carpet

[Merrittboy]

My boat is more osf a runabout, but I am going to use it for ocean fishing. Right now I have carpet on the floor, should I take it out and spray on a coat, or?? Ideas? I am sure this has been discussed before somewhere on this site, but I am too lazy to look for it. [?]

 

[Last Chance]

I have Duradeck (Vinyl Decking) on the floor of my boat, I would say it has held up "OK", but I'm going with proper gellcoat after this season. Someone here said that they used Rhinoliner, that stuff is tough and should keep people from slipping.

 

[wolf]

I put gel coat on as well this year my buddy did it LC with a roller low nap and waited till it was almost cured and then you do a process called back rolling and what it does is brings up little spikes as it was explained to me and it sure does make it non skid even with hali slime on it i am really happy so far with it so what if i have to do it every couple of years its cheap and easy to do.

Good luck Wolf

 

[SIR]

I went back and forth on how to do our decks. We ended up going with interlocking rubber mats that we bought at home depot (think I saw them at an Irly building center as well) They are 3'x3' and around $25 each. They are around 1'2" thick, with 1" diameter holes all over them, and raised tabs on the edges that interlock them. I liked this idea as I was nervous about how I was going to "strip" the rhino off if it did not bond well or wear well.

I've been really happy with the mats as they are very non-slip and we can just lift them out when we want to do a "deep" clean as opposed to just a hose down. As they are rubber we just used scissors to cut them to match the hull profile and to notch around seat posts etc.

A bit more of an idustrial look but they actually look really good in a welded aluminum....

 

[danthewire]

I did the floor in my boat exactly the way wolf said.It works great,I have a black rubber mat that i put on top and it doesnt move a bit.DAN

 

[salmon9]

I did the same as Wolf as well but added grit to the gel coat before rolling it on. You can buy it at a marine store, either crushed walnut shell or a fine grit from 3M. I now have different boat with the interlocking mat which is a great non-skid service but a bit of work to lift up and clean under.

 

[tortuga]

I still swear by Rhino Liner, mainly because it will not crack.

 

[wolf]

Either will gel coat if it does you have some serious structure problems!!!!!



Wolf

 

[scott craven]

quote:Originally posted by salmon9
I now have different boat with the interlocking mat which is a great non-skid service but a bit of work to lift up and clean under.

Thats what bugs me about the stuff, i haul crab traps every trip
and they bring up so much $hit with them....
thinking of gunning it and getting some flat solid rubber mat
that you can just shake off.

 

[Merrittboy]

So what I hear you guys saying is take the carpet out, put on some form of coat and then rubber mats?

 

[wolf]

The gel coat way works well with crab and halibut slime (so far)and have been told the commercial boys do the same way for there decks but need to re do it every 2 or 3 years but then i have a wash down pump which i spray all the stuff down into the bilge which gets sucked out with my bilge pump, the problem with mats is the can get rather fowl smelling after a bit same as carpet.

Wolf

 

[SIR]

I've had my mats in for two years and have not noticed any odor yet but I do take them out of the boat a couple times a year and power wash them....

I do however agree that the mats take a little longer to clean after a trip but we have a self bailing deck so if I really get a bunch of crap in them I just flip the edges of the mat to the side and spray the deck directly.

Can you gelcoat to plywood directly??? A lot of the runabouts I've seen around here have bare marine ply under the carpet and they don't bother with sealers they just replace the ply after enough years that it rots out. Or does the boat have a factory tin/figerglass floor under the carpet?

 

[wolf]

Mine did have carpet but i ripped it out and the plywood had fiberglass on it i did a light grind and then preped it and just put the gel coat on looks great Ill take a pic for you today as I need to take others for 5 salt as well.

Wolf

 

[Last Chance]

You really want some glass under the gelcoat, that will keep the wood dry as the gelcoat is much more brittle then any glass matt, it has no reinforcing fibers.

 

[wolf]

I did take a pic of my deck but it really doesnt do much as a photo Sorry here you go anyways