Narrowboat Alacrity

Against my better judgement (I was so stiff I couldn’t make it up the hill to the Plough) we took a slow walk along the towpath to the Mill House which as you have seen in a previous post I was rather scathing about, BUT!!! they must have listened………….. The service was much improved despite the ongoing problems with the cold water supply because of the CryptoSpyridium found in the water supplied by Anglia Water.

The food order arrived in a very reasonable time and on Hot!!! plates no problems with the quality and taste.

Just one gripe the draught Bass was off again but on talking to the manager I found that he has to boil up eight gallons of water to clean the pipes, so fair comment with the ongoing water problems, I would prefer to have a decent pint than a poor one from unclean pipes.

Having had an easy drive up and luckily found a parking place ( as it was the Braunston Historic Boat Rally) Jo and I moved the tools and bits needed to start the flooring over to Alacrity. It still took three trips even with the trolley.

As posted before we had decided to fit a fully floating solid oak floor as this will allow the wood to expand and contract in the varying temperatures and humidity levels found on a narrowboat. So having sorted out the original floor removing the gripper rod and staples and added many more screws to hold it down we laid a thin foam plastic underlay, this is to allow the new floor to move and acts as cushion.

The oak tongue and grove planks are supplied in in varying lengths from 300 mm to 1200 mm so you have to be a bit good at jigsaws to get away without much wastage and to get a decent random effect. Once we had glued and layed the first two rows work went on a pace helped by the use of a pair of ratchet clamps, ( Screwfix £4.99 cheaper than B&Q £12.99) these really pull the boards together far better than just tapping them with a soft faced hammer.

Even with only half the boards laid the effect was stunning. So with my back and knees complaining we decided to stop and give the glue chance to set………ok  ok  a weak excuse but I needed a beer.