What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

[appleo]

Replacing my floor in my SeaNymph tin boat . Will check foam while i am at it....if i find waterlogged foam....what tools worked best for you to remove it?

 

[icedimensions]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

Mine came up pretty easy with a flat pry bar. Just go easy and run the end of the bar under the foam about an inch or two and ease the bar up. Will pop out in chunks. Don't use very much force lifting bar, so that the end does not punch through or damage hull.

For the larger areas, I first used a keyhole saw to section it smaller.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

Based on what all I've gleaned from years of learning here on the forum, hand saw or sawzall to cut along the edges to get it "unglued" and then Picks or Small Shovels and Prybars to wedge it out. There's never been posted a quick, easy fool proof method. It's ALL nasty hard tedious work. When most of it's out, a Wire cup brush on a grinder will do the final clean up. Make sure to wear a good respirator and goggles or even better a full face respirator when doing this kind of work.

You only GET one set of lungs. Don't ruin em!!!

 

[britisher]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

Sawzall to cut into slabs, then flat pry bar to heave the slabs out. Bit like cutting and serving cake!!

 

[icedimensions]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

Yup, wet, stinky, nasty, festering, stagnant, pungent, bacteria laden cake!!! Buy lots of trash bags. Deceiving how heavy it is once it comes out.
I weighed one bag full of mine, did the math and figured 319 lbs of wet foam.

 

[joelybob]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

On my sea nymph boat I used a square headed shovel to take out foam. But my boat sat out in the weather a long time. I was surprised how easy it came out. You should see people look when they went by and saw someone digging with a shovel in a boat :laugh:

 

[djpeters]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

To do final clean up, a power washer will make quick work of stripping off the last bits.

 

[northman]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

Geez, I don't know, a sawzall seems a bit much for a job like this, especially if you are not familiar with the tool. I just used a couple different sized flat pry bars (wonder bar type) to break the chunks out and separate the foam from the hull.

 

[mwe-maxxowner]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

I used a regular old round point shovel. Worked awesome.

 

[Grub54891]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

I used my air hammer,with a wide blade and set it low,careful not to gouge the hull,went pretty quick. I also calculated about 300# of wet foam.
Grub

 

[Lwarden]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

Sawzall works awesome for cutting it into managable chunks then pry them out. My only advice is to be very careful with the sawzall blade as it will punch through the hull if your not careful. Its not a fun job but a necessary evil.

 

[Stalmon]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

I cut chunks with a pruning saw because I didn't want to cut through the hull with the sawzall, it went really easy. Then popped out the chunks with a garden edger that is something like a spade. Time spent on the foam was a fraction of the demo time, stringers and glass was where the real work was for me.

 

[GT1000000]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

Anger:mad2:, Sweat, Cursing, Witchcraft, Voodoo, Spitting, Sputtering, Yelling, Some Blood, and whatever tool :smash:
I could lay my hands on...
I even contemplated Gasoline:flame:, Matches, C-4, Dynamite:boom:, etc...but figured that might upset the neighbors...
Have Fun!

 

[bonz_d]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

I use these.

drywall saw - Yahoo! Image Search Results

 

[colbyt]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

I do agree with northman above. I have at one time or another used every tool mentioned with great success and sometime with collateral damage but never to remove foam from a boat.

As one who has never done it but as speaking as one who understands collateral damage very well I would strongly encourage the first timer to go very slow, use no power tools, walk away when you get ticked and play another day. No matter how long it takes or how small the pieces you remove all projects end sometime. The time it takes will be offset by the time you don't spend figuring out how to repair the collateral damage.

 

[T748]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

One of these.. Stab down into the foam with the straight end and then rock it side to side wile it's down in the foam. Pop that piece out. Keep digging until you get to the hull. after that the chunks will come out easier and come clean off the bottom. A sawzall cutting a grid like it was cornbread will make it easier, but has the possibility of sawing into structure. -Tom.

 

[idonthaveaname]

Re: What tool did you use to remove poured in floatation foam under the floor?

I dug straight into mine with this on a high speed drill:




It made really quick work of it and doesn't damage any of the glass work. Home Depot has them.