Am I allowed to use this carpet?

[Joe_the_boatman]

Yeah yeah yeah - carpet traps water, stains easily, gets fish guts in it, etc.... BUT, does this apply to the plastic astroturf-type stuff too? I just don't see how it could hold much water, being plastic (I know it will a little though, but I plan on drying it out after each outing anyhow), and it seems like it'd clean easily.

I ask because I think I want to replace the vinyl in my boat. It's 29 years old, and while it's in good shape, it looks dated. If I'm putting 100+ hours into this thing, it better look like a million bucks. Plan now is to use it on the sides with a painted (with sand) deck, but it got me thinking about using carpet instead.

So.... anyone with experience using the plastic stuff? Only downside I see is I bet it'd get matted down after a while and costs a little more than paint. Other than that, why not use it?

Georgia red clay is at all our lakes down here - whatever I use on the deck it'd have to clean up easily.

 

[fixb52s]

Re: Am I allowed to use this carpet?

Bare feet + plastic carpet = OUCH! That would look like it would not be too comfortable when walking on it.

Don't feel bad. I am going the carpet route too (the money honey AKA wife said so). She said it would be better on the feet than say rino liner or vinyl. Since she is really giving me a free pass with everything else (including kicking her car out of the garage for 5 weeks so I could work on it) then I need to make her happy.

As to what type, I am going with the indoor/outdoor from Home Depot. It does not have the rubber backing on it.

As for the carpet debate, not every boat needs to be built like a tank. As long as it is properly cared for (ie: drying it out after use) then it should be just fine.​

 

[cbavier]

Re: Am I allowed to use this carpet?

Bare feet + plastic carpet = OUCH! That would look like it would not be too comfortable when walking on it.

As to what type, I am going with the indoor/outdoor from Home Depot. It does not have the rubber backing on it.

As for the carpet debate, not every boat needs to be built like a tank. As long as it is properly cared for (ie: drying it out after use) then it should be just fine.​

I too am going with the Dark Blue from Home depot. Start next week. Boat is still in Hibernation until Saturday. I sure wouldn't want that plastic.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Am I allowed to use this carpet?

Joey, The Astroturf-type carpet is fine for the boat and the feet. It is plenty soft.

Although the carpet itself doesn't hold much water, it traps a film of water between the carpet's rubber backing and the deck. Make sure your deck is well waterproofed, or it will help it to rot.

 

[ddrieck]

Re: Am I allowed to use this carpet?

Some thing else to think about with carpet:

I used the carpet mention above last season on my boat and had this happen.

If you are using the portable fuel tanks with the screw type vents on the fill cap be sure to not over fill the tank. If overfilled; fuel will come out in small amounts, run down the side of the tank, get into the carpet, and melt the glue you used to attached the carpet to the deck. It must also react with the carpet as well because I never did get it to glue back down.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Am I allowed to use this carpet?

Drideck, I have had much spilled gas-oil on my astroturft-type carpet and never had that issue. My built in tank sprung a leak and I spilled 6 gal of premix in my 16' speedboat. The carpet was blue from the oil, but cleaned up nicely and easily and stayed glued down....

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Am I allowed to use this carpet?

Carpet on the SIDES as you are asking about would be good.
It will add some sound deadening from the water outside and stuff rattling around on the inside. I would not worry about matting since your not gonna be walking on it.
And since it is pretty much on vertical surfaces, it will drain and dry quickly.

I might not even bother removing the old vinyl and just put the carpet over the vinyl.

What is shown in the third pic? Looks like the business end of a tractor mounted sweeper.

 

[Joe_the_boatman]

Re: Am I allowed to use this carpet?

What is shown in the third pic? Looks like the business end of a tractor mounted sweeper.

Yeah, it kinda does. It's the astroturf-type stuff on the bunks of my trailer, which gave me the idea of using it inside.