The time has come for the floor to be installed in the first SeaPod prototype. As with many aspects of the journey that we have gone on to bring these homes to life, it wasn’t easy and it took some time, thinking, and muscle to make it happen.
You can see in the video below that this floor section is very large. It covers part of the kitchen and the outdoor patio area of the SeaPod. We used our crane to do the heavy lifting and then our crew used guidelines to help maneuver the section.
We needed a little bit more height to get the section over the edge of the SeaPod body and since our overhead crane was maxed out, we brought in the telehandler to help give us a bit of extra lift. The telehandler was able to get the section up and over the edge where it needed to go.
Still, we had the challenge of rotating the floor from the vertical position to the final horizontal position where it will be installed. This took some muscle, and with the help of a comealong and some patience, we were able to get it to slide in and sit on the supports. There is a small gap that we will need to go back and fill in but without the gap, we wouldn’t have the room to slide everything into place since the fitment would be too tight.
The bottom of this floor will serve as the ceiling in the engineering room and the top will have a final surface layer built onto it. This floor is made of balsa wood and is encased in fiberglass for extra strength and rigidity.
This endeavor took about two and a half hours of teamwork but in the end, we got it done. We are going to make the next pieces about half the size of this one so that they are easier to manage and get into place. We should be able to carry them by hand and place them into position without having to involve the crane and telehandler.
Getting the floor installed is a huge step towards having a completed SeaPod prototype. These trials that we face during the development stages are constantly teaching us and giving us new ideas for ways to work more efficiently in the future. We will have more updates coming to the blog so stay tuned!
