2017 Fish House Build

[Moon Lake Refuge]

56 minutes ago, Hawg said:

I talked to one of the big welding shop owners in our city today and the subject of galvanized frames came up. He says if anything goes wrong that professional welders wont even touch it because of the toxic fumes it puts off. He also says if you do heat up a hot dipped frame or pipe to weld that the galvanizing runs off it like water.  Many lake home owners are finding their new galvanized dock pieces have to be replaced rather than fixed in the event of wind or other damage for the same reason. Is that true?

Cant speak to the fumes but I still feel fine.  We ground and welded all along our galvenized frame with zero issues and zero melting.  It was as simple as grinding a spot to weld, and painting a little zinc on after.  I could only imagine whoever said that hasn't worked with it in the past or we got severely screwed and only have silver paint on our steal.  Tend not to believe the latter though.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

5 hours ago, Hawg said:

I talked to one of the big welding shop owners in our city today and the subject of galvanized frames came up. He says if anything goes wrong that professional welders wont even touch it because of the toxic fumes it puts off. He also says if you do heat up a hot dipped frame or pipe to weld that the galvanizing runs off it like water.  Many lake home owners are finding their new galvanized dock pieces have to be replaced rather than fixed in the event of wind or other damage for the same reason. Is that true?

It definitely doesn't melt or run off from heat, even from the welder.  Where we got close to the unground areas, it discolors it a bit.  Maybe if you got it really hot for an extended duration, I suppose. 

Toxic fumes are one reason people don't want to weld it.  Second, it really messes with the welder and the tips on the welder, and pops and crackles.  You definitely know if it isn't ground off good enough!

We're dealing with a couple of those fun, unplanned delays right now with the wheel wells.  We have a fix for the pin issue we found on Sunday, and have it taken care of on the 21' house.  Tomorrow the 24' will get done.  

Here is one of them fit up temporarily.  All the seams on this are plastic welded, which takes an incredible amount of time to do (roughly 3 hours per side).  The good thing is that it is permanently bonded together.        

   

[duckmn56]

On 4/13/2016 at 11:44 AM, Lip_Ripper Guy said:

I'm in need of someone knowledgeable in galvanic corrosion.  Can anyone here help me out?

Did you ever get an answer on this? 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

3 hours ago, duckmn56 said:

Did you ever get an answer on this? 

I did...thanks for checking!  Elm Creek Local was a wealth of information.  I needed to verify proper fasteners with the differing metals (bare aluminum, painted aluminum, bare steel, and galvanized steel).  I think we got it under control now.

We're finally at a point where we'll have some worthy progress again.  The last 5 days have had very little in terms of true accomplishment, and should have been done in a single day.  More soon!  

[Moon Lake Refuge]

On 4/26/2016 at 2:05 PM, Moon Lake Refuge said:

Cant speak to the fumes but I still feel fine.  We ground and welded all along our galvenized frame with zero issues and zero melting.  It was as simple as grinding a spot to weld, and painting a little zinc on after.  I could only imagine whoever said that hasn't worked with it in the past or we got severely screwed and only have silver paint on our steal.  Tend not to believe the latter though.

Old man took ours out this week(unfinished interior) turkey hunting and found the steal got a little surface rust by the heater.  Ours is foamed up to the studs but not over them.  Do you think an aeresolized rubber over the studs would prevent that rather than a full fan-fold insulation on every wall?

 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

1 hour ago, Moon Lake Refuge said:

Old man took ours out this week(unfinished interior) turkey hunting and found the steal got a little surface rust by the heater.  Ours is foamed up to the studs but not over them.  Do you think an aeresolized rubber over the studs would prevent that rather than a full fan-fold insulation on every wall?

 

Interesting question.  I don't think fan fold will do much to prevent rust.  It'll cut down on condensation (and therefor moisture), but I think for the best results you'll want to use some sort of paint.  Spray on rubber may work, but I don't know much about it.  I believe latex paint is fine with the spray foam, so the easiest (IMO) would be to buy a gallon of latex paint, and stick it in a paint sprayer and hit everything.    

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Forgot to include the picture in my post this morning.  The roof trim is all installed, wheel wells and floor is in.  

The base layer of plywood is a change.  Originally I had planned on .040" aluminum.  After putting it down on the floor, it was WAY too flimsy.  The base layer doesn't need to provide a ton of support, as the bottom gets spray foamed, but it wasn't going to work.

On top of this will be high density pink foam, and PEX for my in floor heat.  A layer of aluminum will go over the top, and then the rubber floor.  

[Down2Earth]

Sorry a little late to the party but this looks wonderful.  Does that frame actually have axels that run all the way across?  Do you ever worry about what ever it has bending?  Thanks for the information.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

2 minutes ago, Down2Earth said:

Sorry a little late to the party but this looks wonderful.  Does that frame actually have axels that run all the way across?  Do you ever worry about what ever it has bending?  Thanks for the information.

Thank you!  The torsion axles run all the way across. 

I'm not sure what you mean about bending.  Which part specifically would you have concerns about?

[Down2Earth]

Sorry I mean like bowed out or in depending if your looking at the top or bottom of the tire

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

1 minute ago, Down2Earth said:

Sorry I mean like bowed out or in depending if your looking at the top or bottom of the tire

Got it.  The axle (and frame) are set up with a bit of camber, so that when the weight of the completed house is on it, everything will be straight.  Both (empty) are kind of like the empty semi trailers you see on the road with a bend in the middle.  

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Now we're making some photo-worthy progress again.  Tonight was dedicated to installing diamond plate, and is my one night this week I'll be able to work on fish house building, so the next updates are a few days out.

The 3M VHB gets installed on the top, bottom, and a few places in the middle of each piece.  I'm now up to 8 full (36 yard) rolls used on the 21' house.  If you look closely at the bottom of the picture, each piece gets scuffed up with Scotch Bright and then cleaned off with isopropyl alcohol before the tape.  There's no 2nd chances once it touches.    

 

Then we do a 2nd fit up with the clamps to make sure the tape thickness hasn't thrown anything off:

With the diamond plate, the most critical part is the corners.  You want to avoid gaps, but you also need to make sure they are a perfect 90 degrees.  Once we have it where we want it, the backing gets strategically pulled to keep the corners in place. 

  

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Saturday I was able to get the roof finished up.  The trim is 1/4"x2 1/2" aluminum bar.  It really holds the edge of the rubber down nicely, and the clearance lights get installed on the trim.  This is a much cleaner look than having them on the siding.

Up next is a whole bunch of wiring.  

[rustysetter]

Looks great LRG! Very impressive! 

[randerson]

Do you have any close ups of the roof trim curious how you fastened it 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

12 hours ago, randerson said:

Do you have any close ups of the roof trim curious how you fastened it 

I don't have a close up, but if you go up a few posts and look at the rear of the house, you can see the screws in the trim.  I believe they are #12 hex head self tappers.  They came with a rubber/neoprene washer, but I took them off.  (2) screws every 10".

Then I caulked the entire perimeter of the roof/trim junction.  I got this really sweet pneumatic caulking gun, which made the job a breeze!

[btupy]

Do you have any progress pics on the 24'? I'm very interested in seeing this one too because its the full RV edition.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Nothing new on the 24'.  Maybe after the weekend.

I committed the entire day today to wiring the 21' and I'm about half done.  Should be most of the way done by Sunday.  Progress has slowed substantially.  I don't know if anyone has heard, but the home selling market is completely nuts, so I've been working 14-16 hour days for quite some time on my "real job".    

Maiden voyage is the first week in August for a family reunion/camping trip.  Lots of work between now and then!  Spray foam should be the first week in June.  

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Wiring is pretty much done on the 21' house.  I'll get some pictures once I get the wiring cleaned up a bit.  The final tally is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000' of wire.  

I actually prefer the look of the house without the diamond plate trim around the windows, but the siding cut outs weren't good enough to not have trim.  Next time!

Building fish houses isn't all fun and games.  My next project is ripping out all my floor plywood.  I made a major error in judgement by putting down untreated plywood, thinking it would be okay since it will be spray foamed from the bottom, and very little chance of moisture getting at it from the top.  That might be the case, but it has swelled up so badly from ground moisture since I put it in, that I have no choice but to rip it out.  So that is up next, and it is going to suck.  But, I (try to) only make mistakes once, so it is getting replaced with marine grade.    

Edited June 9, 2016 by Lip_Ripper Guy

[RiverChuckNorris]

Out of curiousity, where are you procuring your marine plywood from?  I have to replace some on a trailer this summer.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

16 hours ago, RiverChuckNorris said:

Out of curiousity, where are you procuring your marine plywood from?  I have to replace some on a trailer this summer.

Menards stocks 1/2" and 3/4".

[Hawg]

Was the floor foamed and it still went bad or was the raw wood exposed. I imagine that would trap a lot of moisture. Looking good LRG!

[Hawg]

That house is so big that I thought that was a basement window in your side photo

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

6 hours ago, Hawg said:

Was the floor foamed and it still went bad or was the raw wood exposed. I imagine that would trap a lot of moisture. Looking good LRG!

No foam, yet.  It actually came up much easier than I expected.  Just a matter of lowering the plywood down onto a jack stand and it "pops" it up.  

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

We are now pretty much ready for spray foam.  I'm about a month behind where I wanted to be, but I should be able to get caught up in the next couple weeks.  

For now, here is where the inside stands.  As I mentioned in another post, roughly 3,000' of wire.  Not the best pictures, but this will give you an idea.    

All the exterior lights, and trailer lights have these boxes behind them, and about 12-18" of extra wire stuffed in them for any future change outs.  

And here's the final outside after getting all the diamond plate trim done around the windows and wheel wells.