About Barge Avanti

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Jim Naughten, previous owner of Barge Spes,  Barge Orca and Barge Ysland, is a commonly seen  local character walking with his trusted canine friend Otto, along the Thames footpaths of Brentford, Kew and Richmond. We had worked with Jim on a variety of projects over the years and when he kindly introduced us to Lotte and Rob (the present owners of Barge Avanti), we gladly became involved with their dream plan. The steel work was being fabricated in Hoo Medway so, to begin our journey we site visited to the dry dock in Kent. After meeting with Rob, we surveyed the run down Barge, made a plan to get started when back on the mooring at Kew Marina, just off of Kew Bridge and the rest is history. As with most Dutch Barge refurbishments, we started with the removal of all the present interior and took it back to the bare steel, ground that off with wire brush heads on angle grinders and found the beautiful steel walls of this 100 year old gem. Battening out took some time but with thoughts on the finished lines, the accuracy of this process has to be perfect. Next, the insulation Chaps came in from Yorkshire to expertly spray-foam the whole of the interior (except the bilges). Plumbing lines, 2.5km of electrical cabling, bendi-ply, straight ply, bathroom/shower/radiator/kitchen/windows installation, lots of blood sweat and tears later and, Avanti has turned into a Palace of a Home. Please enjoy the photos, ask us any questions you have and contact us for any projects you have considered for the upgrading of your own Floating Home. Thank you.