Quidnic shanty tiny house boat

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Quidnic, Apr 19, 2020.

  1. Silvertooth
    Joined: Nov 2016
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    Silvertooth Senior Member

    Yes a cooperative workshop here on this very forum.

    Your description of good plywood sandwiched foam insulation with glass fibre over and epoxy would be the best if you can afford it.

    But I like the idea of thinking of very cheap ways to build shanty boats for the upcoming greater Depression the world is facing.

    Some are predicting a flood of layoffs and and avalanche of unemployed and then soon to be homeless families and entire households

    Shanty tinyhouses and tiny houseboats built from scrap recycling will be very useful in the coming Great Depression 2
     
  2. Silvertooth
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    Silvertooth Senior Member


    Forgive me I still don’t understand the process of skin on frame, how do you go about it please?

    Where does the skin come from? How do you make it?
     
  3. Dejay
    Joined: Mar 2018
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    Location: Europe

    Dejay Senior Newbie

    I find a coop makerspace interesting for a couple reasons. If you and some friends help each other out building some tiny houses or boats, you're basically bypassing much of the economic problems. You're creating value in the same range as a professional company with all it's overhead would and you're trading labour directly, untaxed. As long as it's not a business. That's what I like about the tiny house movement. It's nothing new BUT new technologies and processes and also new ways to learn allow us to cover the essentials in more self sufficient ways.

    Shanty towns aren't of course any kind of solution, we can and should be doing better than that, and after all we do have enough housing for everyone. But there will be a new and intensified refugee crisis. Food supply and prices are getting disrupted right now and millions will starve and there will be new wars. From what I understand a lot of container homes have been build and bought by governments as temporary housing when the Syria refugee crisis hit it's peak. Industrial ways to produce waterproof wall panels to slap a tiny house together could help with that.

    Being able to quickly deploy housing either here or in countries in crisis could be very important so people have the essentials for a dignified life. Global solidarity as the cure for global chaos.

    But my own selfish dream is to build a solar powered trimaran that gets enough power to travel slowly around Europe without fuel. Enough power that allows for comfortable "luxurious" living off the grid to power a water maker, power a washing machine etc. Internet via starlink, maybe a greenhouse and some fishing. So I'm here to learn and find ways to build that are both cheap and good quality. To find that "one simple trick" that professionals don't want you to know about haha ;)

    So I do like your idea but I think in general you'd want something that requires a bit more investment but yields more durable and acceptable results. In regards to insulation, there are places that sell surplus or second hand(?) rigid insulation foam. A coop boatyard or makerspace could gather such cheap resources and some tools to process cheap lumber and build a large table to press together laminated SIPs. There are [automated factories for CLT](CLT production - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=CLT+production) that already pretty much do this commercially.
     
  4. gonzo
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    gonzo Senior Member

    You are implying that us, as professionals, have a conspiracy to keep good technology secret. That is simply not true. If you truly want simple and cheap, let go of the requirements for luxury. For example, have a boat with no electricity. Wind is created by temperature changes caused by solar energy. Use that simple solar energy. Oars are quiet and simple. They also move you slowly per your requirements.
     
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  5. Dejay
    Joined: Mar 2018
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    Dejay Senior Newbie

    poster i want to believe in boats.jpg
     
  6. clmanges
    Joined: Jul 2008
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    clmanges Senior Member

    As near as I can tell from the Gentry site, the polyester fabric is tacked or stapled onto the frame and then shrunk tight with a heat gun. I don't know the specifics of the material. It may need waterproofed; I don't know, but they seem to typically get painted. Do some searching.
     
  7. Quidnic
    Joined: Apr 2020
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    Location: Wales

    Quidnic Junior Member


    Love this idea

    I want to be a part of it

    why not start a Facebook group or something
     
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  8. Silvertooth
    Joined: Nov 2016
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    Silvertooth Senior Member

    Totally agree, with the next Great Depression upon us the crisis hit people being evicted should not expect luxury

    I love the sound of solutions for housing normal unskilled people who are prepared to put some time and effort into building a tiny house or tiny house boat from shutter boards and whatever else they can salvage from abandoned building sites
     
  9. Dejay
    Joined: Mar 2018
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    Dejay Senior Newbie

    Luxury might be the wrong word. It's also about upfront investment costs vs spending more over time. If you invest into solar panels (really cheap today) and EV batteries (getting cheaper) you can actually save money over 20 years compared electricity costs living in an apartment. Having good insulation will save you heating costs. Being able to run your own washing machine and water maker will also save you money and time at the laundromat. Living rough costs you time. DIY costs you time also.

    It all comes down to how much you can invest and what compromise you want to make.

    Lets say you build a box or barge 7.5m x 2.5m x 2.4m with cheap 6mm plywood, around 8cm XPS insulation and sheathed with 200gsm fiberglass and epoxy. That would be typical tiny house size. From my rough pricing calculations that would around 4200€ and 900kg (waste not included). For a 13m x 3m box it would be 7500€ and 1600kg. This would be just a shell though, windows etc are expensive.

    I don't know if 200gsm on 6mm plywood are viable specifications and I'm a total beginner and trying to learn. You can find plenty of boat plans but I haven't seen any that design for insulation in mind (SIPs add stiffness) or plan for a large roof surface for solar panels.

    One way of going cheaper might be to replace the plywood with strip planking with lets say 1cm thick planks and add a little more fiberglass. But that might cost you a lot of time making the strips. That's where shared tooling could pay off.

    Then if you'd go crazy and put 7kW high performance solar panels on that 13m barge and add a 20kWh LiFePO4 battery bank with chargers you'd add about 20.000€. That should be enough to cover all of your electrical needs and move a barge slowly in rivers and the like, at least in summer. An electric motor has less maintenance costs too. Add a water maker, a diesel heater for the winter months and a small generator. So lets say 50k over 15 years would be 280€ per month but you could live on the river without any additional utility or rent bills or property taxes and fees. You could also put the whole thing on a simple 5m wide catamaran or a trimaran.

    So I believe investing in a larger boat and lots of solar panels could pay off. Probably this is somewhere between smart economics and foolishness :)
     
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  10. Silvertooth
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    Silvertooth Senior Member

    A lot depends on the story you tell yourself.

    If you tell yourself the story that all you need is a warm dry comfortable bed, some storage space and a simple kitchen area.

    That all you need is a simple log stove and you will enjoy collecting wood nd chopping it up.

    That al you need is a bucket and chuck it or composting toilet, yes it presents challenges but then you will get happiness overcoming those challenges.

    All you need is a simple guttering system to collect rainwater in a reasonable tank, and get extra water easy enough from other places if or when you may need more.

    A simple shower bag can be hung in the self draining heads compartment that can be filled with hot water from the log stove. This can be you clothes washing at the same time as showering.

    All you really need is a cheap either fold out or portable sola panel and very cheap easy to get battery for your phone and forget other electrics.
     
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  11. Silvertooth
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    Silvertooth Senior Member

    Geurilla gardening wild edible plants along the river banks and other unused land near to where you will live, and then setting traps on land for wild game and also underwater food traps and nets
     
  12. trip the light fandango
    Joined: Apr 2018
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    Location: Rhyll Phillip Island Victoria Australia

    trip the light fandango Senior Member

    Ferro cement is most likely the best co operative material, and outlasts everything except fibreglass.
    They may be a shanty Boat but making disposable craft that will be a rotting mess combined with plastic in a few years isn't responsible or a practical way to consider how to create less pollution and environmental impact in the future.
    Cement and steel aren't all that biologically sound but the boat can be built to last relatively cheaply with a hull thickness of 15mm.
     
  13. Dejay
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    Dejay Senior Newbie

    Do you have any guestimate for the cost and weight per square meter for 15mm thick ferro cement?
     
  14. trip the light fandango
    Joined: Apr 2018
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    Location: Rhyll Phillip Island Victoria Australia

    trip the light fandango Senior Member

    Lets say 17mm , aiming for 15, It would depend entirely where you were sourcing quality sand, cement, the mesh from and your location. I don't know whether packing plywood and bulk buying epoxy would be cheaper.. Both depend on good supervision until the workers understand the key factors for longevity. Moisture content of the mix, good rendering by working the mix into the voids, drying the finished product off carefully, good even tying, are factors. It perhaps offers a less toxic environment to work in apart from paint and mixing the cement initially.
     

  15. Silvertooth
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    Silvertooth Senior Member

    Ferry cement is too heavy to put on a trailer easy

    They plywood is lite and only a few people could put her on a trailer
     
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