Re: 1996 glastron floor rotting
hi there great post and thinking of doing a very similar job my self soon to a 16ft fletcher with patches of rot.
I noticed you used solid wood for the stringers and box around your tank. i have a similar set up in my ski locker which is central and the tanks are small removable ones. Is it ok to use solid wood? most i have seen seen to use sheet ly cut to shape but i guess it its totally glassed in does this matter at all? what type of solid wood did you use?
Yea I used 2x8's from Lowes..not even sure if it was fir or pine. I coated them with Poly, and also wrapped them with CSM. You are right, many people use Ply for their stringers, and my boat had ply originally in the boat. I wanted to beef up the stringers a bit, so thats why I did what I did.
Also i like the idea of drain holes in each stringer etc to allow water into the bilge, anyone know if its common that boats are designed without this so it can just fill up with no drain? Can i have sealed foam filled compartments under the deck instead? i cant find any drainage in mine at all but i havn't removed the floor yet.
Yes its very common for boats to be built without limber holes into the bilge. If water gets under there somehow, it has no where to go, and if you live in a humid environment rot will set in quick with the greenhouse effect.
Its likely that your boat doesn't have any drainage..at least I'd be very surprised if you did. On top of the that, most compartments outside of the bilge have poured in foam, that when toppled with no drainage will eventually suck up that water and add weight to the boat and eventually rot everything.
As Bond-o says "Doesn't matter how well you seal up your deck, water will find a way under it. You need to have a way for all water to find its way out"
