Wednesday 27 November 2013

Toilet Floor vs Grinder

Dave was on board yesterday attacking the toilet floor.  I think there should be a new entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.

To Dave:  Daving is the process by which solid steel is turned to dust.

He has done a fantastic job.  Half way there.  Go Dave!

Toilet floor is down but not out!  1 more session should do it.

Then I have to remove the dust.  An easy job compared to what I have left Dave to do.  Again.

Monday 25 November 2013

Toilet floor vs jackhammer 2

The sequel!
Toilet floor number 2 came under the hammer this weekend.  This time I had recovered some strength from the previous attempt and got my technique back.  This floor cam up in about half the time.  With the floor now clear of tiles, concrete and bitumen I could now see that the wall was indeed connected to the floor.  My original thoughts re poor build were incorrect.  I should have known that this ship is engineered to last.

Dave has now been engaged to fit the portholes (remaining 6) and to do the cutting of the toilet pan stands and the wall base.  That should not take long.  With this done I can return to putting up the wall frames.

It had been wondering why the bitumen had been under the concrete.  It turns out its the only way to stop the steel sweating.  Dave informed me that the reason it is put down is that water will still be present between the concerete and steel floor if laid direct and it will slowly rot through.  So they put down bitumen to protect the steel.  Useful advice as I have several floors to lay.

Off to find some bitumen!

The second job of the weekend was another bash at the front locker (to be master bedroom).  The ceiling is (no joke) about an inch thick ply.  Why?  Probably to protect from blast as it was a storage locker no doubt for substances that might explode if it catches fire.  But as with all of the ship, the woodwork is fixed using 3 inch screws minimum which are screwed into the inch thick ply with the heads about 5 mm under the surface and then filled with filler and then painted.  Lots and Lots of them. So you have to look carefully for the slightly different texture under the paint to spot where the screws are and then dig.  45 mins to remove one ceiling panel.  2 more to do.  then all the walls.

Then Dave can come in and cut it all out.

At least he will have somewhere dry to work over winter.


Monday 11 November 2013

Toilet floor vs jackhammer

The woodwork in the dinning room/mess was done so attention was turned to the bathrooms.  I am still awaiting the portholes to be fitted on the bathroom and a few other rooms but the old toilets could be started.  I cut the first piece of wood to place on the floor with a view to raising the floor over the existing toilet platforms and soon realised that the gap between the new floor and the ceiling would be too little even for me.  The old floor had to go.

As always, the ship engineering became a challenge.  The toilet floor had about a cm thick tile on top of about 3 cms of concrete over 2 cms of black tar type stuff.  



Although the toilet and wall was removed some time back the grey platform at the base was still in place for each toilet like some foundations for a throne on the black and white masonic temple floor it.  The flooring came up relatively easily in about 2 hours of jackhammer activity removing one room's worth.  What remained may require explosives.

The grey platform, if a lump of concrete would have been merciful.  Concrete I can handle.  What they had done is similar to the old galley cooker floor.  The had created a metal box welded to the metal floor (concreted in around) and the grey is a piece of very old, very very very hard seasoned hardwood.  The jackhammer just bounces off.  The chisels make no impact!

The only way to get this out will be drills and hole cutters.  When the wood is removed the metal box can be cut away and then and only then can the concrete at the back be removed.

Then the woodwork can progress.