Cabin Flooring?

[surfingminniwinni]

When we purchased our 36 ft cruising yacht, it had carpet layed over a marine ply floor. Because of the smell, we ripped out the carpet. What do you suggest to cover the cabin floor, I would like to do a teak(expensive need to get a tradesman to do it) other thoughts have been vinyl planks, or Seacork Revetement de pont bateaux teck revetement de sol deck flooring boat liege equipements marine Seacork Someone mentioned to me that you can get good carpet that won't smell and easy to clean and waterproof.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Pblais]

When we purchased our 36 ft cruising yacht, it had carpet layed over a marine ply floor. Because of the smell, we ripped out the carpet.

At least you started with the right idea. Carpet on a boat goes bad easily. There is not such thing as good carpet that is easy to clean. You really want a hard surface that you can clean. Carpet of all types will absorb moisture and grow all kinds of things.

You can use a lot of different products and while teak is traditional these days it is just veneer over marine grade plywood with a few coats of hard varnish. You need to see what is under the old stinky carpet first and then decide if the base is worth saving or if it too needs to follow the carpet to some other final resting place.

Anyone that would lay carpet can't be trusted to have done much of anything right.

Pretend you just dumped 25 gallons of sea water on the sole of the saloon. What would happen if it were carpet of any type?

[Col Boardman]

Hi Glen, I have used industrial lino with great success. It moulds well to curves and it's not very slippery when wet. I have recently seen a laminex product that looks like teak floorboards. I am not sure if it can be curved to fit it tight places but it sure looks the goods. I noticed you are close by me in Ulladulla. A friend is sailing his 60 ft cat into Ulladulla in the next week or so on his way south to Narooma. He has just put this product throughtout his boat. I am sure he won't mind you having a look at it. Col B

[surfingminniwinni]

Thanks Col,

Just sent you a private message.

[Latitude9.5]

I have some samples of something called Lonseal and it will prolly be what I redo the vinyl areas with next time, worth looking into.

[Roy M]

I think Paul Blais really hit on the solution, though indirectly. Assume the water is on the cabin sole, not an unusual condition when one comes below from a particularly nasty watch, or if the pot of pasta took wing and crashed. On my boat, I built the floorboards of epoxied ply, then painted them with LPU paint, then applied a sand nonskid, just like my decks. Now I had a secure and weatherproof deck. When in port, on a cold night, I step out of my bunk and my feet touch a nice warm carpet strip that runs the length of the cabin. When I go to sea, it gets rolled up and stowed. The only change I'm now making is to replace the floorboards with aluminum box tubing stringers, 1" X 2", with lightening holes drilled every three inches, and covered with a fiberglassed 1/2" structural polyurethane foam. It reduces my boats weight by about three hundred pounds and they will be a breeze to remove to get into the bilge storage.

[delmarrey]

Some other links too.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...rial-7289.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...sole-1512.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...used-4494.html

[eyschulman]

cork either natural or varnished- easy to install- easy on feet- stands up to marine environment -looks good

[MidLandOne]

Synthetic short tuft marine carpets are no problem in a sail boat as long as it is not wet like a swimming pool inside and other carpet is fine as long as one has a reasonably dry boat. Carpet is especially nice if you spend long periods aboard and I would always carpet my own boat for that reason. And if laid so it won't slide it is also a very good non slip surface.

Our own is loose laid on painted sole with antiskid in the paint and that works fine for all sea conditions without sliding. We have used the rubber flooring with roundels in the top surface (Armstrong, whose products I have used in commercial vessels, are just one of a number of USA manufacturers of that - EDIT Whoops, see you are in Australia, I think Kinetic Flooring is a maker of it there) in wet areas such as doorways, etc on commercial vessels which have carpet (including natural fibres) elsewhere but glued down not loose laid, and we put that in our own galley and under the companionway with enough area there for also removing wet gear. It provides very good non skid as well as water resistance.

In the end it gets down to how wet or damp your boat is. Not only when at sea but also if the boat is shut up for long periods without airing, anything in way of carpet, uphostery, etc will start smelling if the boat is damp - our own boat is normally occupied and opened up at least 2 days per week. Whatever carpet one might use a vacuum cleaner of domestic power (so at least 1kW motor, ac) is required to maintain it.

Currently we still have the original short tuft synthetic marine stuff in ours (only 40 foot sail boat, however we have a sheltered companionway) but our own experience is that when replacement time comes a normal domestic synthetic or even maybe a synthetic/wool mix is fine for us and that is what we will go for.

[gmalan]

I also wanted a teak "deck" finish for the cabin sole on S.V. Sunny Spells to replace a disgusting carpet. I found a veneered plywood from Caporn Yachts in Brookvale, Australia (they specialise in selling marine timbers, including plywoods). The veneer is teak with ash strips in a teak deck pattern.

When sealed with a good quality timber floor sealer (poly-urethane) it looks great (see attached photo), is durable and, best of all, you can do it yourself!

[Morgan Paul]

Right after I bought my boat I removed all the waterlogged teak and holly laminated plywood and replaced it with Trex plastic decking. It is waterproof and nonslip. Each board is 1 inch thick and about 5.5 inches wide. My bilge is only about 2 - 5 inches deep and has water in it most of the time so I needed something that was waterproof and never needs to be painted. I can put down small area rugs to dress her up.

Trex link: Trex: How Outdoor Living Should Feel

[Bradley]

When I bought my boat, it had carpet in it. I hated it. Planned on installing teak someday (even though concerned about the weight). While waiting, we painted the sole with awlgrip (a faux finish) with anti-skid. Put a few coats on clear awlgrip on top. That was in 2004. I love it. Never has the thought of teak entered my mind again. It still looks brand new. I just use a few bamboo throw mats.

To do a faux finish, it would be best to be near a real awlgrip or imron dealer. Somebody that will let you buy small amounts of specialized colors like yellow.

[jaga]

Ditto on the cork tile. While I have traditional teak covered with a non-skid varnish, friends who are full time liveaboards and just finished circumnavigating the Pacific, put cork tiles in their boat several years ago and it looks great. Certainly much easier to install than many other options, durable, easy to care for, and looks good. They're very happy with it

[gosstyla]

I objected to having carpet in my 47ft cat so builder recommended Nautolex (OMNOVA Solutions). I love it and definitely will consider using it in my next cat.

[eyschulman]

Cork-cork- cork and cork