Why a houseboat doesn't sink

When I found a houseboat I wanted to live in, I had no idea what was underneath to get it to float. I had some friends come over -- one an architect and another a long-time houseboat-dweller -- who looked underneath with a flashlight and thought it looked fine.

To be certain that I was buying a floating home that would continue to float, I paid $500 for a dive inspection. The report turned out fine except that my setups needed three new stringers, which the previous owner knew about and had already agreed to replace. I still didn't know what was really underneath.

The photo above shows what a set-up is like.

What floats are logs (some places have flotation that looks like rectangles of styrofoam) and as long as the logs are underwater they don't rot. Above the logs cross-wise are long wooden beams called stringers (like you would have if you were building a deck) and the house floats on that. I've learned that you don't want the stringers to get wet (which could happen if your house is lopsided or weighed down by a snowfall).

Here are my new stringers arriving by mini-tugboat. They are 6 inches by 10 inches and 44 feet long. They are on the far side of the tug. In the foreground is a log raft that were used as a work platform.

Part of the installation process was to lift up the deck boards so the floating logs could have notches cut in them for the stringers to slide into. At last I could really see what was under my house and was amazed to discover that I have six huge old-growth logs. I measured this one and it is 50 inches across. Likely they are the original logs that floated the houseboat in 1955. Nowadays you could not harvest trees that big, and so smaller and more logs are used.