on. Most flooring suppliers will tell you what underlay you require to go with the product you are using. This may have thermal or acoustic properties, or may simply be a vapour barrier. This will go on top of your subfloor, which may be solid or suspended. What (and where, e.g. ground floor/first floor) this is will impact the type of underlay. It may also be that some work to level this subfloor is required before laying the finished floor. We’ll look at this in the DIY tips and tricks flooring post

Vinyl Flooring

Hard to beat on price, comes in all sorts of finishes and if you can get an offcut (good for the small areas found in boats particularly) then you can get a real bargain. You’ll need a decent subfloor as vinyl brings little to the table in structural terms, but it’s very easy to lay (measure twice cut once though!) and gives a good waterproof layer. We’ve used it on a couple of jobs, not my favourite thing to work with, but it has its place.

Pros

• Cheap
• Wide choice of looks
• Waterproof
• Easy to DIY

Cons

• Difficult to repair if damaged
• Can trap moisture
• Can look ‘cheap’
• If you cut it too small when laying, it is impossible to undo

Kardean Flooring

Increasingly popular Kardean flooring, this was featuring on various boats at Crick in 2018.  It’s a multi-layered vinyl flooring with a high definition photo print on the top to look like stone, timber etc.  Very durable and easy to lay, I’ve laid out once and it seemed decent. I did find the click lock on the product was fiddly at times, though this can be true of other click products. It varies with brand and quality. It’s not cheap, but if you can lay it yourself then labour may balance that out. 

Pros

• Durable
• Can be easy to fit
• Very Stable

Cons

• Relatively expensive
• Limited finishes and styles available
• Not much structure to it, subfloor needs to be good

Laminate Flooring

Starting at around £10psm, this is also a pretty economic choice. Laid well it can look pretty convincing and there are a wide range of laminate floors available to mimic all popular styles. It is a multi layered synthetic product and has a low to middling level of durability. Typically, the cheap laminates are cardboard with a printed wood effect on top. Most are use a click together system for laying. If you are doing a ‘floating floor’, which most of these would be, then you need to have a reasonably flat and level subfloor. It is not something I have ever laid in a professional capacity, so I have no photos of what we have laid, however there was laminate on a job where we made some gorgeous reclaimed wood doors.

Pros

• Cheap
• Wide Range
• Easy to fit
• More convincing look

Cons

• Durability is an issue with many
• Difficult to repair if damaged
• Soak up water and the cardboard/MDF base will swell and distort
• Generally can only be laid as a ‘floating floor’
• Thin structure is unforgiving on an uneven subfloor

Solid wood flooring

Considered by some to be the height of quality flooring, and indeed it can be. I rarely use solid wood, for reasons I will cover, but it can be very beautiful. Prices can be as little as £20psm but can also be over £100! Oak is popular and readily available. Exotic species quickly get very expensive. We have done some lovely reclaimed floorboard floors. Be aware, this is a more skilled and labour-intensive way to do flooring than buying a prepared ‘off-the-shelf’ product. Bamboo should perhaps be included here, but I will cover it separately.

If you are buying a ready-made flooring, then this will likely be tongue and groove. It can lay in various ways, though I would tend to opt for a floating floor to allow for instability in the material. A decent subfloor and a good underlay are important. Glue in the grooves will stick the whole floor together in to a large floating raft.

Pros

• Attractive finish
• Generally good durability (less so softwoods)
• Can be re-finished if damaged
• Can be quite economic, some oak boards are really good value

Cons

• Can be quite expensive
• Solid wood can be unstable (boards may expand and contract)
• Harder to lay
• Needs acclimatising before being laid

Engineered Flooring

This is my main go to, along with bamboo. Especially for boats where stability is a factor. There are widely varying qualities of engineered flooring, and this is reflected in the price. The best are a birch ply with a decent (4mm+) wear strip of the chosen hardwood on top. It’s this cross laminated structure (you could call an engineered floor a laminate floor, but they are generally regarded separately) that gives you such excellent stability. The best boards can cost more than their solid wood equivalent.

This stability means you have a wide choice of fitting methods with the floors; floating, glue together, glue down, hidden nail. Some can be laid straight to joists (this is true of most solid wood floors as well) if desired.

At the cheaper end of the spectrum are boards made of softwood block board with a thinner (2mm+) veneer on top. These are excellent value and can look great, but won’t be as durable in the long run. Most of the engineered boards come pre finished, oil or lacquer, though the higher end luxury/exotic veneers are often left bare for finishing after laying.

Pros

• Very stable
• Can be fitted in lots of ways
• Wide range of woods and finishes
• Can be refinished when damaged
• Generally very good durability

Cons

• Tend to be the most expensive, certainly for quality boards
• Need acclimatising before laying
• That’s about it, it’s a really good flooring!

Bamboo Flooring

Full disclosure, when I first wrote this post I’d not tried bamboo and had included it as a footnote in solid floors. Since then, I’ve laid, personally and as a company, quite a few bamboo floors and have come to hold them in high regard. Truth be told, it’s a frequent go to!

Price wise, a good quality bamboo comes in a similar bracket to a mid to low quality engineered board. Around £30psm gets you a decent bamboo board. They are very durable, harder than oak and arguable more stand. There are differences in the manufacture of bamboo, e.g. strand-woven, solid and engineered, but I won’t go into that here.

The variety of finishes and colours, these are added to the natural light bamboo colour, gives it good range. It doesn’t look like wood, but I think it has a pleasing aesthetic of its own. There’s also the added bonus of its relative sustainability, though please do research this yourself if it’s an important factor to you. I’d be interested to hear people’s knowledge on this.

Pros

• Relatively economic
• Durable
• Sustainable
• Can be refinished
• Stable

Cons

• Can be fiddly cutting
• Hardness wears tools
• Definitely doesn’t look like wood (if that’s what you really want)
• Needs acclimatising

Tiles

I will cover tiles here very briefly, I write in greater length about tiling in other articles, and they really are a topic in and of themselves. Tiles are attractive, durable, stable and available in a range that replicates, or is replicated, by the various other floorings covered here. We do a reasonable amount of tiled floor, and it is great for boats. The main downside is that it can be a bit chilly, but this can (not so readily on boats that aren’t on shoreline, but fine for houses) be remedied with underfloor heating. There are very reasonably prices electric kits available for under tile. Another downside can be cost, which may be quite high if a lot of remedial work is required before laying tiles. That said, they come in a range of budgets and can be laid DIY fairly readily

Pros

• Durable
• Stable
• Can be cheap to buy and install
  Wide range of styles
• Can be DIYed to good effect

Cons

• Can be dear
• A good subsurface is required
• Potentially chilly underfoot

Flawless Finishes

Let’s finish on finishes.  This is largely solid, engineered and bank floors, you don’t want to varnish your vinyl! The finishes available on boards are likely to be as good, or better, than you can achieve yourself. It doesn’t save much to get them unfinished, it’s really the high end exotic boards that you would buy unfinished. Also, if you want a very specific finish then you might do this, but by and large you will buy finished boards. It also means you can walk on them straight away and you aren’t stuck watching varnish dry trapped in the corner of a room and unable to get out (certainly not a personal anecdote, I swear!)

With pre-finished boards you’ll often get options on board and finish. First off you can choose plain, distressed or brushed (brushed is where they brush the timber with a metal brush, it helps highlight the grain texture).  Then on this you can choose an oil or a lacquer, both of which can come in a variety of sheen levels.  A two part lacquer is the most durable finish, if you want to just put it down and ignore it then this is the finish for you. Oil is beautiful and is easy to reapply should the floor be showing signs of wear and tear.  It’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. More durable but hard to refinish, less durable but easy to redo.

Some extra blurb

Whatever floor you choose, if you are thinking of laying it yourself then I am hoping to have a Dan’s DIY tips for flooring that I shall be publishing soon. Watch this space.

I’d also like to mention that one should read price per square meter with the understanding that you’ll need more than just the boards themselves. The addition of trims, thresholds and various sundries can be 50-100% that cost again.

Taking a toilet tank out is an ever popular request from people.  We do take some out, though many people opt to do it themselves.  It’s not that tricky, but it’s a dirty job and I, for one, expect a pretty decent rate before I start going mano-a-tanko with your old poop tank. Well, for those that fancy saving a few quid and trying it themselves, I will try and impart a little wisdom.

Disclaimer time

Standard Disclaimer; We take no responsibility for any work you choose to undertake. While I hope this will be of use to people, anything you read here is purely personal opinion, and you should not undertake any work where you do not know what you are doing. If in doubt, get a professional!

There are a few elements to tank removal and a few types of tank that you might be removing. Let’s start by breaking the job down.

Tank removal steps

Step 1. There’ll often be access issues, walls or beds and the like that have been built in after the tank. So some preparatory carpentry is likely.  Step 2 will be to decommission any plumbing that is in your way (Do not mess with gas pipes! Get a gas safe professional!).  Next up, step 3, that’s free the tank and wrestle the bugger out of the boat.  You could also include disposal here though we aren’t covering that as commercial waste removal is not our area, we pay for this to be done safely and legally. Step 4, make it good and install your new choice of toilet

From the top, then. People want to hide tanks out the way and use up dead space. Building the bed over the tank is a classic way to utilise space and hide away the unpleasant tank. Often the tank will be sticking halfway through a wall as well. How to remove these potential obstacles is not a question I can answer completely here, a good knowledge of boat carpentry will stand you in good stead but, failing that, I would suggest a considered approach of deconstructing what is there.

Try to work out how it (whatever it is) was built and work back from there.

If you take it apart carefully, then you’ll likely be able to put it back together again. It’s common on boats for fixings to be in some way accessible. It could be that there are trims holding the walls in and the screw holes have been filled or plugged. Find these and dig them out. Just work through whatever is there, finding points where it is fixed and removing them. It’ll take longer than crow-barring the whole lot out, but you’ll thank yourself later. A handy tip is to take a photo log of the work as this can help reassembly

Different tank types

Before we go any further, let’s look at a few different tank types. If you’re lucky, it’s a modern plastic tank. Pat yourself on the back as the battle is already half won. More likely it will be a metal tank, old, rusty and possibly structurally unsound. This might have brackets or fixing points so that it could be screwed down to the base.

It may have straps to hold it in. Or, if you really have p****d off the gods of good fortune, it may be welded to the base or even be an integral part of the hull. If it’s the final one, you’ll know once you have uncovered the tank in full and can see the bottom of it. You have a horrid job ahead of you. For now, we’ll assume an independent tank, and I’ll talk about integral tank later.

Okay, let’s look at decommissioning the tank. We ask people to empty the tank (obvs!) and to rinse it out at least twice before we start. This won’t leave it completely clean or empty, but it’s better than it could be. Next up is any plumbing involved with the tank, plus anything else in the way. Turn off your water, ideally at the pump and stop cock, drain the pressure off the system at a low point or tap and disconnect your water feed. This can then be capped with a stop end, and you’re good to go. Temporarily decommission any other plumbing (don’t touch gas! Get a Gas safe plumber!) in a similar manner if required.

Don’t forget the Toilets

The loo will be attached to the pump either directly or via a pipe. You will want to turn off and isolate the macerator if there is one. There will be an in-let, out-let and air vent on the tank (set-ups may vary and other in/out-lets are possible, check manufacture’s drawings if in doubt, but things are largely all dealt with in the same way).

Basically, disconnect and remove all pipework at both ends, and then we’ll deal with the holes. For this we’ll want some batten, board, silicone and spray foam. Little holes you can spray foam, bigger holes we’ll board over. You want to cut a length of batten about 4” longer than the hole width. Put this in to the tank and hold in place so it is covering the width of the hole. Drill a hole through either side where the wood is to allow you to put a couple of screw in, hey presto you’ve now got a fixing point.

Cover the hole

You can now cut a piece of board that is going to cover the hole. It needs to be bigger than the hole, but the exact measure is not important. I like to glob a load of silicone around the edge, and then I just screw through the board (e.g. a scrap of OSB, chipboard or WBP, ply) in to the batten and the silicon is going to seal up the hole. It’s not going to give you a perfect seal, but you’re not going to hold the tank upside down above your head! (I hope)

Now that the tank is sealed up, holes large and small are covered, we can look at getting the tank freed up and out. Assuming it isn’t integral, then it is likely fixed somewhere, either by straps or brackets or similar. If there is something to undo, hopefully undo that, and you’ll be good to go.

Rusted

More likely, whatever fixings are in place will be rusted to hell and will want grinding away. I wouldn’t recommend drilling out screws in the bottom of your hull! Grind off heads, cut, remove or snap straps, check that all fixing points are loose. If it’s a metal tank, then it may be quite rusty and this could be gluing it to the base. Get a bar under there and lever it up to break it away, being cautious that the hull is sound underneath, you don’t want to rip a hole in the floor of your boat!

If it’s plastic, it will likely come away easily and should be quite light to lift out. If it’s metal then it’s probably going to be trickier, you also should watch out for the integrity of the tank. Handle with care as if it’s rusted, then you don’t want it to collapse on you! It’s also going to be heavier, so you’ll need an extra pair of hands to help lift it out.

Integral tanks….. Well, some days you’re the statue, I guess. If the tank is welded to the hull/part of the boat, then the only way you are going to get it out is to cut it out. You may have to cut up the tank anyway if it’s just too large and/or unsound. That’s every bit as unpleasant as it sounds. Clean, rinse and pump out as best as you can, then get in with the grinder. Extreme caution must be taken!!

Do not cut a hole in your hull.

I would suggest you cut open the top and then wet vac out the remaining liquid, after that mop out the residue. At least this way, there’ll be less splash back as you cut in! You only need to cut away what’s above floor height, though you don’t want to leave a pool in the bilge.

The point is, though, that if it’s not clean down to the hull all the way around, it hardly matters. Take your time, cut out manageable pieces, and just be very, very careful. Using a grinder in a tight space is dangerous, use appropriate personal protective equipment. You really need to watch out for sparks as well, they start fires in bilges and on clothes!

Once your tank is out, and you’ve taken it to an appropriate waste disposal site, then you can put the area back together. Refit plumbing and carpentry elements as required, patch subfloor and floors, walls etc.  Cassettes and compost loos are generally pretty easy to install, so now you’ve done the hard bit, this should be pretty straightforward. All that’s left after that is to burn your clothes, have three to four showers (round at a mate’s house) and enjoy your new crapper!

Happy tank removal

This always sets alarm bells racing. Why is a bit of the floor squishy? What is causing it, and worse, what is now underneath? It would indeed be a small job to cut away a little bit of board and replace it, but this is rarely what is required. It is more often the symptom of a much more problematic situation, one that I shall try and give you some advice on dealing with in this post.

Spongy floors and rusty bilges – Costly job

The reason that this is often such a costly job is not because of any great skill required in dealing with it, but because it is often a very widespread issue that will require a lot of time to resolve. Potentially moving (removing) many items and carrying out a lot of grotty and lengthy works. If you want to DIY it, you can save a packet. The work involved, for the large part, is not too taxing, just time-consuming.

I shall break this down in to a few sections in order to make this guide as useful as possible. Each section will contain an outline, some suggested steps, and some tips and tricks on dealing with what you may encounter. They will be,

• Finding the issue
• Preparing for the work
• Sorting the bilges

Standard Disclaimer: We take no responsibility for any work you choose to undertake. While I hope this will be of use to people, anything you read here is purely personal opinion, and you should not undertake any work where you do not know what you are doing. If in doubt, get a professional! All boats are different and anything written here should not be taken as universal

Finding the Issue

The first question when anybody says there is a problem with damp is where is the water coming from? This may seem daunting, but there are only so many places that it can be coming from, and we can trouble shoot our way through. We are assuming here that your boat is designed with a dry cabin bilge.  If it is designed to be wet then water in the bilge will not be as useful of an indicator, though depending on certain known factors, like the weather, you may still learn something if the level of water is changing when not expected to. 

For now, we’ll assume that you’ve lifted some boards in the effected area and/or lifted inspection hatches (typically found hidden away in corners, sometimes beneath furniture) at the stern of the boat) and found water beneath. If there is a particular wet area, beyond just the bilges at the stern, then searching locally for the leak is going to be a good starting point. Water will run ‘downhill’, so things nearby or in front of this wet area are likely culprits.

Where is it coming from

You might be wondering, is the water coming from the canal? Short answer, probably not and if it is then this is not the guide for you. If your hull is unsound, or you suspect it may be, get your boat out the water and get a professional to advise you. It is rare that this is the case if you’ve had a survey, though we have been working on a boat that has sprung a leak! If it is possible to pierce the hull with a scraper or the like, then the hull needs professional attention.  As such, let’s just discount this for now until you have excluded all other possibilities.

Is it coming from the plumbing? This is one of the major causes of a build up of water. It can often lie unnoticed and rot away timbers and rust bilges unseen until the problem has gotten much worse. An understanding of water systems on boats will help you track down issues here, but we will run through some potential areas that it could be.

Water systems

Water comes from your tank and is then put under pressure by a pump. Any utility using water will be connected to this pressurised system so we can tell if there is a leak between pump and outlets as the pump will come on when there is nothing being used. So, a pump running when it shouldn’t be equals a leak in the ‘live’ side of the plumbing. Once you know this, then it’s a case of tracking it down and fixing it. It’s more often a joint than a straight run of pipe, so check any connections. Pipes, particularly copper pipes, can split if left full and allowed to freeze in cold weather as well, though this would probably cause a more noticeable leak than just a slow drip.

It could be the water is escaping from somewhere after this. Typical things to check are shower and sink wastes. This might be identified by damp or mould local to one of these. Drying thoroughly and then running water through with a paper towel beneath will allow you to check for minor drips. Any joints in pipes running from these should also be checked, with particular attention paid to anywhere there is negative fall, as water will sit here and have more chance to work its way through any weak points. The skin fittings on boats are another weak point. Integral welded steel outlets on older boats may have rusted through with time, this happened with the shower on my boat, a late 90s cruiser stern

Above the waterline

If in doubt, you can eliminate the plumbing completely by isolating it (or draining it) from the boat and seeing if the problem persists. If it does, then this would suggest that the water is coming from outside the boat. Again, we are assuming that this is an above the waterline issue. Is the problem worse in wet weather? Then it’s probably coming in through a weakness somewhere in the shell.

Weak points

The ‘weak points’ are anywhere the shell has been cut through, in particular, windows, mushrooms, chimney collars and other vents and outlets. Doors and doorways could also be to blame. Rust, damp or mould down the wall beneath the cladding might lead you to the offending article. It is worth giving the exterior of the boat a thorough visual inspection. I have also known water to get in from wet bilges, such as an engine bilge, when bulkheads have rusted through to the cabin bilge. While I am not going into detail on how to fix the multitude of issues you might discover, I will perhaps cover some in future blogs, I will give a shout-out here to ‘Captain Tolley’s creeping crack cure’. This can be a handy fix for certain hairline gaps on the boat exterior, at least for a temporary fix.

I feel I should also mention condensation. This gets put forward as a source of water in the bilge and can be a problem, though I have not seen many cases where condensation is creating a significant build up of water. It shouldn’t be completely disregarded, but I would look for other culprits first, unless you have a lot of bare and uninsulated shell beneath the cladding.

Preparing for the work

You’ve found and fixed your leak. Now you need to assess the damage and decide on a course of action. You should be able to dry the bilge, and have it stay dry. If not, then you may still have an issue. It could be that you have an area of flooring/woodwork that has been affected and a rusty bilge. How much should you do? It is tempting to want to pull everything up and start again, but this may not be practical. Factors such as, how accessible is the bilge, the age and value of the boat, the state of internal fit out, the severity of the damage/mould/rust will guide you as to how much is worth doing.

Rust

Rust looks awful, 1mm of steel becomes 10mm of rust! When you first look at a bilge that has got wet, it can be quite frightening.  If you are in doubt, then seek professional advice. A surveyor will be able to help you gauge what is problematic and what is just cosmetic.  Mould should be dealt with as this can be bad for the health and residual damp and mould can affect surrounding woodwork. 

If there is relatively little in the way of fit out and bulkheads, it may be simple to lift everything for access. If the opposite is true you might find it very difficult to lift boards which are pinned down by walls, kitchen, bathroom, tiles and all sorts of fitted furniture and the like. Perhaps you can cut out the rotten area and replace, then deal with the rusty bilge locally and at the stern. If the rust is not too bad, you can possibly just dry out the bilge and trust that it will remain relatively dry in the future so that the rust will not significantly increase.

Remove and clean

Ideally you want to remove all rotten wood and clean, treat and paint any rusty sections of bilge (and walls of the shell if effected). In extreme cases, this can mean removing the boat’s fit-out completely. If this is required then a dock with covered storage is the best situation, but it might be possible to deal with half a boat at a time and do it this way while on the cut.

If there is extensive remedial work to do then it is often as quick, and probably more sound, to remove whole panels of wall and floor and replace them. Cutting bits out and bodging them back in will likely leave a creaky floor and messy looking boat. Not to say it can’t be done, but by the time you have done a proper job of cutting out a piece of flooring, patching it and making good you may have been able to just take out the bulkheads and lifted the lot. This also makes it easier to support the flooring properly. I will cover floors, subfloors etc in more detail in other blogs.

Bilges

We are mostly dealing with bilges here, though the same techniques can be applied to other metal elements of the shell, so I will leave the woodwork to one side.  The flooring, and subfloor will want to come up and then any ballast will need lifting. It is difficult to really get a bilge bone dry until anything is removed and it is fully exposed. Even then, if there are thick layers of rust this can trap a lot of moisture.  You will want to dry out ballast before putting it back in, unless it’s pea shingle in which case bin and replace with slabs! Care should be taken when removing a boats ballast.  Narrowboats are inherently pretty stable (wobbly, but unlikely to capsize), but do be aware that moving/removing ballast may affect your boat and it’s position in the water

Sorting the Bilges

By this point you should have full access to all the areas you want to deal with. Like I have said, we are discussing the metal work here. Some of the carpentry elements you will find dealt with in my other blogs, but the spectrum of work is too wide to cover here satisfactorily. 

I would mention again, rust can look much worse than it is, but if you are unsure of the integrity of the hull then seek professional advice.  The next step is to physically remove as much rust as possible.  Rust is an oxide of steel and is unusual in that it flakes away from the surface of the metal where many other metals’ oxides adhere to the surface. Take for example aluminium, a highly reactive metal that is protected by it’s oxide coating. Sadly, this is not the case with steel and rust and you will want to remove as much off the loose rust as possible

For DIY purposes I would suggest starting with giving the entirety a good going over with a scraper and then sweeping up the loosened rust. Be aware that dealing with the rust is probably the messiest bit of the whole job and you should take care to wear appropriate PPE, including but not limited to goggles, mask, and probably a boiler suit. 

If the area effected is large and the resources are available, then it may be practical to mechanically remove the rust with a needle gun or with blasting. It is best to seek professional advice if you want to do this so that you can be advised on the suitability of these techniques.

Thorough brushing

Once the area has been scraped over then it will need a thorough brushing with a stiff wire brush. This can be a hand brush or a drill attachment, either way it’s dusty, horrible work to do so masks on! Sweep away whatever comes off and hopefully you will have a surface that is beginning to look a little less shocking.

You won’t be able to remove all the rust (unless blasting of course) so the next step is very important and should not be skipped.  A rust converter should be used on the entire surface. There are a few different products and it is to be noted you will likely want to order these in advance from the internet as they are not readily available in shops in useful quantities (you might try Halfords and Toolstation, but better to go online).  Fertan and Vactan are both popular, though check whether the product you are using needs washing off after application as this adds an annoying and, I feel, unnecessary step.  My personal favourite is FLAG rust converter and primer as this can be painted on and left and leaves a primed surface ready for topcoat.

Rust Converters in Spongy floors and rusty bilges

All of these converters work in the same way, they change the red oxide into a black oxide which is stable and will remain stuck to the steel. Don’t ask me the science of it, I am sure that is available elsewhere on the internet. The idea is that you want a stable surface to apply your new finish too, otherwise rust underneath your paint might damage the surface and lead to water being able to penetrate and further rust the metal

All of these converters work in the same way, they change the red oxide into a black oxide which is stable and will remain stuck to the steel. Don’t ask me the science of it, I am sure that is available elsewhere on the internet. The idea is that you want a stable surface to apply your new finish too, otherwise rust underneath your paint might damage the surface and lead to water being able to penetrate and further rust the metal

Preventative

Two coats of Zinfos 340 and your metal work should be fairly bomb proof (not literally mind). After this you are all set to replace the ballast and begin rebuilding/re-fitting the innards of your boat. Assuming you have taken things out with care and have good records of how it went together then this should be a relatively pain free exercise. You’ll likely be replacing your subfloor in part if not in whole, exterior grade ply here is fine but some people like to be belt and braces and stick in marine grade. This is fine, though it is pricey and very heavy.

Well, you’ve finished. You might not be able to see you’re handywork but now you can sleep soundly knowing that you’ve done a proper job. Why not relax from your hard days labour and check out some pictures on our Instagram feed or see some of our projects on our website. Until the next time.