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How hard is it to put a new floor in a boat. What I've got is a 16 or 17 foot Starcraft, it sunk once and the floor is all rotted out. What kind of wood should i use or if i should use would?
Hello,I have put a floor in a couple of aluminum boats and am now doing a 21' larson fiberglass boat.If you can save the old wood as a pattern.If not you will be doing ALOT of measuring(and measure 3 times to be sure)Sounds like you must be doing a fiberglass boat.What I am using for the floor is 5/8" treated plywood for the floor.Cut out old flooring and as carfully as you can use a disc grinder with a cement or steel grinding wheel to cut and smooth out the edges.Get all of the rotted wood out.Dry the hell out of the boat(couple of days).Make sure your stringers are intact or else replace them also and glass them.Lay down your new floor and buy 5 gallons of fiberglass resin($100) and matting.You can buy these at an art supply store or marine store.You will need ALOT of matting .Cut matting in about 7" to 8" wide strips to do the edges and seams.Don't mix up to much resin as it will set VERY QUICKLY(10 minutes)and do this in small sections.You can dip the matting in the resin or goop it on the plywwod and brush it out QUICKLY lay matting on the resin you just put down an goop and brush some more on top.Then after that dries(2hours)start cutting some matting up in about 2 foot squares for the floor itself and do the same thing overlapping a couple of inches as you go.The matting is what is going to give you your strength.don't just put the resin on the plywwod alone as it will crack eventually.If you are meticulous you can sand the floor after you are done to get it smooth or just buy your new carpet and glue it down.Trust me this is no easy job as I am 1 week into this and and still haven't had my floor laid yet.I suppose the beer breaks aren't helping things either.if ya have any probs give me an e-mail and I might have some more tips as I goo along. Dave oatsman@mn.rr.com
I laid 1/2 plywood down over the old wood in a bayliner once before. I just got all of the loose wood up kilzed 3 times let it dry for 4 days with a dehumidifier in the garage. Glued the pressure treated ply wood down with heavy duty liquid nails and weighted it with blocks. Worked out fine. still holding strong. This is not the "right" way to do it of course but its a quick fix.
One of the reasons to replace the floor is to remove all of the waterlogged wood and foam. When the whole floor is soaked it can add a few hundred pounds of weight to the boat. Laying new wood over the old stuff kinda defeats the purpose. I'm in the process of replacing the floor on my 14ft starcraft. Its aluminum though so it will be very simple.
