Foor: cracked fiberglass

[vampirefish]

Ok, so I have to repair a damaged part of my floor (due to the fiberglass on cracking on top and water seeping onto the wood). Further investigation, by pulling the carpet back, I noticed that there are other cracks on the floor (fiberglass)... in a much larger area. I would think that the best way to deal with this (providing no other wood is damaged) would be to pull up all carpet and recoat with fiberglass resin...... or is this not? At this point, I'm not ready to pull it all back... but would like to begin at least filling in the cracks where I'm at (highest traffic area)... would this work or are there other suggestions out there? thanks

 

[Robj]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

I don't think coating it with resin would do anything for you. I think that the cracks occurred because the wood is rotten?? In that case, the only real fix is to repair the floor by replacing the rotten wood. Putting resin over rotten or wet wood won't work. Another option may be to lay new plywood on top of your rotten floor, it may get you a couple of years. But it will add weight and by no means is the correct way to do the repair, and why waste the $$$. That is how the previous owner tried to fix my boat, just pulled it all up. There is alot of info about floor repair on this site, just do a search.

Good luck and have a great day,

Rob.

 

[Plainsman]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

Pull it all the way back and fix it right, that is my suggestion. If the floor is rotted you need to find out where the water is getting in.

 

[plinko]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

Once you pull your carpet back chances are that you will be able to pull the glass right off the ply if it is wet or rotten. then u can dertermine how much of the ply has to be replaced. resin coating will do nothin, and for gods sake don`t lay new over old.

 

[anthony115merc]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

maybe it would be good to cut a hole in there and have a look at whats happening under the floor maybe it could be worse than you think

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

i've done the lay over for a season. it will get you thur a season, but you are only delaying the inevitable. no point in glassing it in. just screw it down, so it's easy to remove, paint it, plan on throwing it away, and start in the fall, and do it right. when not in use keep the boat stearn down so it will drain..

 

[vampirefish]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

Wow... thanks everyone... I now understand what everyone meant (in numerous posts I've read) that once they pulled up the carpet, started investigating, etc... it was usually worse than suspected. I didn't realize that when the fiberglass started cracking that this was an indication that the wood was getting wet/starting to rot. When I pulled up the carpet where the soft spot was, the glass came up with it, but in other areas it did not...however, as I mentioned....I can see cracks ...many, many, cracks throughout.

I know I could get a couple more seasons out of it, with my quick patch fix, but I want to fix it 'right'. Luckily I have a good friend that has built boats and he's offered to help me replace the floor.

I do have one question.... I'm thinking of NOT using carpet again, as in the Pacific Northwest, this is just asking for trouble. What would you guys suggest using so that there's some texture or tread to the floor? Ideally, I'd like to not have to lay anything on top of the glass, but if I do, I'd want to be able to remove it to fully dry out - and be able to see the condition of my floor. I've heard that there's texture paint....

I'm so bummed... just bought this boat last year... didn't feel anything (soft spots, etc) but the darn carpet - just no way to tell!

 

[Plainsman]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

I just this down and I love it!!

http://www.a1foamandfabrics.com/site/department.cfm?id=11BE5A56-98C1-443E-A01FB5A6B3A61E36

 

[anthony115merc]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

another really good alternative is some foam jigsaw stuff looks great and is nice and soft on your feet unsure of the name but i will look it up and post a link

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

grizzly grip, google it.

 

[plinko]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

You could gelcoat your floor, and then using thickened gelcoat roll it on and it will give a texture that will give grip to your floor. I like to gelcoat the whole floor , then tape off a 2 inch permiter all around the edges of the sides, consoles, whatever else is mounted on your floor and then apply the thickened gel. Does a nice job.

 

[vampirefish]

Re: Foor: cracked fiberglass

Hello all.. just wanted to send an update. Things were not as bad as they seemed.... what I mean by this is that after the replies on this forum, I had already made my mind up to replace the entire floor. So I took my boat to my buddy's house (who's built boats) to help me with the project. He started to inspect it - this was the first time he had seen it. I decided to pull up more carpet (at this point I had only pulled back enough to really make my repair) - couldn't hurt anything, especially if I was to replace the floor. Upon doing so, he pointed out that the cracks in the fiberglass were caused by the floor bowing. The fuel tank is in the center of the boat (toward the stern) and there is not much bracing (except for 2x the amt of plywood) over the tank. You can see as you walk on the floor that it bows down (expands/contracts). This is what was causing the cracks.

So I pulled the carpet back, even more, to the rear seats and inspected further (to make sure this was the case)... and then I began to sand it down (to remove carpet glue and yuk), and the wood was in great shape (you could see it under the fiberglass). The only area that the fiberglass pulled up with the carpet was the damaged area that I repaired (cut out/replaced/fiberglassed). So we cut out the carpet nicely and finished up the fiberglass on my repair.

Within about the next 2 weeks, I put down 3 coats of rubberized, Evercoat No-skid (great stuff). I'm hoping that this will help with bowing - not be as apt to crack. Hey, my wife even likes it! We took it out this weekend and one of my buddies hadn't even realized that the back end of the boat's floor was not carpeted (and he pays attention to detail).. so that made me feel good on the aesthetics of it.

I'll send pix in the next couple days. I need to put some type of (possibly) aluminum transition strip over the areas that the carpet and non-carpeted floor meet. ... still need to think on that and just shop around... any suggestions out there?

I think I may just pull up the rest of the carpet (maybe next year) as well and do the same thing. My wife really wants carpet and is against removing all of it... but I still don't understand why it's installed in these type of boats! Looks nice but just a recipe for more potential problems.