Caution, this is ugly Help!

Great site, Was hoping to get some advice on this and after checking out this site realize how much I don't know. It all started when I set out to fix some soft spots on the roof of our 1973 Boatel Houseboat. Delaminated deck and spongy spots. Deck is composed of, From bottom up, Woven roving/8"X8" by 3/4 squares of plywood/fiberglass cloth. The top spans 9 feet wide. We started by shoring up the interior and removing the top skin. Then removed the rotted wood then reinstalled new plywood. We did not go with the 8X8 squares again. Treated the existing wood we did not remove with CPES. Started with layup and laminating resin and multi directional mat then set plywood in it and screwed thru the bottom to clamp. Then put cloth on top. Unfortunately the day after We installed the temperature dropped to 40 F and it rained. We had to leave and I won,t be back til next weekend to see if it worked or will I be tearing it all out.
Any way my question is what would you use mat or cloth on top of plywood to help with strength ? THanks in Advance

 

Mat is a "bulking" material and has little strength to offer the laminate, use cloth. If you mixed up your resin/hardener in the proper ratio and it didn't rain or got too cold before the gel stage of the cure, then it's very likely it will be cured when you get back. This is assuming ambient temperatures got above the point to effect cure, for at least several hours, during your absence.

Depending on the brand and speed of the hardener used, the gel stage could be as little as a half hour to several hours, depending on temperature and humidity, just after application.

 

Par's right, cloth will be better than mat outside the plywood. If it was the next day before the temp dropped and rain started, you're probably OK.

 

Caution - this is ugly help

A houseboat...Dammit - We'll be having discussions on multi-hulls next....

On the other hand I've never known Par's advice to be wrong.

Ps. Welcome to the forum.

 

Would more layers of cloth add more strength?

 

In short, yes.

The roof/upper-deck/whatever-the-heck-you-call-it-on-a-floating-RV bends slightly whenever there's a load on it. As a result the lower surface is in tension and the upper surface is compressed. A thicker laminate on the upper surface will not compress as easily, thus the deck will be stiffer.

The downside is that fibreglass is damned heavy when you make it thick. A lot of weight that high up is not good. The art of laminate design is to find the right balance between light and strong. With a bit of information about the structure underneath that thing, it would be possible to estimate an appropriate skin laminate.

When you do get around to laminating the top, check the weather forecast and make sure you have a fair bit of nice, moderately warm, dry weather before you start. In order for multiple layers of fibreglass and resin to chemically lock themselves together, you should do all the layers in one go, without letting the resin cure in between layers. Two or three layers on that roof will probably take you and a helper or three from 8-9 AM to early afternoon. It would be good to have at least a day or two of nice weather afterwards for it to cure completely undisturbed.

 

The cloth you use on your cabintop really only needs to provide some abrasion protection and of course water proofing. This means it doesn't have to be several layers thick, just an unbroken skin. Incorporating a crown (curved roof panels) will not allow water to pool on the surface and it will shed off the sides, which is good. Your cabintop's strength comes from the structure not the sheathing.

Do your work on a cloudy day, not in direct sunshine. Lay out your fabric pieces dry and cut to fit with a slight edge over lap around the perimeter, which gets tacked down with the goo, around the edge. Work small areas at a time, say about 2' x 3', until you get a feel for how much working time the goo gives you (depends on temperature and humidity). Use only enough resin to wet the cloth completely (until it goes transparent), moving excess to other areas with a brush, squeegee or roller.

 

Provided it has a substantial structure, that is If it spans nine feet unsupported, that'd require some skin strength; if it has ribs or girders on the underside, you'd just need a thin, one-layer outer skin.

 

The roof/upper-deck/whatever-the-heck-you-call-it-on-a-floating-RV

Floating RV ? You know I was outright upset about this comment until I was looking for some pictures for this post but now that you mention it, Well,,,,.
Anyway It's Paid For and has a home on a beautiful Lake and with 4 stroke outboards that litterally sips gas. And the view out the window is the same as the More Exotic vessels out there So,,,
It's funny you all would mention weight what started this project (besides the soft spots) There was a large structure that had been added to the roof of the boat that served no real purpose except to collect junk that we removed in an effort to gain more freeboard. The removal of this structure revealed the ugly roof that I am repairing at this time. I have attached some pictures that show the pontoons, the boat underway, and the footprint of the structure that was removed. Also a shot out of the salon window.

1) Do you think this will help with her freeboard and performance
2) Any ideas for a bimini or something up top other than just rail?
3) Anyone know of any material to "re-skin" the cabinsides (to help with that floating RV look)
4) Any one other than Desert Shore Houseboats that has designed anything different for this type of use?

 

I must admit, houseboats have a certain charm. Sure, most of them look like a Winnebago with an outboard motor. But there's no better way to just get away from it all and relax on a nice calm lake, away from the city and the jet-skis and the oil slicks.... (not to mention the running costs of what, $4 an hour underway?). There's dozens of manufacturers, most small and local, each optimizing their boats to the market on their own little lake system.
Yours looks like it has a fairly decent hull, in fact, somewhat more sophisticated than the perfectly rectangular barge hulls I'm used to seeing on these.
If you intend to spend significant time on the upper deck, as I'll call it, a rail of some sort would be good- about a metre high if you can do it, with a second rail at half that height. The lifelines used on offshore sailboats are a good example of what might work here. A Bimini is pretty easy to add if you already have some tubular rails up there.
If you want to clean up her look a bit, any smooth-finish composite, aluminum or plastic panel would have a more elegant look than the suburban-house vinyl cladding most of these boats use.
Good luck with the deck refit. Hopefully she'll be back up and running in time for this season. (Oh, wait, you're in Arizona. Your season probably started before the ice fishing huts were towed off my lake )

 

Caution, this is ugly help

Now that is a nice looking vessel.
I can add little to what my fellow forum members have already said, tyhey seem to have the advice well 'in hand'.
But noting you come from Arizona - have you thought about adding the odd solar panel to help out trimming fuel costs (and dare I add 'global warming'.

 

We run on solar all year long. It really is nice reliable and oh yeah, quiet

 

Look it's a floating home with a 360 degree water view, how many can say that?

Your freeboard looks adequate, You'd have to remove lots of weight just to gain an additional inch of freeboard.

It looks like you have a frame for a semi soft top. It would be cheapest to just recover this, then get a new one put on.

You can disguise the look considerable with a paint scheme. Typically, this may include a stripe to blend the windows into each other, so they don't have as much contrast with the cabin sides, which masks their size and non-symmetrical arrangement. Maybe wooden railing caps or other trim may be helpful. Adding new siding material isn't going to help your weight concerns. It's also very "lubberly" (not seaman like) to carry your fenders over the side while underway.

Your houseboat has much more style then most of that era and construction method. This is one of my houseboat designs.

 

nice looking, but is the prop thrashing the water?

 

Well back from another weekend of boating fun !
The resin did cure and actually seems to be quite strong.Still have a long way to go but I am actually encouraged. Added more layers of cloth to the top and sealed her up with more resin on Saturday. Was going to remove skin on other side but opted to give the resin as much time as possible without movement. Will just do it next weekend.
I am thinking of changing my strategy a little but would appreciate any feedback.
After removing the skin I was only going to replace whatever wood was really rotted badly and delaminated to the bottom. I was going to soak all the wood with CPES. When I did the previous side I discovered quite few pieces that were not delaminated from the bottom and were very difficult to remove. that also seemed structurally sound.
Is this too much of a shortcut?
PAR, This is the structure that I removed to help with freeboard.
Once again thanks for everyones help and input