What to use for engine space walls and ceilings?

Hi All,

Being the "engine room" kinda guy I am (my favorite place aboard ship while not at sea), I'm going to replace and install missing wall boards and ceilings. What kind of material have any of you used for this purpose? Where can I get it?

Thanks- Dave

Can you figure out what was used originally?

The important things are fireproof, oil resistant, sound deadening and using mechanical fasteners , especially where panels could fall onto the engine.

Where can you get it? I've seen adds for such products in boating magazines. Defender and other vendors might have some products.

We used Sundown's perforated aluminum when we redid our engine room walls and ceiling. Steve in their Fort Lauderdale office was real helpful. We bought pvc molding from one of the box stores for the inside and outside corner as per his suggestion.

http://www.soundown.com/Section 2 PDFs/2.6 PDFs/Perforated Aluminum.pdf

Here's a link for what we did. You can pick up the discussion on post 193.

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s32/krogen-42-fuel-tank-replacement-28204-10.html

A couple of things to mention if re doing your engine room:

The soundproofing materials for marine noise reduction are usually exposed to high temperatures, potential fluid or fuel spills, engine maintenance and a high air-flow environment. Traditionally, facing materials such as solid foil or film needed to be used to meet the ISO/DIS9094-2 or IMO requirements for flammability(commercial applications), high temperature resistance and non-fuel absorption.How ever looking nice and shiny these older impermeable materials reflected most of the incident noise, dramatically reducing the sound absorption capacity of the materials them selves.

More modern materials such as Megasorber FM and similar products combines the unique Sound-mesh G-8 with a non-combustible acoustic foam. Sound-mesh G-8 is specifically engineered to provide superior sound absorption capacity at low to mid frequency.


Cheers Steve

I found another thread on the forum, asked the same question. If I find what folks have been searching for, I'll shout out.

The "standard" and "conventional" insulation for fiberglass boast in our size range is vinyl / foam composite insulation. Most of the suppliers to this industry manufacture a very similar laminate:

A vapor barrier face
An absorption layer
A vinyl noise barrier
And a decoupler layer

Overall thickness varies from 1/2" to over 2", typical barrier weights are 1 or 2 lbs per sq ft, the simple rule of thumb is "more is better."

What stops noise is mass. If it isn't heavy, it's not going to do much.

There are also some excellent acoustic carpet underlayments and noise barriers for use under vinyl or hard floors.

Both real engine room insulation on bulkheads and overheads and a treatment under the finish floor will be the Best in a Good-Better-Best contest.

$0.02

I have this stuff fixed to ply. Fisheries also sell mylar tape for the joints between the various pieces. Its pretty good IMO.

https://www.fisheriessupply.com/soundtec-sound-insulation-vinyl-foam-barrier-composite

If you can afford it, lead sheeting under whatever other soundproofing you use, really stops the noise. The living room part of my main deck cabin is directly over two Detroit Diesels. At 1800 rpm, I can have a normal conversation. And I have limited hearing.