Fantasy Build: Marooned at Lowes/Home Depot

[BrianM]

This "fantasy" strikes me every time I walk through the lumber section of my local Big Boxes. It's a variation on one I used to have as a school kid, imagining the school yard was suddenly underwater, and I had to figure out a way to get all the kids across the infinite sea of asphalt to "land" (the sidewalk, about 100 yards away). My grade school solution was to have everybody jump into the 20 yard debris boxes which were almost omni-present to accumulate old newspapers as a means of fund-raising. It's funny how that fantasy has morphed with years of reading Chapelle, Gardner, Beuhler, Parker, and Monk into this "spur of the moment" game of survival.

So here is the challenge:

Imagine your visit to pickup a couple boxes of sheetrock screws for that drywall job is interrupted by a dam break, levee break.. what ever is needed to maroon you, and about 100 people inside a Lowes/Home Depot. Miraculously, you still have power, but you know for certain the waters will not recede. The same disaster has tied up rescue services for another 2 weeks. You all will have to "self rescue".

With only the materials available in a Big Box store, what do you (the only guy with quasi-boatbuilding experience/knowledge) direct the 100 others to build?

This is supposed to be fun, so don't just post a design, but tell a story.. what will you build, how will you do it? How will you creatively use all the products available? What substitutions will you make when lacking the genuine "Marine-Grade-Item" and what compromises will they involve?

[BrianM]

I'll start:

Big Problem #1, how many boats do we build, how large will they be, and how will we propel them?

- Lawnmowers are all over the shelves as a source for engines, but there isn't any gas anywhere, and no machine tools to modify them. Coming up with some sort of propeller would be an interesting challenge.. maybe a cut down fan from the "Lighting" department? There are welders on the shelves and some metal working tools (grinders, hammers, etc), but without fuel, I don't see it worth pursuing (unless you can get an engine to run on Paint Thinner?)

There is decent stock of tarps, canvas as well as blue/silver, so this boat is gonna have to sail.

- Lot's of AC ply and 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, and 12x stock. Decent stock of 16', but not many 24'. I'm thinking a Sharpie would be best bang for the buck.

- On size, I'm guessing that for a arbitrarily chosen length of 24', x 8' Beam, I'd not want to put more than 15 people aboard (average weight 150lbs * 15 = 2250) We have only 2-3 days to build them before people start getting too weak (no food on premises), so well need 7 boats. I don't have a good sense of the people carrying capacity of this hull is. I'm not a Marine Architect, but my Engineering training tells me I should at a minimum, consider stability (especially when everybody lurches over to one rail....) What I DON'T want is people to RIOT if we have too few boats on day #3 I'm gonna go on this hunch right now.

(Now, in the mean-time, I imagine a "Poseidon Adventure" type backdrop where the 100 people are traumatized, I'm Ernest Borgnine, except my hot girlfriend isn't climbing ladders with no underwear, she's at home with 3 kids, we are married, and she's kinda glad I'm out of her hair for a few days LOL). These people need guidance and assurance. Best to put them to work right away.

We clear out the entire front of the store where all the seasonal junk is displayed (Barbecues, furniture, etc) and make ready to lay out the hulls. I figure build one and make doorskin patterns as you go to replicate all the bits to quickly put the 100 people to work. Grabbing chalkline from the shelves, pencils from tool counter, and an envelope (to do the obligatory calculations on it's back) we begin.

My general approach would be plywood scarphed/butted using Polyurethan Construction Adhesive to lay out the sides for these 24' hulls. 3/4" is abundant and I think will take that bend when scaphed to 24' (again, all seat of the pants). My "artistic side" can't be subverted and I need SOME flare, so I lay out the transom and center frame first (essentially following the identical method I used to make the kids toy boats for Christmas). I think and build everything "Dory Style", even Sharpies (i.e. make the bottom, and fasten stem, transom, and frames to it first to make it easy to align it all instead of "by guess and by golly" fastening the sides to a stem and hoping it all lines up afterward (Shapie style).)

We need to scarf up a couple of good long battens to chalk some fair curves on the bottoms. I figure by laminating two layers of 3/4 AC and staggering the butts, fortified and joined by 1 1/4" Sheetrock screws, the boats will be stout (not gonna worry about corrosion as our voyage will be less than a few days).

Another arbitrary choice, I'm picking 24" as the height of the sheer amidships, with bow rising to 36", and transom at 28". These are used to layout the transom, midship frame, and stem. Chalk out the lines on the floor and put the handy ones to work with chop saws and two-by-fours. Tightbond III and Sheetrock Screws for the butted bevels, then fortify the joints with ply for the transom and midship frames. The stem if whittled out of a 4"x10". 24" is pretty low at midships with landlubber accustomed to 42" as the standard height for "hand rails" for buildings, so well need to add some bulwarks at some point to these boats, at least amidships, maybe bringing them up to 36"?

Sunday June 7th edits:

With the doubled 3/4" ply bottom, there will be no need for chines to keep things simple. With the bottoms built, frames are built and attached as well as transom and stem. A big ridiculously oversized knee is built to fortify the stem as I anticipate accidentally striking submerged objects in this new "Water World". Springing our battens give guidance on the bevels at Stem, MidFrame and Transom, and also dimensions for a couple of supplemental frames to fill in gaps between mid-ship frame and the boat's ends. Scarfing plywood, especially beefy 3/4" stuff will be the order of the day. Some belt sanders and angle grinders should make short work of cutting the scarf bevels at 6 to 1. Tightbond III and small screws to pull it all together should do the trick, followed by a lamination of a 3/8" "Butt Block" ought to keep it tight enough. I've noticed that you can't find standard wood screws at the Big Boxes in HDP form. All you can pick from are lag bolts, or deck screws. I'd use both.

To coat the exteriors with something waterproof, the choices aren't that great, but I'm thinking that the Epoxy Drive Way paint might do the trick.

Now on the subject of my chosen method of motivation, sails and oars, the sails aren't as straightforward as one might think. My experience with blue tarps is that they can't take point loads very well. IMHO, they are in dire need of some sort of "Bolt Rope" to distribute the wind-loads.. but when was the last time you saw a sewing machine at the BIG BOXES? I'm thinking the only option is more adhesive for a "Glued-Hem". If you lay a piece of line down the Profile, lay down a big bead (I'm thinking more construction adhesive), and fold the tarp over (after cutting to suit), I think a fairly stout solution can be had. Glued up reinforcements laminated in place at the Tack, Head, and Clew ought to give some decent purchase to secure these to spars. Simple 4" x 4"s, 8 sided on a table saw ought to be dandy for spars.

I think Lee Boards will be the most effective and most easy to build for boats like these. I would definitely spring some 2" x 6"s on the bottoms of these hulls to strengthen them against bottoming, but a centerboard or external keel would start getting too complex and time consuming. A built up "Fin" could be done by laminating enough 2x stock, but then, carrying this boat to the water to launch would be tough and we lose our ability to negotiate shallows. I favor the "Broken Wing" method Beuhler recommends using links of chain to "hinge" the board. If you neglect to pull up the weather board fast enough on a tack, you don't snap it off.

A Rudder would also need to be forgiving in terms of striking thinks below. The biggest Gate Hinges would serve as Gudgeons and Pintles, but have the disadvantage where the rudder can't ride up if bottomed. A pivoting spade rudder then seems to me to be a solution as long as we can manage the tension on the bolt keeping the thing DOWN while underway. A traditional Sharpie Rudder riding in water pipe bearings could also be stout, but has disadvantage of complexity to build.. or maybe not.. if we have some plumbers in the crowd. Water Pipe flanges with a short length of pipe inbetween, perhaps utilizing some plastic pipe inside as a bearing would be a strong rudder mount. Affixing the rudderpost itself more pipe to the rudder could be done with the welding tools available to fabricate the necessary hardware.

[kenjamin]

Make paddleboards out of two thicknesses of 2" x whatever boards. Pair strong swimmers with weak ones on tandem boards. Make enough paddle boards so that everyone leaves together as a flotilla. Is that too realistic for you?

[BrianM]

Make paddleboards out of two thicknesses of 2" x whatever boards. Pair strong swimmers with weak ones on tandem boards. Make enough paddle boards so that everyone leaves together as a flotilla. Is that too realistic for you?


On the "Poseidon Adventure" rift, I'm picturing multiple "wimpy" people who are too afraid to dive into the water. But that's MY fantasy.. you are welcome to yours.. elaborate on how you build these paddle boards, then coax the people to use them....

[Woxbox]

Forget the lumber. I'm headed for the plumbing aisle. Someone else is advised to round up all the cordage they can find.

We pull the largest diameter lengths of PVC on hand, glue end caps on both ends, and start lashing them together into one huge plastic Kon Tiki.

We've got lots of hands, so we're just going to paddle this baby wherever we need to go. First stop, the supermarket next door to provision.

Oh, and we did grab a bunch of those plastic yard bins on the way out to stash the goods. Someone else grabbed a pile of tarps and smaller pieces of pipe to set up tents. We're almost ready to party. Just before we leave the parking lot, a couple of guys see the water rising around those big stainless barbeques, and grab a pair of them.

Yep, we're all set.

[Ahimsakid]

I'm gonna have to tune back into this thread and see if anyone invents chicken wired ferro-cement. Or repurposed weedwhackers http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/images/icons/icon12.gif.
When the plywood starts to grow scarce do you turn to stripping out other stock? Take a torch to the roof of the place for panels?

[BrianM]

I like the original thinking, this will be fun... well, hell, on that rift... I forgot that the parking lot is FULL of cars with gas in them, so engine driven boats are back on the table....

[Glen Longino]

"parking lot is Full of cars with gas in them"...

But they're all under several feet of water, right?
Take gas back off the table?

[ShagRock]

What I DON'T want is people to RIOT if we have too few boats on day #3 I'm gonna go on this hunch right now. (Now, in the mean-time, I imagine a "Poseidon Adventure" type backdrop where the 100 people are traumatized, I'm Ernest Borgnine, except my hot girlfriend isn't climbing ladders with no underwear, she's at home with 3 kids, we are married, and she's kinda glad I'm out of her hair for a few days LOL). These people need guidance and assurance. Best to put them to work right away.

Since it's a fantasy.. watch Stephen King's "Mist" first!

[huisjen]

I need more info. How far is the voyage? What kind of water? What kind of weather? Is there a need to go at all fast? Do you have to launch, or will rising water make you float off the building site?

Dan

[BrianM]

I need more info. How far is the voyage? What kind of water? What kind of weather? Is there a need to go at all fast? Do you have to launch, or will rising water make you float off the building site?

Dan

Those are all relevant and excellent questions for which I given little fore-thought.

Figure the parking lot is graded away from the store and provides a gradual "beach". No rising water (at least not for the 3 days to build). I'm assuming between lengths of pipe as rollers, levers, and 100 people, the boats can be pushed into the water.

As far as weather, speed, condition of seas.. I don't know.. my "fantasy" never goes that far (this is actually sounding sillier than I thought it could... boy this is embarrassing).

Here's a simpler way of looking at it. How stout, strong, fast, seaworthy, and durable a boat can you come up with using only the materials stocked on the shelves at Big Boxes? It's your creativity and those materials which are the only real limits.

[huisjen]

Okay then. I'm not taking 100 people. But if we build five boats for 20 it should work. Average crewman weight is 150#. 150x20=3000#. I want a boat that can carry four times that, as each crewman will need gear and provisions, plus room for random plunder.

A cubic foot of water is 62#. I want 200 cubic feet of buoyancy. I think I want to do this as a catamaran. A 4x4x8 box is 128 cubic feet. Hmmm.... Looks like I need more room, and will end up with extra volume aboard.

Okay, I'm going to make two hulls, each composed of three box sections, 4x4x8 feet each. Each one is a watertight compartment with a hatch above, plus some ventilation ports. Fore and aft of these are additional sections composed of more plywood, with the sides curved tangent to the sides of the regular box sections and curving to points, however long you can get with a 4x8 sheet. Insides are framed with 2x4 good and sturdy. Outside there are stringers of 2x8 that hold the sections together, including keels and external chine logs on the bottom of the hulls. Everything gets construction adhesive everywhere two bits of wood come together, plus lots of fasteners. Galvanized deck screws should work, plus carriage bolts on thicker members. Hulls get liberally coated with whatever is on hand for wood sealer/preservative. I want it to soak in quick, rather than just coat the surface.

Hulls will be 10' apart, for an 18' beam overall. The deck will be over hanging trusses that attach to the hulls both at their tops and 24" down their sides. The deck will be full length.

I'll have to add more later.

Dan

[GBVT]

PD racers. The whole teach a man to fish thing. Learn and build your own or stay. How many days worth of candy does a HD stock anyway?

[outofthenorm]

I'm thinking Ark. Gopher wood isn't on hand, but there's plenty of WRC and lots of plywood, glue, screws and roofing tar. Flat bottom with some rocker, say an inch a foot. Make it up doubled out of 3/4 or 1 inch ply, tons of PL premium and deck screws. Single chine - basically a big wide box, more or less pointy at both ends. Stacked 2x12s for a centreline structure, 2x10 hull framing and 2x6 deck beams, ply decks.

We'd build the bottom first, then the sides, all flat. Set some chine logs in place on the bottom, and bevel a bit - more in the middle, less at bow and stern. Stand the sides up and whack in a bajillion fasteners on top of lots of glue. Tack the sides together at bow and stern and glue in a stem and sternpost. Let the sides sag outward a bit to give some flare before we put the deck beams in . Paint the whole outside with roofing tar, then shellac-based primer. That should seal up most of the holes. Grab a few generators and some sump pumps and hose. They'll run on paint thinner and a drop of oil.

Use gate hinges and plywood to cobble up a rudder. Now comes the clever part. While all this is going on, put your best engineers to work making a double paddle wheel with a hand cranking system using pipe, sheet metal, bearings etc from the hardware department. Put the crew to work cranking the wheels.

Might work.

- Norm

[Thorne]

I'm with Woxbox, the plastics will be more functional for this 'fantasy' -- BTW, you haven't said how far these boats have to go?

Glue the lids on trashcans, then cut out a cockpit opening on one side (which becomes the top). Lash some of the sealed plumbing pipes to each side, cobble together some paddles and away ya go...

[seanz]

"parking lot is Full of cars with gas in them"...

But they're all under several feet of water, right?
Take gas back off the table?

All these stores have forklifts, right?

Swipe the motor and drive, make a giant stern-wheeler catamaran with a couple of readymade pergolas on deck for shelter then it's off in the flood to the mighty river and onward to freedom!

[Captain Intrepid]

Ummm. I'd go with 30 foot St Pierre Style dorys with oars and thole pins. They don't have to be pretty. Maybe make em with a couple planks on each side, so the plywood's easier to bend, and hefty chine logs that'll take 3 inch deck screws and loads of adhesive with ease. I'd start by throwing together one out of door skins and duct tape, then pull it apart and use it as patterns, and get a bunch of people mass producing the parts. Then just use deck screws and construction adhesive to put em together, caulk em like it's going out of style with whatever goop is handy, and slop on whatever sealant is handy. Once you get the first one finished and everyone who's competent at all working, start making oars, until there's at least half a dozen per boat. If there's time, maybe rig up some sails, for downwind if nothing else. Also, make sea anchors. Those'd be handy. Find things for the rest of the folk to do as well, people need to keep busy in a survival situation, or they go crazy. Have them assemble lifejackets, all the food, medicine, first aid supplies etc for each boat, have some set up a kind of daycare if there's any kids, that sort of thing.

It'd almost be fun!

[openboater]

Don't forget, there must be hundreds of sheets of 2'x8' dow pink insulation board, mostly 2 inch thick.

[ben2go]

Build a camp shack on a barge hull.

[Boston]

what a bloody fun thread
way to go
ok
best one I read was to hit the plumbing isle and see what kind of pipes can be capped and made to float

the lawn and garden section will have peat moss bags that will float well and the materials section will have Styrofoam galore
hit the lumber section for a platform and make a party raft
hit the liqueur store first before anyone else gets there before you
paddle power will be the order of the day as gas stations will be out of service and cars will be flooded
so all the engines in the world arent going to help you

also in the garden section are some solar lights for the front lawn
grab those

then hit the super market and go back to the big box store
its got all you need to survive

next trick is finding the lawn chairs and building a canopy
might as well be comfy
if they have 55 gallon barrels of anything in the back you could dump em out and make a real party boat

yikes what a great idea

[CK 17]

Up here they stock tons of that 4 by 8 sheet foam--pink and blue. Some of it is 2 inches thick. I'd stack it up and glue it into one big ass barge. If I had time I'd make up hot wire foam cutter and shape it. Then I'd get some 2 by 4 cedar and frame it up around the outside of the foam to make it nice and solid.

I guess I could cover the hull with plywood to protect the foam.

If I had time maybe I'd figure out how to put the framing in the inside

Some long 4 by 4's and tarp could make a mast and sails.

would a weedwacker and a fan blade work for an outboard:confused:

Tanks for getting my mind off of the fence I have to build today:D

[BrianM]

Thanks everybody for all your fun and creative contributions! Let's keep it going.

[TimT]

I'll assume we have a limited amount of time before the hot dog cart from the entrance runs out of supplies. We'll go for quick construction of an armada of small boats

I remember seeing some nice canvas dropcloths in the paint aisle of the local store. A little framing, and you could make a Skin on frame canoe or open boat to carry a few people. Thread for sewing the skin might take some creativity, but plenty of tacks available. The whitewood at the Borg doesn't bend well, but it's great for stringers and there's lots of plywood for frames. Paint to seal the skin, and probably some goo from the roofing area. When the canvas runs out, there's other tarps.

[Captain Blight]

Every Menard's and Lowe's carries good CVG Doug-fir in 5/4 thickness and in lengths up to 24'. Combine with polytarps for a small fleet of umiaks, each carrying 12-15 souls. Masts would be easily if heavily laminated from same stock.

Should last for years, at least until the next notional armagheddonistic postulation sweeps through town.

[rbgarr]

Tarps, duck tape, epoxy, clamps and strapping strips to make a fleet of those round Japanese 'skinboats', one sculling paddle each. Every man for himself.
Mine will carry the best gas barbecue grill and all the cordless tools I can carry (loot?) because that's why I went there in the first place. :D

[donald branscom]

The problem will be food.

There is NO food at those stores.

[skuthorp]

"There is NO food at those stores. "
The equivalent here have a cafe. I like the styrofoam raft idea, though stability and strength will be an issue. Some of those pipes as outrigers, a tripod mast and lateen sails. As a kid we made a big foam raft covered in canvas and would fish offshore in the bay sitting on two kitchen chairs with a tub for the fish. It seemed big then but probably wasn't. I wonder what Max Wilson and Neil Pollock are doing now?

[outofthenorm]

There is NO food at those stores.

My local HD always has a good supply of Slim Jims. Shelf life is about 200 years, so there must be cases of them on a top rack somewhere. I wonder if they are actual food? :D

[rbgarr]

My local HD always has a good supply of Slim Jims. Shelf life is about 200 years, so there must be cases of them on a top rack somewhere. I wonder if they are actual food? :D

Probably an industrial byproduct.

[huisjen]

There's always the little birds that live in those places. Are there skewers near the barbecues?

Dan

[GBVT]

There's always the little birds that live in those places. Are there skewers near the barbecues?

Dan

We could complicate this greatly. How would you build your food catching device? I'm thinking portable compressor powered harpoon. How long until the whales show up?

[Woxbox]

I stopped by the local Lowe's today for a couple of things. And looking around, I was thinking the steel shelving might have its uses. Just about everything they have is better than the lumber, after all. And yep, a fair bit of very thick insulation board, but not enough in view for an ark. Is there more out back? If not, foam for maybe a 40' cat if built carefully.

[kenjamin]

Assuming there's no electricity and most of the cordless batteries are not charged very much, you may be left with hand saws and nails to get the job done. And as someone else pointed out food will be the most immediate problem. A decent enough dory can be built by cutting 4' x 8' sheet goods longitudinally to make a 2' x 16' piece for each side (a butt block splice will work just fine). The dory bottoms can be made with most any size 1.5" thick lumber. First find the boards with the most rocker to them to make the first dory bottom. Use cross cleats to hold the bottom together while sealing the board to board connections with caulk, liquid nail, or similar. After several dory bottoms are built and many of the handy-type DIY'ers can continue the work. Then find eight or so of the best swimmers and send them out on some of the dory bottoms by using them as paddle boards (before the dory sides are attached) so they can look for nearby food sources to keep everyone from sarving before the dories and oars are completed.

[Captain Intrepid]

I don't really see food as being the most immediate problem, or even a problem at all for a few days. It's a little uncomfortable at times, but you can spend a few days fasting without any major effects.

[2MeterTroll]

timber wrap, string, epoxy, and cedar 3 days and we be outta there. the whole hundred gone. Think SOF. if you wanted a motor you could just plumb one from a lawn mower. or use one of those leaf blowers bet the air coming out is strong enough to push an umiak.

[neilm]

A lot of good looking women work at Home Depot. I think I'd just make a bedroom instead.

Neil

[john welsford]

A while back there was a thing built called " The Infinite modular sharpie" or somesuch, the "owner" built the bow and stern, and those wishing to participate built a plywood box unit 8ft long, 4ft wide and 2ft high ( from memory, which may be unreliable but you get the picture) The string of boxes was assembled with the bow, and the outboard powered stern units one at each end, a heavy rope tensioned the lot to keep them together and away they went, one family per box.
JohnW

This "fantasy" strikes me every time I walk through the lumber section of my local Big Boxes. It's a variation on one I used to have as a school kid, imagining the school yard was suddenly underwater, and I had to figure out a way to get all the kids across the infinite sea of asphalt to "land" (the sidewalk, about 100 yards away). My grade school solution was to have everybody jump into the 20 yard debris boxes which were almost omni-present to accumulate old newspapers as a means of fund-raising. It's funny how that fantasy has morphed with years of reading Chapelle, Gardner, Beuhler, Parker, and Monk into this "spur of the moment" game of survival.

So here is the challenge:

Imagine your visit to pickup a couple boxes of sheetrock screws for that drywall job is interrupted by a dam break, levee break.. what ever is needed to maroon you, and about 100 people inside a Lowes/Home Depot. Miraculously, you still have power, but you know for certain the waters will not recede. The same disaster has tied up rescue services for another 2 weeks. You all will have to "self rescue".

With only the materials available in a Big Box store, what do you (the only guy with quasi-boatbuilding experience/knowledge) direct the 100 others to build?

This is supposed to be fun, so don't just post a design, but tell a story.. what will you build, how will you do it? How will you creatively use all the products available? What substitutions will you make when lacking the genuine "Marine-Grade-Item" and what compromises will they involve?

[ben2go]

Ahhhh yes.The infinitely modular sharpie.Lovely ply wood master piece.
http://www.brucesboats.com/page6.html

[Woxbox]

Build enough of those TIMS and you'd have a floating bridge to the nearest high spot.

[jclays]

I didnt read any mention of beer in this thread...

[BarnacleGrim]

The quickest solution would be to simply float away in one of the plastic koi ponds.

But it would be more fun to build a really obscene pontoon boat out of septic tanks. Just knock up a prefab gazebo on top, install a sauna and live on it until the water recedes.

[WX]

Ummm, would the power be out with the flood waters? Does this place sell gensets? There's still the problem of no fuel for it anyway so it looks like hand tools only. I would go for flat bottomed barge/lighter construction based on sheet plywood sizes. That way minimising cutting.

[BarnacleGrim]

The first post says there is power. Otherwise you could just siphon diesel or petrol from a car in the parking lot for the gensets.

Incidentally the place next to one of the construction stores I go to sell trolling motors. A dozen of those should at least get things moving a little bit. Plywood bilge boards, aluminium profile spars and a tarp sail is also an option.

[WX]

One could always convert a couple of brushcutters into longtail outboards.

[Soundman67]

hmmm, way too green in this department but I thought immediately of something like a landing craft. 2x material for the flat bottom . bent layers of plywood for the sides, as well as the flat nose and stern.
big chines can be laminated up out of 2x material, quick and nasty poly tarp sailing rig. could be paddled or rowed. 2x bottom means wider than 8 feet if you wanted. all seams could be caulked with either PL or roofing tar. or whatever goop you have the most of. lots of threaded pipe there to make the rudder hardware. I like the idea of the weed wacker and the fan blade but I think the strength of the blade would be too small and the speed of the thing too great. for fuel you might find enough citronella or other lamp oil that would burn in a diesel generator. post hole auger would actually work ok if you found fuel for it. just lean it out the back of the boat.a prop is really just a short screw anyways. trying to think what else is in the rental section of HD here in vancouver. but the basic boat could be built quite large and pretty quickly with what you have in the store.

Doug

[ben2go]

I know there's a few here that's been looking at the local home improvement stores and planning.So anyone came up with a workable plan yet?

[paladin]

I'm thinking Ark. Gopher wood isn't on hand, but there's plenty of WRC and lots of plywood, glue, screws and roofing tar. Flat bottom with some rocker, say an inch a foot. Make it up doubled out of 3/4 or 1 inch ply, tons of PL prem

Gee, Norm...plenty of gopherwood...you just don't realize what you are looking at..

[floatingkiwi]

Build some big long oars and stick them out the doors and start rowing. Unless all the water has chosen to defy the laws of physics, and you aint drowning, then the building you are in, my 100 fearless comrades, is a floating.

[BarnacleGrim]

This scenario does of course assume that the store is built on top of a hill that would not be submerged in the flood, which is true for at least one of my local ones.

The warehouse forklifts would come in handy for launching the boat.