Alternatives to white coated hardboard, or should I stay with the same?

[Chris Green]

The 'ceiling' of our little boat is made of sheets of white coated hardboard. It's badly stained by the previous owner smoking and also has a few mangled bits so I'm looking to replace it.

Should I stay with the white coated hardboard or are there better (and/or cheaper) alternatives? It needs to be a similar thickness to the existing 3.2mm hardboard though I guess it could be a bit thicker without major problems. I want to be able to just put it up ready finished, I don't want to paint it after installation.

I'm having a bit of trouble finding a supplier who can deliver at a non-exorbitant price too. I can't transport 8' x 4' in the car easily but 4' x 4' is fine so I could get 8'x4' here and chop them in half to take them. Each panel in the boat is around 4' x 4' or a little less.

I have also tried searching for similar material in France but didn't have much joy.

[Andy Burns]

is it flat, or curved?

[Chris Green]

Ah, a good point, it's slightly curved.

[GB]

The curve isn't a problem, except it will throw all your measurements out when you cut the new material.

How do you propose to cut the new hardboard to fit exactly? Surely, a spot of filler and some paint is going to be a small fraction of the work?

Where you have joins in the white coated hardboard, how are these covered at present?

[Andy Burns]

I was going to suggest the 5mm T&G PVC ceiling panels, but I think I wouldn't on a curved ceiling.

[Chris Green]

I'll take the old piece of hardboard down and use it as a template.

I'd have though repainting would be much more effort than replacing, it'll take a couple of coats at least.

Wooden beads, varnished. They mean that *exact* size isn't all that important because they overlap the edges of the hardboard by 1cm or so.

[John Rumm]

The Vee board sold for soffit replacements might work. Usually available in 1' wide "planks" with T & G edges (the surface is patterned to look like 3 boards). It will probably go round a shallow curve across the width of the board. Easy and light to transport if you chop into reasonable sections.

[Brian Gaff]

Is Laconite still available. Its a coated hardboard but can have a better choice of finishes and colours than the plain bog standard stuff. Not heard of it recently. Of course it might be not used for fire reasons or something, I do not know. It looks like the coating is some kind of plastic. Brian

[fred]

3mm white mdf is available and might be stronger than hardboard. It will st ill conform to a slight curve.

Assuming you can get it cut to size how will you manoeuvre it into position ?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Chris Green pretended :

Look up caravan parts suppliers and repairers. You can get thin ply from them, in plain white, textured or with various coloured patterns. It rolls up quite tightly, into a 4 foot wide roll without damage so it is easy to transport - how do I know? I took my car with a large trailer to collect 3 of 8x4 sheets, only to find it would easily fit in my car's boot rolled up and tied.

[Chris Green]

The white MDF I found appeared to be white primer only, I'm not quite sure how well that will last?

It's not too difficult as the roof isn't very high and the pieces of ceiling are only 4' x 4'.

[Chris Green]

That sounds good, thank you, I'll do a search.

[Me]

The "ceiling" on a boat is called the deckhead, said a passing pedant...just spellcheck the word before posting!

[tabbypurr]

It doesn't, you'd need to topcoat it. Personally I wouldn't want mdf in a boat, it doesn't survive getting wet we ll.

NT

[Chris Green]

OK, that pushes me back towards the hardboard option. It's not *that* easy to find it though, not at a reasonable price anyway.

[tabbypurr]

Are PVC, polycarb or acrylic too expensive? Could you paint some of the existing board to keep costs down?

NT

[Chris Green]

There are suppliers advertising 8'x4' sheets of white faced hardboard for around nine or ten pounds, cheap enough! The problem is finding a supplier near enough and who actually has stock.

[Tim Lamb]

Is there no thin marine ply you could cut to size and then get sprayed by your local car repairers?

Alternatively you could upgrade:-) My daughter now has two narrow boats and mooring for only one! She is considering selling/renting out the original as British Waterways appear to be re-thinking the rules.

>

[Chris Green]

I'm sure I could get ply and have it painted but it seems a long, relatively expensive and rather complicated way to get something very simple.

I have nothing specifically against narrowboats but wider (like ours,

11 metres long, 3 metres beam) are much more practical. Ours is in Franmce too!

... not to mention that we too have a boat for sale in the UK, it's an ex broads cruiser fitted out as a 1 or 2 person liveaboard and moored right by London City Airport.

[GB]

You could just remove the existing hardboard next time you are at the boat, and take it home with you. Give it a stain block and a couple of coats of paint, whilst working "the right way up" rather than crouched upside down in the cabin. Then put it back again next time you go.

That's probably going to be the cheapest way to do this, and not that much work compared to tracking down the material you want at the right price!