Doug Redinger
Seaman
- Joined
- May 22, 2005
- Messages
- 73
I recently purchased an old 1969 Fiberform v-hull sport runabout that was in terrible condition. After fixing a host of mechanical problems with the motor I decided to work on the totally trashed interior. After tossing the seats, sideboards and carpet I noticed a few cracks in the fiberglass layed down over the plywood floor. After removing some of the pieces of fiberglass that were broken up I noticed that the plywood underneath was totally saturated with water. After removing more broken pieces of fiberglass I noticed about 8 or 10 one inch holes in the plywood floor. After digging out the plugs put in these holes I noticed the foam underneath was saturated with water. The plywood appears to be in ok condition all things considered. I wanted to deal with the problem of saturated foam but did not want to have to remove the plywood floor and dig out all the foam and all the work that that would mean. I decided after reading many posts on this site about this topic that I would try to dry out the foam. I inserted a small piece of stiff wire into the foaming plug holes to determine the depth of the foam underneath each area of the boat. Luckily my boat is quite small and the foam at the deepest is about 6" deep with most of it in the 2"-4" range. I used a houseplant moisture meter to determine just how saturated the foam was at each hole in the plywood. The range on the moisture meter was 0-4 with 4 being the wettest. Most of my readings were in the 3.5 to 4 range so I knew the foam was totally wet. I used a large shop vac (6.5 h.p.) and used a 1 1/4"
reducer fitting and hose which just fit into the foaming holes in the plywood floor and turned on the vacuum. The vacuum sucks out the humid air from the hull and draws dry air in through all the other open holes in the floor. My boat had small spaces between the bottom of the plywood floor and the top of the saturated foam. Foaming the hull is not a perfect science and there are irregularities and voids in places between the foam and the plywood. I parked the boat outside in bright sunshine and let the vacuum run for days. The dry warm air being drawn down into the hull eventually totally dried out the foam and plywood as verified by the moisture meter which now registers readings of 0-0.5 on the meter. I made sure to cover the boat so as not to get any more rain or snow in the boat. I think it had been stored outside for years without a cover and with the drain plug in and the bow down. I figure a few more days with the vacuum and all my readings will be 0. This method worked great for me. If the foam was alot deeper it would take much longer if at all to fully dry the foam out. And our climate here is very sunny hot and dry. Really humid climates would probably not work nearly as well.
Good Luck
Doug
reducer fitting and hose which just fit into the foaming holes in the plywood floor and turned on the vacuum. The vacuum sucks out the humid air from the hull and draws dry air in through all the other open holes in the floor. My boat had small spaces between the bottom of the plywood floor and the top of the saturated foam. Foaming the hull is not a perfect science and there are irregularities and voids in places between the foam and the plywood. I parked the boat outside in bright sunshine and let the vacuum run for days. The dry warm air being drawn down into the hull eventually totally dried out the foam and plywood as verified by the moisture meter which now registers readings of 0-0.5 on the meter. I made sure to cover the boat so as not to get any more rain or snow in the boat. I think it had been stored outside for years without a cover and with the drain plug in and the bow down. I figure a few more days with the vacuum and all my readings will be 0. This method worked great for me. If the foam was alot deeper it would take much longer if at all to fully dry the foam out. And our climate here is very sunny hot and dry. Really humid climates would probably not work nearly as well.
Good Luck
Doug
