Bye bye cold spot

Jan awoke this morning to see both ground and boats covered in a light dusting of white frost.  Jan had turned on the central heating three hours earlier (5.00am) meaning the temperature inside Waiouru was a cosy 21°C.  Of interest to me was the fact that apart from around the portholes, the exterior of Waiouru was still covered in a light frost.  The frost had gone from the other boats and some of them are unoccupied (ie, cold inside).  Obviously the insulation in Waiouru is very effective.

Now that insulation has been mentioned I can report this morning the aerosol of spray foam arrived in the mail post along with the right-angle screwdriver bit.  There was no point in deferring the operation so all the equipment was assembled and I made a start.

The instructions state the surface where the foam is to be applied should be damp.  This was done by nicking borrowing Jan’s surface cleaner spray container and filling it with water after temporarily storing the cleaner in an old ice cream container.  The intention was to use the paint scraper to push back any foam that dribbled out of the trough in the ceiling.  That strategy didn’t work as the foam just sticks to the scraper.

The instructions for applying the foam state the aerosol must be held inverted when the trigger is squeezed.  This proved to be rather difficult inside the confined locker space.  But in the end I managed to get a reasonable application of foam.  Of course it expands after the first application.

According to the instructions it takes approximately four hours for the foam to set, however I was able to cut back the foam after 60 minutes.  This was done with a razor knife.  The paper and masking tape was then removed before a final trimming of the foam.

Looking up into the foam filled inverted trough

The next step was to refit the oak trim.  I needed the angle screwdriver bit to do this as some of the screws are in very confined locations.

View up into the locker with the oak trim fitted back over the cable duct now filled with foam. 

The last task was to collect all the spray foam offcuts, masking paper and tape before a quick vacuum to leave the area clean.

Total cost was less than £10 which included the cost of the angle screwdriver attachment.  Labour comes at no cost!