what lies beneath

The first room that needs to get a full makeover is what will be the lodgers room; the sooner we can get that finished the sooner we have the potential to start earning rent from lodgers. We need to insulate in the walls and then put a new 'skin' onto the studding for the entire room, to replace the slightly dodgy existing panelling. We also need to insulate and cover the metal section of the outside wall, as in the winter that is a massive heat sink.

I'd been putting it off, but finally i bit the bullet and removed a wall panel

when this didn't release a tidal wave of water, or an avalanche of rust and grease, or any other horrors, i quickly removed the rest of the many many panels on the end wall. This revealed studding, but studding that wasn't actually attached to either itself or the wall, or even floor, no wonder the wall was wonky and wobbly


the next stage was to take out all the studding,

and the rockwool insulation (which, despite the dire predictions of many boat owners, was neither rotten or damp, but which mysteriously didn't go all the way down to the floor either, it stopped about a foot up)

and then give the few lightly rusted patches a quick going over with a wire brush, ready for a new coat of iron oxide paint. Vortex helpfully inspected each panel closely for rust before instructing us where to direct the wire brush.

So really, a very pleasant surprise, considering it's been sealed up inside the wall for at least five years and possibly twenty five, it's in pretty good nick. We now need to take off the remaining walls, weld brackets onto the metal walls to attach batons to, check over all the studding, and put new panels on. Piece of cake!