Day 239

The flooring in the forward cabin seems to be the next logical step. The material we have decided to use ( rather suddenly ) is bamboo over 3/4" ply for rigidity. Many people argue that wood flooring is slippery when wet. While this may be true, it looks so great we couldn't resist! Also, rubber no slip "rugs" could be layed down here and there. Bamboo has a strong and beautiful finish when it's burned on the surface especially. Amazingly it matches the oak perfectly!

Bamboo is expensive some. About $4 / piece ( on sale ) A box has 24 pieces in it.

After I drafted it up on the computer, floor board positions and numbers were relatively known before we started. 1 box would do the whole forward floor, with leftover cuttings.

Glued & screwed

Most of them were easy to slide in as they're tongue and groove. The Glue was maybe a bit thick as they kept moving around. This wasn't a problem though because shortly after they were lined up ( starting form the hatch edges ) they were screwed into place from underneath.

The outer edge of the floor was sawed off at a 45 degree angle to better butt into the wall.

One problem with flooring when you don't want to use nails is how to attach it to the frames? The hatch plan is to have them pull into the tongue and groove, but also lay on top of a 3/4" lip of ply. This lip can be screwed to the steel frame.

On the outer hull side, 4 large screws were countersunk near the edge. These will be hidden by trim at the join. Up here there really isn't enough room anywhere to screw upward from underneath.

In the photos to the left, Gena slides in the short sections that end the hatches, and these will just be glued as they are small.

Apon laying in the hatches, we noticed the ply on the forward-most hatch had warped the opposite way, so it was flipped around to fit. (Photo right)

The access hatches will have recessive handles on them to latch them down. There will be springs on the opposing edge to assist in tongue alignment when sliding into position.
As there will be no hinges, to open is a matter of turning the handle, pushing the hatch forward, and lifting, then pulling back and lifting out.

That sounds complicated, you'll hafta wait for the video I guess!

My main job for the day was finishing all the trim in the forward cabin, which I almost did. ( photos on day 240 )