Replacing Boat Floor

[Trimack]

I am replacing the floor in my 16' 1987 Sylvan Pro-Fisherman boat. It was left out a few winters and rains. Itseems to me that it is simply chip board. How have others replaced flooring. It was so rotten that I will be unable to use old flooring to mark rivet spots. I am asking for any advice. Thank You

[marine_man]

Welcome to Hot Spot Outdoors!

If you want it to last, you'll want to use marine grade plywood, available by special order from Menards.

Do a search in this forum for this topic.. it's come up several times.

Good Luck!

marine_man

[pinkfloyd4ever]

Yes Menard's is the place. Take your time and do it right to, my friend and I did it over a series of 4 afternoons. We did it in sections to make it more manageable, measure 3 times and cut once

[trolloni]

We did a couple, one i used marine plywood, one thing i did was use sealer on it just for piece of mind, used a roller ,and where i made cuts i used sealer on the edges ,i just used concrete sealer cause i had some left over in the shop, but im sure thompsons will work just fine,to anchor it down i used stainless self tapping screws i got from fastenal.The other one i did i have a friend who builds commercial fishing boats and has 8x 20 ft sheets of aluminum 1\8 thick i bought some from him and cut it to fit ,cut circles with a bimetal blade in a jig saw ,the straight cuts i used a skillsaw, the trick is to use a millwalke ripping blade, spray pledge furnature polish on it it to keep it kool then to fasten it i used those screws again ,for the covering i used that rubber coating from cabelas looks good cleans easy and will never rot no spongee spots either but the stringers in my lund are 1 ft on center i dont know what youre are in the sylvan but if they are to far apart you can always add some.

[witgey&water]

Here are couple of pictures from my renvation a year ago. One thing you may want to think about is the floation foam. My foam was so far gone it would never dry out. I had to replace it and that was a pain. Marine plywood is the way to go. I covered mine with spar varnish after each piece was cut to size. Good luck

[ClownColor]

When my old boat was rotting away, I called a few shops and they all told me to go with pressure treated painted. They claimed it was way to expensive for marine grade wood. Said to be carefull though as the pressure treated wood can react to aluminum so they suggested painting it first. I also rolled the carpet under the wood to seperate the wood/aluminum as well. It is much heavier though but turned out great. Used it for 5 years before selling and had no signs of warpping.

If I had the money I'd would have gone with marine grade at the time but since the shops told me otherwise, I took their advise...right or wrong.

[jjz]

I worked at Menards (briefly thank god) and the differance of marine grade plywood vs ACX,BCX,CDX is that it is void free and very unlikely to crack or warp vs the others. However it has the same exterior glue and cannot handle being saturated in water. Hence it should be sealed for longest life. A good spar varnish should do the trick, make sure to coat drilled holes too. Could use the cheaper plywood only risk is it cracking or warping could break the seal thereby allowing water in a rotting will take place. Green treat is corrosive to aluminium and most fasteners, eventually. Just depends on how long you want it to last, most cheaper plywoods and greentreat should go 5 to 10 years without much trouble, marine grade is best but was about 100$ a sheet 6 years ago vs 15 to 30 for the others. By the way my 2002 crestliner was built with from what I could tell was CDX unsealed plywood and lasted about 8 years before I had to restore it. That really [PoorWordUsage] me off and was a giant pain in the [PoorWordUsage].

[Trimack]

Thanks for all the input, I will try and post pictures soon. Floor is out, I'm just pricing plywood. I believe I can use cheap stuff since I have a bunch of epoxy that I plan to thin out and soak in the wood.

[Rivernut]

W&W, that's beautiful work there. Nice job.

[MinnesotaMike]

Get your marine grade plywood at Siweks in Jordan. They are way cheaper than the M store.

I replaced mine a few years ago and it is solid.

Good Luck,

Mike

[BoxMN]

I have done a pontoon and a couple boats. I will only use marine if I ever did it again, it was just so much nicer finish and easy to work with, and looked great afterward, no warpage and so smooooth.

Another thing to consider, regardless of what plywood to use, is putting down vinyl instead of carpet. I personally like it better, but also it will keep any moisture from reall ever even hitting the plywood, even if you leave it outside lke my old pontoon. The rain/moisture will just run off the vinyl to the edges, where it drops down. No moisture for mold/moss and no plywood sitting under saturated carpeting until it dries out. You can always make snap in carpet or cut some carpet for "plush trips". Vinyl has just made my life so much easier, something to consider. Good luck! Take pics!

[EBass]

I used MDO Plywood on my 14' jon boat. Guy at the lumber yard told me to use that, so I did and it turned out great! I believe I bought it at Siwek's but this was in MPLS right on the river in NE. Go to a lumber yard and not home depot/menards.

[Gus]

What kind of foam have you guys used to replace flotation foam when needed? Mine needs to come up and from the small section I've looked at the foam is so water logged it's not going to dry out.

[witgey&water]

When I replaced mine I used Owens Corning Foamular extruded polystyrene (XPS) rigid foam. The only problem I had was how to cut it. I need to go from nothing to 4 inches thick on a hypotenuse of 22.5 inches. So I bought 2 inch thick foam and cut and glued it together to make a 4 inch by 22 9/64 inch rectangle and then I made a box out of plywood and strung a stainless steel wire on a diagonal in the box. Then I used my tig welder to heat the wire up and feeded the foam through the plywood box. I wish I had a picture but I don't so here is a draw of what I am talking about. Hope it helps

[witgey&water]

W&W, that's beautiful work there. Nice job.

Thank you. It was a alot of work but I love it now

[randerson]

I to would contact a lumber yard they have other products that work good for boat floors just remember to measure 2 or 3 times and cut once the product cost more so it will be well worth it make a diagram with your floor ribs so you know where to attach flooring. good luck and take your time

[MJBaldwin]

witgey&water,

What kind of boat is that you have? I am looking for something like that for my first boat to own. Not too fussy just really want something that is a little bigger than the 14' Jon boats

[witgey&water]

I believe its a 1986 Sylvan Supersport

[mnguy152]

OK now lets hear were to get the other supplies such as glue and carpet. I got replacement boats seats at the c store for 20 each on sale.

[MinnesotaMike]

The glue and carpet can be bought online at the H depot. Marine grade and half the cost of going to somebody like Hallberg Marine.

Good Luck,

Mike

[duck2]

BoxMN... Can you tell me exactly what product you mean by "vinyl."

[TroutYammer]

Nothing against any of the posters here...but it MAKES ME CRAZY to know that here in 2012 we are still talking about replacing wooden boat floors with WOOD! Aren't there any new, high tech products a guy can use to re-deck a boat besides wood?

[amateurfishing]

OK now lets hear were to get the other supplies such as glue and carpet. I got replacement boats seats at the c store for 20 each on sale.

can u post a pic of your seats, been looking for some decent reasonably priced seats for 2 years

[EBass]

Quote:

Nothing against any of the posters here...but it MAKES ME CRAZY to know that here in 2012 we are still talking about replacing wooden boat floors with WOOD! Aren't there any new, high tech products a guy can use to re-deck a boat besides wood?

It's easy to work with. I suppose I could've gone aluminum, but I don't have any tools to bend sheet metal or an aluminum welder. Are you talking about a plastic floor? That would be cool, but I don't know how much or evern where to purchase. Plus what's the strength to weight ratio? But yeah that would be cool to never rot.

Siwek lumber is still in NE MPLS. Just checked their site.

Boat seats I went to the big C. (I spent $100 for each seat) I wanted something comfy if I'm going to be sitting in it for hours. They have a bunch to sit down on and try out.

Boat carpet I got at the big C as well.

I used 3M 90 spray adhesive on the carpet. That's pretty good glue.

That's my

[mnguy152]

The seats I got r posted in w&w post except mine are the red with gray. Like I said they were on sale when I got them for 20. I picked up another set for 40 bucks on sale. I did notice that they discontinue that look and went to a diffent pattern. Might be able to get a pair cheap in the cave. Other than that they are good seats for the money. And if you are on the right spot you not sitting too much any ways lol.