Finished with the interior firing

As the title says, I'm finished with the interior firing, and await the insulator. While the firing job is neither sexy nor that much fun, it sure is nice to walk into the shop and smell fresh sawdust vs acrylic urethane, epoxy and thinner.

There's really not a whole lot one can say to dress this job up and towards the end it just felt like work. Looking at what's left of the 1000 count box of bolts, nuts, and washers, I have to conclude that I installed over 600 of those little rascals. My ten year old 3/8 air ratchet took a dive on me during this project, so that got replaced. I used a case of polyurethane adhesive, and a fair amount of lacquer thinner cleaning the adhesive off of my hands.

I had a few people ask me what I meant when I stated I held the firing proud of the steel frames, so I thought I'd include a picture showing how the lumber sticks past the framing vs explaining it. Installing it this way will allow me to use the lumber as a screed when trimming the foam, and will insure all the metal is covered with foam. Any metal not covered with foam has a high probability of sweating condensation then dripping on to the liner and creating a stain or damage. I know boats are a compromise, but having the lumber 5/16" proud of the steel does not mean squat in regard to head room or taking away from square footage. 6' 10" of head room or 6' 9-11/16"... who cares.

Wherever possible, I also held the firing off of the cabin sides. I pretty much stuck with 5/16" everywhere I could. My plan was to get as much of the metal covered with insulation. I used blocks vs continuous firing wherever possible, and once insulated, I'll pad things out to the finished wall surface with finished trim.

I'm going to go ahead and install the blocking for soffit   that creates the overhang on the salon. Since there are no side decks, once the super  structure is welded in place, that job will then need a ladder 16' above grade. I'll bring the soffit to a finished state including finish paint and the wiring need for accent lighting over each of the salon windows.

I have a bit of work to do before the insulator shows up in regard to taping off any finish paint I don't want to get spray foam on. Because all the window openings are finish painted now, I think I'm' going to fasten some 1/8" plywood in the window openings. There is no way paper is going to hold up to the force of the commercial foam gun, and I don't want to pay the foam contractor to stand around while I fix a screw up.

I'm going to foam the roof over the aft deck with a  half inch or so to stop any condensation. I'll also be installing a ceiling in this roof to hide the framing. One thing that bothers me with this ceiling is that the designer changed the height of the trim piece as it goes from the sides to the aft elevation. The trim is more narrow on the aft elevation vs the side elevations. Because of the way the roof is framed, in order to make the ceiling line constant, you'll see the edge of the ceiling material protruding below the trim piece on the aft elevation. I'm not into welding any fix in place now that everything is finished painted and I'm about ready to foam. A drip edge of some sorts might be an alternative or a slight change in the ceiling profile as it passes the last frame. There's more than one way to skin a cat, so it's not that big of a deal, just some more detail work. I can deal with the actual ceiling at the boat yard, but I have to deal with the blocking before the foam guy shows up.

As I sit typing this post on Sunday night, I'm listening to a Neil Young song with the lyrics "don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning" drifting from my speakers. That lyric sort of seems appropriate in that sweating the small stuff gets us nowhere. In the end, getting there is half the fun.

Cheers,