walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

[ONERCBOATER]

what I origanally wanted was
http://cmi-insulation.com/products/PDF/Thermax Heavy Duty Plus (25).pdf
but i can't get access to it here in Yuma AZ.
so I am thinking that I can make a reasonable copy with covering both sides of dow corning pink 0.5" foam with epoxy/glass or epoxy/paper, then sand it smooth and paint it. thinking two layer of 4-6oz cloth type glass would work... or 4 layers of epoxy and paper (i know the epoxy paper sounds funny but it is very strong.)
Thinking it should be stiff, waterproof, and provide some insulation at the same time.

what do you guru's and much more experienced peeps think?

Sean

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

What about laminating some 1/8 inch fiberboard to it. That stuff Paints like a dream and would give you a nice stiff wall.
I built trailer walls like that and it worked great. You could get the prefinished stuff and not have to paint at all!!!

 

[ONERCBOATER]

Re: walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

how does the 1/8" fiberboard hold up to heat?

sean

 

[woosterken]

Re: walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

do a searchon here for the top that mark 42 made for his bayliner,he did just what you want to do ,with pink insulation and glass cloth

woosterken

 

[ONERCBOATER]

Re: walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

very cool... heading that way now thank you

 

[ONERCBOATER]

Re: walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

well after not finding 1/2" pink or blue foam available in yuma az... i tried something different, the initial results are promising. What I am using is sound board... and coating it with polyester resin to make a composite layer on the top. Stiffened it right up, reasonably strong.. and paintable oh and acceptably light as well.

Sean

DID NOT WORK....wound up way heavy with second coat, too much trouble to do for little weight savings, gonna try harder to get pink foam just give up and use plywood. anyhow sound board was a poor idea. :facepalm:

 

[ezrollin]

Re: walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

Have you made any progress on your project? I'm building a 8x12 cabin on my 24' pontoon boat using 2" alum sq tube for the frame,walls will be made from sip [structural insulated panel]the type that use for walk-in freezers,two thin sheets of alum with foam inbetween and it comes in different thicknesses.The panels I got were salvaged from a walk-in freezer but can be purchase new.My brother-in-law has already built one and it works well.I personally wouldn't use plywood with insulation,just to heavy.This was the proto type,is being improved.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

Have you looked into Coosa board? Hella expensive I'm sure but would be awesome for this project. Otherwise, I'm sure you could special order the blue or pink foam from any of the big box stores.

 

[Bamaman1]

Re: walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

I suggest checking into the RV industry specifications to see what they're using on the fifth wheel trailers. It looks great, is very durable and is probably the best stuff to use on a houseboat.

I also have a 24' pontoon boat, and would prefer to start with a much larger pontoon boat for such a project. Weight is very important on a pontoon boat, and you have to especially pay attention to balancing the boat out. I would be looking for 26" tubes at a minimum--and a 3rd pontoon would be preferable.

 

[wa_ssv197]

Re: walls for a pontoon boat cabin (like micro houseboat)

The walls on todays RVs use 1x aluminum tubing for framing and Filon for the walls. Our 21ft trailer weighs 4500 with all the junk in there.