Making Beds on Boats

[Mowjo]

But Sue! it wasn't dusty when I was sanding it, it magically appeared after I finished and it was thick, I tried to blame the Dust Fairy, but Judi didn't fall for it,, funny thing is I didn't even know she knew swearwords like the ones she called me,,,

 

Frank,,,,,

[Guest]

Your not wrong there Frank, Funny enough Tracy also becomes fluent in another language usually full of obscenities that would be more fitting to a gang of dockers in the pub on payday whenever things don't quite go the way she would have liked them to.

Myself on the other hand would only mutter dash gosh or darn it...

[LondonRascal]

Don't quote me on this, but I think I damp falls and does not rise.  Or perhaps it is that damp air falls...

 

Anyway in my experience it can depend on the boat, some are very 'dry' some once the humidity outside rises after the sun sets the damp feel inside begins.

Now as I understand it make sense that the air is laden with moisture and that sinks and the first thing to get that damp feeling is the bedding, the duvet and sheet it then continues down, through to the mattress but because many foam mattresses have a vinyl backing it acts as a barrier. 

 

Perhaps the real issue is that the bedding and mattress are perpetually going to suffer from dampness because the damp air has nowhere to go.

 

If it has not the mattress has not a vinyl backing then  the ply under then acts as the barrier.  There is basically something to stop that moist air going anywhere so it builds up the dampness.

If you have slats, your bed will surely be less prone to damp than if you have not, but now that damp air has fallen to - perhaps the drawer space under the bunk.  It would therefore be better to be able to have some movement of air in that area so it cannot just sit being..damp. 

 

The best solution would be to have a dehumidifier , of which you can get some pretty compact models now and just do away with the moist air - or have dryer air brought into the cabin area.  That is not really going to be practical in many ways, so I had thought of 12v brushless computer fans. 

 

They can be virtually silent, take virtually nothing to power and handily run off 12v.  In the right place having such would take the moist laden air from voids and send it off elsewhere - perhaps from the cabin space and down under the floor to the bilge area.  Just some ideas here...

 

In essence if you can stop air hanging around in trapped spaces you can help stop damp, mildew and smells that go with it - my house is terrible because it is Victorian has no double glazing and  a lot of drafts - but we never suffer with condensation, damp or mildew on windows where friends in their new homes all sealed in often do.

[diesel falcon]

Dampness occours  when warm air cools, shrinking it.......like a water laden sponge being squashed ,therefore the only way to combat damp is either warm it ie stop it cooling, or take the moisture out of cooled air with a de humidifier, matresses get damp...because of all that hot humid moisture riden air around your body being in contact with a relativly cold base, putting slats in wiil lesson the surface area and help with ventilation which helps disperse the moisture, golden rule of keeping dampness away , heat and vent!!, or cool below dewpoint with dehumidiefier and drop the water out

[quo vadis]

Speak to Jiffy

[diesel falcon]

Speak to Jiffy

Why?  does he want to borrow a sause    pan??

[Mowjo]

Ok now all that reading has done my head in! here's the situation on my boat, the boat is actually dry no damp anywhere, but even after just a weekend out there is damp between the base of the Mattress and the ply even in the Summer, I never get any on the front bunk where there are three vents, now here's the good bit,  the rear bunk is situated right over the cold water tank that is two thirds the size of the double bunk, and there is only one little 6x9 vents under it, so for me cold water tank, cold bilge, warm bed means condensation, a few weeks back I put insulating slab all around the tank making a barrier between the tank and bed, in theory that should cure it, but I like going OTT, so adding slats mean more air flow, plus I'm adding another 6x9 vent at the other end of the bed, it may seem OTT but Judi like her comfort and wanted a memory foam mattress and at over £300 I don't want to replace it anytime soon, the other benefit of slats is it will give me easy access to another 4ft x 2ft of storage space, at the moment I have to take the mattress  right of the bed and remove one of the 4ft x3ft 6 in bits of ply to get under the bunk, the slats will be on strapping with one fixed slat to the outside of the boat and on the inside a slat held to the bedside with drop in pins, this will allow me to just lift the mattress a bit take out the pins, slide the slats back giving me access to more storage, hopefully I should gain a dry bed, (well Judi will) and extra storage, so two birds with one stone, you'll see what I mean if I remember to post some pictures when I do it,,

 

Frank,,,,

[Mowjo]

Been to the boat today an replaced the Ply for Slats, 1st pic shows the bed with the ply base, 2nd pic is the new slats, held by webbing stapled to the slats,the slat at the rear is fixed in place, 3rd pic is with the slats pushed back, when pulled forward the 1st slat is held in place by 3x drop bolts, basically just four 50mm x 5mm bolts dropped in screw holes, this is to allow me to push it back to get access to the new storage bit I just found, the cost surprised me a bit because in al,l it cost me around £35  but that was for fourteen 2mtr x 50mm x 19mm slats and 4.5 mtrs of upholstery webbing, still if it works it's much cheaper than replacing Jude's memory foam mattress,,

 

Frank,,,,,

[diesel falcon]

Nice job

[Oddfellow]

This looks like a nice job. The old ply appears to have some white colouration on it which is distributed in the way I would expect mould to be. Were the ply sheets getting spores on them?

 

I would be tempted to paint or varish the slats as this softwood will soak up dampness, but at just £35, this will be an interesting and low cost experiment.

 

How have you dealt with the additional height?

[Mowjo]

Hi Andy! the additional height wasn't a problem as along the length of the bed is a 2" lip that stops the mattress sliding out, the original ply was 1/4" so I've really only added an extra 1/2" still leaving 1.1/2" lip, I think they were mould spores they were white/grey and although I cleaned them off a couple of times they came back, I've never had the problem on any other boat but then none of them have had a bed sitting on top of the very large water tank, the cross bars are the original supports so I in filled the spaces, ends and sides of the tank with insulating slab giving me a thermal break, plus there's now a 3/4" airflow gap between the mattress and crossbars, I did think about painting them with locker paint but being to lazy I didn't fancy the idea of painting all those slats, I'll keep an eye on it over the next season and see how they work out, the condensation problems happen in the summer and winter which makes me think the water tank is the culprit, I had a similar problem on a Caravan years ago and just insulation the tank cured it, so fingers crossed this should too,,,

 

Frank,,, 

[Oddfellow]

The water tank will certainly not help. I wouldn't mind betting the air temp in close proximity to the tank will be a degree or so lower than other areas.

 

Mould is often a problem in such spaces. It's a wise precaution to treat any wood in such areas with a preservative to inhibits dry and wet rot.