|
Post by faffer on Feb 25, 2017 19:04:18 GMT
I am at the end of my tether i think. I am a calm chap most the time. But now i am getting my tits off. The boat has little seeage still. I thought i had sorted it months ago but it has come back and after weeks of racking my brain as to where it is coming in i have near give up. It was dripping in, VERY slightly from here ( wheer is marked it with a small hole so easier to see ) last year and i found that i had missed a very small area that needed to be filled about 4 foot up the cabin top. It was the left hand side just in front of the insulation. It started AGAIN in roughly the same place but maybe 8 mm higher. It only drips very slightly after a lot of rain but still it leaks. I did this about 3 few week ago to the hatch housing ( hatch has been removed as it knackered ) and it didnt stop so then i did the rear section and it stopped and i thought i had got it as it had stopped. Just a matter to topcoat the rear section or laminate over it. BUT NO the other day it strated again and i am now lost as to wheer the water is getting in as i have been all around the cabin top with a fine tooth comb to see any cracks ect i have missed. I know a bit about capillary action etc but FFS if the top is full of ater this boat is going to have its arse showing as soon as it hits water. Come guys give me a bit of sanity back, loosing the plot wiht it as it is holding me up on the fit and i am loosing incentive. I see a few cans of Bow are needed now
|
|
|
Post by phil70 on Feb 25, 2017 22:59:00 GMT
Cold comfort I'm afraid but that's why I prefer electrics to plumbing, because leccy goes where you tell to, water goes where it wants. Phil
|
|
|
Post by TonyDunkley on Feb 25, 2017 23:19:37 GMT
I am at the end of my tether i think. I am a calm chap most the time. But now i am getting my tits off. The boat has little seeage still. I thought i had sorted it months ago but it has come back and after weeks of racking my brain as to where it is coming in i have near give up. It was dripping in, VERY slightly from here ( wheer is marked it with a small hole so easier to see ) last year and i found that i had missed a very small area that needed to be filled about 4 foot up the cabin top. It was the left hand side just in front of the insulation. It started AGAIN in roughly the same place but maybe 8 mm higher. It only drips very slightly after a lot of rain but still it leaks. I did this about 3 few week ago to the hatch housing ( hatch has been removed as it knackered ) and it didnt stop so then i did the rear section and it stopped and i thought i had got it as it had stopped. Just a matter to topcoat the rear section or laminate over it. BUT NO the other day it strated again and i am now lost as to wheer the water is getting in as i have been all around the cabin top with a fine tooth comb to see any cracks ect i have missed. I know a bit about capillary action etc but FFS if the top is full of ater this boat is going to have its arse showing as soon as it hits water. Come guys give me a bit of sanity back, loosing the plot wiht it as it is holding me up on the fit and i am loosing incentive. I see a few cans of Bow are needed now Hard to find leaks like the one you've got are generally easier to find when it's not raining, . . . pour water slowly from a kettle round suspect areas on the outside after having first made some little dams and deflectors with tape lengthways over either cord or electric wire to keep the water over one specific area at a time. If those cabintop grabrails haven't been refixed and rebedded, then the forard end of the portside one would be where I'd start looking for the source of the leak.
|
|
|
Post by faffer on Feb 26, 2017 7:36:18 GMT
Hi Tony. I can do that if I can find a suspect area though. I was going to use blue tac to Dam it up.
The rails are well sealed up but to double check it's not them I will cover them and see.
Is there a tool I can get that will detect damp/water in the shell ?
Thinking like this
m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Moisture-Detector-Damp-Meter-Wood-Brick-Screed-Wallpaper-Caravan-Tester-/252762578860?nav=SEARCH
|
|
|
Post by TonyDunkley on Feb 26, 2017 9:15:25 GMT
Hi Tony. I can do that if I can find a suspect area though. I was going to use blue tac to Dam it up. The rails are well sealed up but to double check it's not them I will cover them and see. Is there a tool I can get that will detect damp/water in the shell ? Thinking like this m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Moisture-Detector-Damp-Meter-Wood-Brick-Screed-Wallpaper-Caravan-Tester-/252762578860?nav=SEARCH Check carefully that no water can get under any of the boltheads and then seep along and down the threads into the cabintop laminate. Used on a GRP hull, moisture meters will only tell you about the moisture levels within the laminate and at the point where you're testing, so they won't pinpoint any leak, they just tell you how wet everything is underneath the gelcoat. The cabintop laminate has had plenty of time to soak up lots of water if the leak is a long-standing one, so there's no point in buying a meter to tell you what you already know.
|
|
|
Post by faffer on Feb 26, 2017 9:29:43 GMT
Hi Tony. I can do that if I can find a suspect area though. I was going to use blue tac to Dam it up. The rails are well sealed up but to double check it's not them I will cover them and see. Is there a tool I can get that will detect damp/water in the shell ? Thinking like this m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Moisture-Detector-Damp-Meter-Wood-Brick-Screed-Wallpaper-Caravan-Tester-/252762578860?nav=SEARCH Used on a GRP hull, moisture meters will only tell you about the moisture levels within the laminate and at the point where you're testing, so they won't pinpoint any leak, they just tell you how wet everything is underneath the gelcoat. The cabintop laminate has had plenty of time to soak up lots of water if the leak is a long-standing one, so there's no point in buying a meter to tell you what you already know. I dotn think the one i linked to will help ( will it ) as they need to probe into the material slightly and as it is glass/gelcoat it will not work,or will it ? I was wondering if there are any similar which will do the job to find moisture in GRP ? The reason i want to find the moisture is not to find the leak but how bad the moisture content is. It could also help to reduce the area i need to look around. all helps in the end.
|
|
|
Post by TonyDunkley on Feb 26, 2017 9:40:54 GMT
Used on a GRP hull, moisture meters will only tell you about the moisture levels within the laminate and at the point where you're testing, so they won't pinpoint any leak, they just tell you how wet everything is underneath the gelcoat. The cabintop laminate has had plenty of time to soak up lots of water if the leak is a long-standing one, so there's no point in buying a meter to tell you what you already know. The reason i want to find the moisture is not to find the leak but how bad the moisture content is. Personally, I wouldn't bother about that. It's just another thing to worry about unnecessarily, there isn't much yo u can do about it anyway and it will sort itself out and decrease once you've found the leak and stopped it.
|
|
|
Post by faffer on Feb 26, 2017 9:43:14 GMT
The reason i want to find the moisture is not to find the leak but how bad the moisture content is. Personally, I wouldn't bother about that. It's just another thing to worry about unnecessarily, there isn't much yo u can do about it anyway and it will sort itself out and decrease once you've found the leak and stopped it. Very true its just me though. I found some kits and not cheap so that the end of that www.passionforpaint.co.uk/MoistureMetersGlassFibre.htm
|
|
|
Post by Jim on Feb 26, 2017 10:00:02 GMT
My old Dawncraft had a drip or two, one was handrail fixings, travelling .5m before it dripped, through the laminated roof. The other was from a strengthening rib, a paper rope had been laid in the corner of the roof to create the rib, water was entering where the cockpit windscreen bolted on, travelling a couple of metres before dripping out over the bed! You have my sympathy!
|
|
|
Post by JohnV on Feb 26, 2017 10:51:21 GMT
You have my sympathy as well !!! I have an irritating minor leak in my skylight in the saloon ..... wood not GRP.
When there is heavy rain and the wind is from a certain direction and there is a Y in the month, there will suddenly be a rapid series of drips from one point on the hatch. It will then stop ! We have checked it, gone over the joints with glue/mastic/varnish/Capt. Tolly's etc with no joy. I even had made a apex moulding that completely covers the apex of the hatch out of Iroko ........ But after 2 years, it still occasionally bloody leaked !!! ........ I have now given up and learned to just put a bowl under it when it does start
|
|
|
Post by faffer on Feb 26, 2017 12:21:44 GMT
Ok i am Not paying out for a surveyor to do waht i need doing and a tester is to much to pay so i guess i will get a tarp and as i have a load of blue tac i will dam any sus areas and go from there, a long process but this area can be lined etc at a later date. bloody disheartening but on and upwards, i have a the rest of the plumbing coming this week so that can be finished and tested once i get a battery. Oh and engine can be cleaned up and painted
|
|
|
Post by Jim on Feb 26, 2017 12:54:18 GMT
Turn the boat upside down, fill with water, see where it drips out. Sorted.
|
|
|
Post by faffer on Feb 26, 2017 13:54:37 GMT
Turn the boat upside down, fill with water, see where it drips out. Sorted. MMmmm i have a gantry so could be an idea just not big enough
|
|
|
Post by faffer on Feb 26, 2017 14:26:53 GMT
IDEA
car tyre pump fitted to a plate that is sikaflexed over the inner hole but leaving a cavity behind it and once the pressure builds up from the pump it will bubble when i run water over the outside.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2017 14:28:27 GMT
I wonder if you could apply air pressure to the hole from the inside, using a ruber plumbers plunger type thingy? And then soap test the outside?
|
|