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THE FITTING OUT OF
CARLTON - THE FOAM INSULATION
Links to other pages on the fitting
out of CARLTON
| CARLTON HAVING THE
SPRAY FOAM INSULATION APPLIED Carlton was delivered as a hull already primed and the bottom blacked, but without windows. The hull is sheet steel, it needs something on the inside to keep it cosy in the winter and cool in the summer. Spraying the inside of the hull by a specialist service provider, we believe, offers the best form of narrowboat insulation. There follows a number of images, and some text, on the process |
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The inside of the hull as delivered, a pretty chilly place. |
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The
inside of the hull prior to the spray foam insulation being applied to the
inside of the steel hull. All the wooden battens and the floor have been masked to prevent the insulating foam bonding with them, and it does bond very well. |
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A closer study of a masked window. |
| The
equipment of the spray foam contractor set up and ready to go at the
wharfside. The boat you can see is CARLTON. |
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| The
insulation foam being applied to the interior of the hull. The polyurethane is actually applied as a sprayed liquid and foams/expands after application. A great deal of skill and experience is needed to know how much to apply in anticipation of how much it is going to expand. It is best to compare the operator to a deep sea diver for you to understand how he can operate in the spray foam environment, which is hazardous until it has set. He is wearing a complete "overall" and a helmet which is supplied with fresh air pumped from outside the boat. |
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| If
you look very carefully you can see a thin pipe running down his back from
the helmet. The foam materials and compressed air comes through the pipes attached to the sprayer. Here you can see the over spray on the masked windows and polythene covered floor. The floor polythene has not ripped this is the spray that has settled on the floor and bonded together being broken as the operator walks over it. |
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A
day and a half later and the "clean up" process, i.e. removing
the masking and foam from the battens. It is also necessary to remove insulation foam that has expanded higher than the surface of the batten. This process usually takes several days. |
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The masking on a window still to be removed. |
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Foam and the tape removed from some of the roof battens, in other areas the insulation foam has been removed but not the black masking tape. |
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It is not possible to not spray the battens with foam, the skill is that when you remove the foam on the batten the foam sticking to the steel hull is the height of the batten, and no higher. |
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In
this photograph you can see a "cleaned" window. What appears "high" areas around the windows are battens, and until they are stripped you will not know if any of the foam on the steel plate is actually high. |
| Ashby
Boat Company, Canal Wharf, Stoke Golding, NUNEATON, Warwickshire CV13 6EY |
Tel.
01455 212671 Fax. 01455 213 255 Email - sales@ashbyboats.co.uk |
