June 28 - tearout almost complete
Delta Marine continues to forge ahea
d preparing the two heads for renovation.
They have started to sand blast the top of the holding and fuel tanks, which doubles as the sub-sub-floor for the heads.
In the picture to the left, the area to the left of the pipes has been sand blasted and is ready to paint, while the area on the right shows the original condition. Gail's foot appears on the right side of the image to provide a sense of scale.
The corroded vent for the holding tank was removed, and a new nipple was installed on the flange located at deck level.
June 20 - tearout at Delta Marine continues
Delta Marine has spent a few days installing protective plastic, foam and cardboard on walls and flooring throught the boat.
They are removing walls and flooring in master and port heads in order to gain access to the domestic hot and cold water supply lines. We are replacing hot and cold water supply lines on the lower level (wherever we can reach them) with UniPipe because the galvanizing in the existing pipes has failed, allowing rust to leach into our domestic water supply.
The outboard walls, bed frame and headboard in the port stateroom were removed to allow access to the 2" steel pipes providing fresh air to our 600 gallon holding tank. We need to replace this pipe because it has rusted through in various places - UniPipe will be used to replace this vent line as well. Because our holding tank stores both grey and black water, the bacteria in human waste metabolizes the grease from the grey water producing massive amounts of gas. A lack of sufficient ventilation in the holding tank is forcing anaerobic respiration which generates hydrogen sulphide. While underway, these gases sometimes escape into the living area, and can make us sick. We will install an in-line blower to force fresh air into the holding tank, and foul gas out the new ventline, hopefully preventing anaerobic respiration and preventing holding tank gases from escaping into the living areas.
It always amazes us how fast they can tear out walls and flooring.
They have also removed the 2" wall between the master and guest heads. We plan to rebuild this wall with 1" plywood and gain another 1" of space in the port stateroom head.
Note the 2" water supply line in the lower right corner - this is the water supply to the head. Apparently the original builders installed heads that required large amounts of water. The water supply lines for the heads are also independent of the potable water supply lines so that either sea water or fresh water can be used for flushing. We have never used sea water, and never intend to. We will probably slowly remove the independent water system as we refit each section of the boat.
June 16 - travel to Delta Marine for haulout
We arrived at the boat at 9:00 AM. While Dwight prepared the boat to sail, Gail cleaned the refergerator and freezer. At 11:50 AM we dropped lines and sailed to Delta Marine for our scheduled 3:00 PM haulout. We arrived early, tied up at their dock, visited with the staff. At 3:00 PM Graeme piloted our boat into the haulout slip and by 4:00 PM we were on blocks and shore power was connected. We were done for the day.
The seas along the route between Shilshole Bay Marina to Delta Marine were unusually calm for this trip. If only seas around the world could be this calm - 0' waves. It was a sunny day, with blue skys over Seattle; something of a rarity. The roughest seas today came from the Ferry's wake.
June 15 - continue tearout of master bath
After yesterday's experience, we agreed to forgo rust removal for the day and allow our headaches to pass. Working together with spatulas and a heat gun, we removed arborite on two walls, and with our skill saw, we removed most of the 1/2" plywood comprising the subfloor. After an easy morning, we shared a Burger King meal on the aft deck, Gail packed the remaining clothing from the walkin closet as well as the contents of the refergerator and freezer. Dwight began tearout of the master stateroom closet. We stopped work at a reasonable hour.
June 14 - continue tearout of port guest bath and master bath
Which is worse: navigating your boat through 20' seas or tearing out your master bathroom with Dwight? Gail has recently changed her answer to this theoretical question. We thought we were going to die. Dwight has a foible - he cannot pace himself, he won't allow Gail to pace his work either, and he is no longer 20 years old. Dwight will work until the job is complete, until it is too dark to continue, or until he is unable to continue because of physical exhaustion.
On Saturday, we continued demolition of the two bathrooms, and by 4:00 PM our bodies hurt. Really hurt. Really bad. Everywhere. If there was some place on our body that didn't hurt, we could not reach it because we were too stiff. Gail used the needle-descaling tool to remove rust from the outside-top of the holding tank in the port guest stateroom for the first half of the day, while Dwight removed 1/4" of stone tile, 3/4" of slate substrate, and a layer of fiberglass from the master stateroom floor. At lunch, we hauled 1000+ lbs of stone tile, slate, plywood, and fiberglass up the 835' dock, up the ramp and into the marina's now-overflowing dumpster. After a relaxing meal at Burger King, we traded rooms and jobs. Gail removed arborite from the master stateroom walls, and Dwight continued to remove rust from the holding tank. This was a mistake; we should have called it a day immediately after lunch. By 4:00 PM we were beyond exhaustion. We were hoping to remove all of the rust by the end of the day, so that we could paint the tanks as originally planned. Despite ear protection, comprised of both earplugs and earmuffs, Dwight's headache was debilitating. It was time to go home and take the strongest drugs that our government will allow without a prescription.
June 1 - complete tearout of cabinets, ceiling, walls and flooring in port guest head.
Today Gail and Dwight continued tearout of the port stateroom head. The walls were covered with Arborite/Formica and the floor was covered with blue/green manufactured stone. Last weekend, we spent 1 day removing the vanity, medicine cabinet, shower walls and delaminating the Arborite/Formica. Today we started on the flooring.
We often uncover surprises when removing one of the products installed by the original builder. Removing 1/4" of manufactured stone revealed 3/4" of slate. After pulling the slate, we discovered a layer of fiberglass cloth - which was floating on a layer of 1/2" plywood. The fiberglass cloth never bonded to the underlying plywood and, hence, was easy to tear out. The 1/2" plywood was rotten and collapsed beneath our feet as we walked around. It was also easy to tear out.
Our next surprise was a hidden/abandonded sump beneath the rotten 1/2" plywood.
This sump was located beneath the port stateroom head, and connects the master shower, master sink, port shower and port sink to the grey water tank.
We suspect the rotten flooring was caused by an overflow of either the sump or the port shower drain.
The top of the steel fuel tank was wet, and corroded. Next week we will remove the loose rust with our needle scaling tools and wire wheels, and paint with a two-component barrier-coat epoxy.