Lining Out - some preliminary information

Although we haven't even got The Cat's Whiskers yet we've put some thought into the lining out of her. Insulation will be sheet polystyrene (I'm sure spray foam is better but the cost and the thought of carving all the excess off has put us off!). Polystyrene sheet in 8ft x 2ft (well 2.4m x 0.6m if you're being picky!) sizes and thicknesses of 19mm and 50mm are available at Wickes for a reasonable cost. Lining the roof, cabin sides and bulkheads in 19mm and below the gunwhales in 50mm will come to approx. £150. Strangely this is cheaper than a big builders merchants where you have to buy sheets in qty 5 or more.

***Footnote*** When it came to buy the insulation we found that the Wickes product is NOT fire retardant - if in doubt it should have a red stripe and a yellow stripe on the sheet somewhere - we bought from Woods at Wombourne - see links page - just as cheap! NB it is a requirement that the foam is fire retardant - if not you won't get a BSS pass!

With regard to the woodwork - well first we were going to have diagonal cladding on cabin sides and veneered ply roof coupled with carpeted ply beneath the gunwhales. Having seen some lovely examples we have now changed to Ash veneered ply (6mm) on roof, cabin sides and bulkheads with 12mm ply below the gunwhales (carpeted). We hope to produce a light airy feel by the use of Ash as we hate a gloomy boat! A local company (Birmingham Boards- part of Laver Timber) supply veneered ply and solid ash for cappings etc and were very helpful - First question - 'fitting out a narrowboat are you?!!!' seems they get a lot of people in for this reason - will even make up window frames etc for you. Prices are around £13.00 for 8ft x 4ft sheet of 6mm ash faced ply (if you buy a reasonable quantity) £19.00 for 9mm all plus the dreaded VAT!

I'll be back when we have some actual wood!

Home