Boat floor repair?

[Ode]

Any of you people out there know who does boat floor repair? I am located in west central Mn. My floor is getting spongey in the backend and have noticed some supports are loose. Any info would help. Oh, may need new carpet also.
Thanks, Ode

[Guest]

Unfortunately I do not have the time right now. Escentually the seats and carpeting will need to be removed. Now would also be the time to rebuild the seat bases because if the floor is rotten the seat bases could be too. It sounds like the stringers are bad which could really get involved. There are wood rot products out that you could pour over the wood and as it obsorbs into the wood it gets hard as steel. A lot of times you will find transoms that are re-inforced this way. Really good stuff! Since your stringers could be soft you probably couldn't get by and you will have to remove everything. Lots of work is all that to it....

[Ode]

Gibby,
Thank you for your reply. I see there is a place in Wisconsin that does this kind of work, but was hoping for someone closer. I guess the hunt is still on.
Ode

[Polar Bear]

Ode, I had the same problem in a 16 foot bass boat that I bought used 8 years ago. I stripped the old carpet and screwed down sheets of 5/8 inch treated plywood right over the top of the existing floor. This new floor was perfect for installing bases for the new pedestal seats too. Next came some new outdoor carpet and the floor looked and felt great...not spongy any more. Now its eight years later and still solid as a rock. The best thing about it is you can do the job yourself if you have a jig saw and screw gun for less than 200 bucks
Polar Bear

[Ode]

Hey Polar Bear,
Thanks for the info. I really appreciate the input. Sometimes I just need a positive reply to get me going on a project like that. I will look at doing it the same way you described. Was the old carpet hard to get up???
Ode

[Guest]

I have a 82 Crestliner, that had the same problem. Spent about 300 dollars, and approxamately 35 hours, and now the boat is nicer than it was brand new.
3/4" exterior grade plywood ( ithink it might be CDX) for the floor, 1/2" the same stuff but thinner for all the seating areas.
stainless steel screws, exterior waterprooof adhesive, indoor / outdoor deck carpet (mildew & rot resistant). Naughahide Vinyl.

Make sure you first remove all rotting wood. Any time you overlay new wood over the rotten stuff, you create a problem for the future. One your wood cannot dry properly and if your wood is rotting due to a fungus or bacteria you are putting your new wood at risk. And out of the 35 hours, only 2 or 3 were spent removing rotten stuff.

When you have the old stuff out also check the bottom of the boat to make sure that there isnt anything blocing the water from going from the front of the boat to the back. When they blew in the foam floating stuff, they blocked mine so when it rained hard my bilge pump would empty the back but the front would fill with water.

The cool thing is if your handy with tools and hinges, you can mod it your self rather cheaply. As mine now has a casting platform and my batteries are relocated to the front in a custom tray.

other than only being a 14 foot boat it is now set up the way I want it, not the way it was built.

[Polar Bear]

Ode, the carpet scraped off easily with a flexible putty knife. The beauty of the new treated floor is that you don't have to get off all the carpet paste and backing, just scrape up most of it and get the big chunks.
The new floor will cover up any small imperfections.

BBQ has a good point about stainless hardware...its expensive but will last forever. Also, I took the time to lay out all the pedestal locations prior to screwing down the treated plywood floor. Then I was able to hammer in those threaded nuts with the spurs attached to the underside of the new floor. This will allow you to bolt your pedestal bases down with the ability to remove them if you ever want to.

When buying carpet adhesive make sure you get the stuff approved for outdoor use. I was a carpet installer for about 12 years and I can tell you that a cheap outdoor turf product will last for many years in a boat if it was glued with a quality adhesive. Cheap glue will come loose the first time it gets saturated from rain. Any Menard's type store will sell you a notched paste trowel for a couple bucks.

The biggest headache with the whole project is carpeting the other small stuff. Side walls, live wells, consoles, battery boxes etc. If at all possible, try to just do the floor, its really time consuming to fit the little stuff and use contact cement on all the vertical surfaces.

Take your time, you'll be very happy with the result. Polar Bear

[Ode]

Thanks for all the replys,
Got the boat out of storage and went to work on it. Found out the floor was not rotted, but a cross brace came loose. Was able to get in there from the back and secure it. I was surprised to see there were no screws in the piece that had come undone. I wonder if the brace was glued and came loose? I know it won't come loose now. Thanks to all who helped me with this problem. You guys and gals on this site are very helpful.
Ode