Mobile
Ceilings and sore shoulders
May
As I said last time, I chose to use fiberglass for the curvy parts of the trailer (ceiling and front wall), since the foam boards don’t bend, and also the ribs there are closer to 2″ thick. The front wall sent up okay, though the design choice make things a bit difficult. I wanted the paper side out, and the fiberglass side to the wall, to better fill irregularities, especially the curves and nooks and crannies. I couldn’t think of a way to attach the batts directly to the walls (the ribs are steel, so I can’t staple the paper flaps) and glue wouldn’t work well with just fiberglass. Fortunately, there was enough friction and splintery ends of lauan that the sections stayed in place. I installed the vertical slats as a temporary measure.
The ceiling, though, was a different story.
The bead board panels were 4×8, which were a bit awkward to lift overhead, so we halved it to do 4×4 sections. And since we couldn’t pre-install the insulation to the ceiling, we had to pre-cut and lay it on the back of the bead board and lift it into place.
Well, it turns out that it takes quite a bit of effort to carefully balance batts of overhanging fiberglass, with the right spacing (of course, the ribs are spaced wider than 16″), over a 4×4 area, hold up the panel, make final adjustments to the insulation, compress the R12 into a 2″ space, and install self-tapping screws into the steel ribs, all above your head!
Between our 6 hands and arms, we got the first panel in. It looks good, but was sure more effort than we expected. Because our arms were tired from repeated attempts to get that single ceiling panel installed, we quit for the day.
We still have about 1″ of panel to install on either side of the 4×4 panel, but that’ll ought to be fairly easy.
The next day Nancy and I were alone, so instead of the 3-person ceiling job, we decided to install the plywood walls. I chose 11/32 BC pine because I only cared about 1 finished side (it’s going to be painted), lighter weight for easy handling and because thicker ply is really not needed. It was $28 a sheet.
The install went smoothly, aided by our cordless circular saw. Note to self: get a larger 20V battery. I generally like the smaller ones because they’re lightweight, but this saw really draws the amps, so a 5Ah would have been much better.
Since the vertical ribs are between 18″ and 22″ apart, there is more flex in the plywood between them than I’d like, so next time, I’d use 1/2″ or more.
Yesterday we had 3 on deck again, so we got the second ceiling panel cut and installed. We made an attempt to get the final section done too, but realized there’s no rib support on the back-door end of the ceiling, so had to think of a way to support the panel. Jan came up with a hack support idea, but we needed to go home to use the miter saw.
Nancy had to go to rehearsal so Jan and I went back, me to install the hack supports, and Jan to do some painting. I finished early, so gave the roof another coat of Kilz. So that’s done and we’re finally ready to take the trailer out in the weather, but we’re still going to keep renting the garage until the exterior is completely painted.
3am comes and I wake up, thinking about the hack. We’d thought to just install vertical blocks for the panel to sit on. However, there’s no good way for that side of the panel to be attached to the vertical blocks, so it would just be flapping around there. We discussed again this morning, and again Jan came up with an idea – screw and glue five 2x2s perpendicular to the ribs, so the panel could be screwed in just like the other panels. That’s the next job for me, and there’s more painting to do.
That’s all for now. We’re taking one day at a time, since we’re encountering so many unplanned hiccups along the way, and everything is taking longer than planned. That’s just the way of things with this trailer. We’ve never renovated a trailer before, so have no experience to rely on. Like we say, “the next one will be so much easier”, LOL!
