Hull Ceilings

[heartofgold]

Tim,

I have been waiting impatiently for you to get into the meat of your ceiling on the daysailor. I am hoping to accomplish something similar on Heart and am about to order some cherry for the project. Can you toss me a bone as to the process involved. I have looked in a number of books, but cannot find any good refrences as to how this is done.

You will be amused that when I typed in "hull ceiling construction" on Google the response first response was:

The Triton Daysailor | From a Bare Hull: Interior

Lots of good that did me <hehe>.

[Tim]

hehe...

Well, I'm afraid it may be a little longer before I finally get into that project. My priorities, construction-wise, are to finish the exterior of the boat and those items required to get her ready for launch. The systems are nearly complete, so I will next turn to exterior woodwork (toerails, cockpit, cabin trunk trim), chainplates and the like, deck hardware, and deck paint. I can't believe it is almost June...my time is just slipping away.

I expect the process to be simple on paper, anyway. I'll start at the top, just below the initial mahogany pieces I installed, and work my way down. To measure the strips I will probably create a simple telescoping measuring device from two narrow boards or a curtain rod or some such that I can fit in the space and then expand to the actual length for measuring accurately. A bevel gauge at each end will help mark the roughly appropriate angle at which to cut the ends.

I think the strips will be 1-1/4" wide, but that's just a guess at this point. I will choose what ends up looking best, but 1-1/4" is what I have been planning on (since it makes most efficient use of my ceiling stock--see below). I'll round over the top edges of each strip and install it with some round-head bronze screws that I bought for the purpose; I'm not going to countersink and bung, partly because with 1/4" thick wood (or maybe even a little less, depending how the resawing works out), there's insufficient depth for bungs.

I expect to keep the strips' width constant as I go down, but there will be some need to adjust, spile, or taper the strips down towards the bottom. I will deal with that need once I get there. I want the ceiling to extent cleanly to the top of the v-berth, but in reality the cushions will hide the bottom portion, so there is a little more margin there.

I can't see making each strip such a perfect fit at the ends that no trim will be required; I expect to place some vertical mahogany trim at the ends against the bulkheads to finish it off.

I chose cypress for the ceiling; it's a traditional choice and is easy to work with. Plus, I think the lighter wood will look good and keep it from being too dark up there; the cabin is quite dark with no ports or hatches. The only cypress I could get conveniently comes in 1x4 boards, so my exact strip dimensions will depend on how efficiently I can resaw the boards. I hope to get 9 strips from each board. Time will tell. It's also an inexpensive material, so when I screw up it won't kill me to get more.

Next week is dedicated to shop work, and I need to get a lot done. This week has so far been quite a waste, shop-wise, which is disappointing.

[Rachel]

I've been wanting to ask a question on ceiling backer strips, so now seems as good a time as any, since we've got a thread going. This is for future reference, of course :-)

I've always seen/read where the backing strips for ceiling are made of wood, pipe - or whatever - and then glassed to the hull. Recently, I watched a project take shape (restoration of a Meridian - 24' fiberglass boat) wherein the builder simply epoxied (pre-epoxy-coated) strips of wood to the hull and went from there, without fiberglassing them.

That seemed simple and straighforward - and like they'd look nice and clean painted white behind the ceiling strips - but is it cutting corners, somehow? I mean, it seems easier than fiberglassing the strips in with layers of cloth, but how do you all feel about its lasting ability in the long run? Nothing "easy" about having to deal with a failure later on, after all.

In that case, they also wedged 1/2" foam insulation between the strips, so they didn't leave an air gap between ceiling boards - not that that should have any bearing on how the strips are installed.

--- Rachel

[heartofgold]

Thanks for the info, Tim. That was exactly what I needed to figure out what was I was missing about the project. I was thinking about ordering some 6/4 cherry (I have an excellent supplier of defect free heartwood) so that I can plane it to 5/4 and resaw it into 1/4" strips. I am hoping to install the firring strips this weekend. As with most of us, progress is slow but steady.

Rachel, I would suggest that tabbing the pieces to the hull would certainly be my preferred way to go, and I would view simply tacking it up with epoxy alone as something of a shortcut. But I guess that would depend upon just how effective your friend was able to secure the strips with without glass. In spite of always wanting to do a job right, sometimes right can be whatever works.