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rickroot

Contributing Member
"I know this is a "marine

"I know this is a "marine engine" forum but what the heck, I feel like we're all friends now


I feel like i might need to replace - or at least repair - the flooring in my cockpit soon. There is a soft spot in front of the drivers side seat. I'm not a small person and I'm afraid one of these days I'm going to step right through the flooring!

Its a 1985 boat so I think its a plywood floor ...

Has anyone ever done a floor replacement? What are your experiences?"
 
"I've done it twice in run

"I've done it twice in runabouts, and neither was fun. Once in an older aluminum hull Starcraft, and once in a fiberglass hull where the floor was glassed in. Both took inordinate amounts of time removing literally everything in the interior just to get access to the flooring. I doubt if I ever would attempt such a thing again, but I was younger and poorer then. Then once you get underway to where you must continue, you find all kinds of things the you "might as well" fix or improve while you are that deeply involved.

Some friends have gotten by almost as well by removing all they could and pulling old carpet, than putting a new marine plywood floor on top of existing floor. They added new carpet to the new floor. Looked pretty good at first inspection, and good enough that the boats could be sold easily later.

I do have that problem in my houseboat currently so keep putting it off and may sell it as-is rather than tackle the chore."
 
"Rick Root
Just finished a p

"Rick Root
Just finished a patch on my 18'er the other day. Removed the slab that was soft, replaced it with CPES coated plywood, fiberglassed over top and glued the carpet back. Feels solid, I'm 230# and it holds me. Biggest problem was getting down low and leaning over my belly.
lol.gif

Bert"
 
"Bert is right on target - you

"Bert is right on target - you might be able to patch just a specific area easier than doing the entire floor like I did. I might not have made that clear enough in my diatribe, but when my floors started going bad they went so fast the entire floor needed replacement. Both my boats had exterior grade plywood initially from the factory, not marine plywood. I replaced only with marine grade wood."
 
"Rick,

I'm getting the

"Rick,

I'm getting the impression that instead of a boat, you may have got yourself a hole in the water in which you keep pouring your money.
But you're doing all the right stuff... most importantly keeping a questioning attitude and attacking problems before they become big(er) problems."
 
"I did mine 2 yrs. ago. It wa

"I did mine 2 yrs. ago. It was like opening a Jack-in-the-Box when I removed the entire floor on my 1987 19' Baretta. Floor water waterlogged, floatation foam was waterlogged, removed all the wet foam and found the stringers were merely F'glass encapsulated mulch. Fuel fill hose was swollen and seaping into the foam. Transom was rotted 1/2 way up from the bottom; same mulch. Port engine mt. base was mulch.

So, I gutted the boat down to the hull and did a total rebuild using CPES treated exterior plywood. Marine grade plywood is overkill since the only reason it is classed as "marine grade" is because the plys of wood do not contain any knots. If it is not treated w/CPES it will rot like any other wood.

The floor can be sectioned as others did by cutting thru the floor AND NOT THE HULL w/a battery mini circular saw set at 5/8". Cut 5" from the outside edge of the floor and then use a metal cutoff circular blade on a 3/8" VS drill parallel to the hull plane so you don't CUT THRU THR HULL. I have pics. if you want to see."
 
Thanks for all the suggestions

Thanks for all the suggestions! It does sound like replacing the whole floor will be a lot of work.

Troy - aren't all boats "holes in the water that you throw money into"? Honstly I haven't spent very much on it this year since I've been doing my own work (with the help of my dad and my sister's mechanic boyfriend). The parts I've purchased have all been relatively inexpensive.

I'm probably NOT going to do the floor this year but maybe in the offseason I'll see about patching it.
 
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