HELP!! Novice restoring boat needs advice on foam.

[Bondo]

Re: HELP!! Novice restoring boat needs advice on foam.

Plastic Soda Bottles........<br />FREE, or maybe a nickle a piece.....<br />Don't Leak...<br />Don't Suck-up Water....<br />And Drain Through Very Well.....<br />IF you puncture 1, It's 12 ounces.. No Loss, No Gain....<br />Stuff them into Plastic Onion Sacks..... No Rattles.....<br />My boats got'em....<br /><br />All that Foam, Any Foam, does is Rot your Boat.....

 

[catfish1]

Re: HELP!! Novice restoring boat needs advice on foam.

one more thing: in my opinion access panels would be a bad idea! it gives the water a direct path to the foam, any foam you use will absorb water over time, to some degree. and jason is absolutly right, the pour foam provides a firm & sound resistant foundation for the ply, so firm that you can get by with using 1/2" rather than 3/4" and the 1/2" on top of the pour foam will feel as solid as concrete. <br />do it right and dont look back!

 

[dogwhisperer]

Re: HELP!! Novice restoring boat needs advice on foam.

Theres more than one way to skin a cat,heres what i recently did to my 18'aluminum starcraft chieftain.Went to lowes or home depot and got about 5,8'pieces of 4" thinwall solid pvc drain pipe.This is the kind you use outside like for gutters,not the black accordian stuff this is offwhiteish pvc stuff.Cut to length and glue proper caps on each end.Then using canned spray foam and 1/2 inch foam sheets i filled it in to floor level,making kind of a sandwich all locked together with spray foam.Very last having my floor board cut and ready to go i put extra foam on top of the foam sandwich and quickly layed down the floor and screwed it down.The foam continued to expand under the floor and now its solid and quiet..Also i know styrofoam will absorb water if exposed to it much but with the 4" pipes holding everything up off the floor water washing around in the bottom will hopefully never get up to the foam..Also make sure your floor is well painted with any seams caulked up tight so water(rain,swimmers,washing,etc)will not get on top of the sandwich...Just a poor mans way to fix his $300.00 boat that just happened to end up having a good running 115 johnson...Been looking at a interesting boat siting in the weeds behind someones house for 2-3 yrs maybe its time to stop and see if its for sale.I did..

 

[JasonJ]

Re: HELP!! Novice restoring boat needs advice on foam.

Dogwhisperer, I was going to try the drainfield pvc when I did my rebuild, but after doing the math, the pricing ended up about the same as if I just went with 2 part foam. The 2 part foams are closed cell foams, which makes them far more resistant to absorbing water that the open cell stuff like the sheet foam and Great Stuff, but even the 2 part will take on water eventually if constantly exposed. In the end its about cost and ease of use, and displacing the water.

 

[Uncle Dave]

Re: HELP!! Novice restoring boat needs advice on foam.

Go back with the two part foam. It will never take on water. Drink bottles are often engineered to bio-degrade after a few months. Styro is a disaster waiting to happen. Not fire resistant and will disolve with gasoline exposure. Same for most styro peanuts. <br />But then you dont need the foam until that big wave or rock comes along.<br />Cheerio.