Rotted flooring

Lin Stacey · Newbie Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 30

With a '90 boat, it has gone through a lot of water and the floor under the carpet has become quite weak. I would like to put the effort into repairing/replacing the floor. The rest of the boat is still quite nice and valuable. Any chance that there are any tips on how to do it and would it be possible to replace it with fiberglass to stop it from happening again? Any direct tips or links would be great.

onenutwakeboarder · Newbie Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 42 City: Yakima

That is the same thing that had happened to my early '90s boat. My dad and I took the replaced our floor by putting some special kind of plywood, and we also had some stuff to waterproof it. We put new carpet in the whole boat too. It was a pretty easy job... Good Luck!

onenutwakeboarder · Newbie Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 42 City: Yakima

Typo "my dad and I replaced our floor"

wesgardner · Posted: Mar 19, 2005 3:55 pm Post subject:

Hey Lin Stacey,

Probably the most straight forward approach is to go back with plywood....if you want it to last virtually forever here's the deal - use marine plywood - ain't cheap but in this case it's prolly worth it. You'll want to become very familiar with epoxy. There are many reference guides and "how to" articles around. The Gougeon Brothers (of WEST System fame) pioneered the use of this stuff in boatbuilding back in the 60's - many "high tech" wood boats have been built with a combination of wood, epoxy, carbon and kevlar.

Basically you'll use the old floor as a pattern if you can, cut out new panels and completely encapsulate them with epoxy paying very close attention to the edges (this is where plywood "wicks" up moisture.) and on the top surface perhaps a layer of cloth for durability. Th final product will be very strong and sound.

I've built several hulls so you can PM me if you want/need moral support. Epoxy can be bought in quantity from RAKA Marine, System Three, West System and others. These outfits have a full line of materials... I'd go out and find the Gougeon Brothers' book on boatbuilding...the ISBN # is 0-87812-166-8. I bought mine years ago and it became the bible for restoration and new hull construction, I think west Marine may have it in their stores if you want to go have a look.

Good luck

Wes