1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

[TnDeepVee]

I found a comment on "the Flooring Ladys" website about padding beneath a Nautolex boat deck. So we picked up some rolls of 60" wide closed cell foam. They called it "Landau" which is the type of auto roof with the vinyl over the padding, like an old school car or stretch limo. Think it's made by "Volara" Co.
Our new boat is a 17.5' Fisher allum deep V with allum decking. I got the front and mini rear deck off and all it's parts with the Nauty cut and ready for hatches n deck with or without the padding. This foam does not allow water to penetrate, pressure resilient, and mold resistant. I figured it would make the new deck soft on the feet and keep the heat away from the thin vinyl to vinyl, it's "storm grey"; also the cockpit deck as round head screws everywhere which stinks for just vinyl imo and no carpet is allowed for matting above vinyl. The cons I can find are twice the glue n j-rolling, also have to scruff the smooth side of foam for adhesive to stick. Searched and can't find anybody else who has done or talked about this. The boat stays in a garage 90% of it's life with us or tarped on rare occasion. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

 

[TnDeepVee]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

believe it's "Polyethylene" below are some pics of the cockpit floor with those rounded screw heads everywhere. As little use as this boat gets used I'm confident in the stability of this foam holding up, fingers crossed. If something goes wrong with, seems the vinyl will be safer if removed from underlayment than peeled/pryed off alluminum. may change my mind in ten minutes but it's about glue time for this boat, so I'll post the "padded Nautilex deck-tech" if boom or bust!

 

[fishrdan]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

Have you started using the foam yet? Check to see if it will retain it's shape and pop back up to it's original height. I used some foam that looked similar to that stuff and it would take a set after being compressed for a while, mine was 1/2" thick though. Take one of those clamps and clamp something down to the foam for a couple hours, maybe a day, to see if it will pop back and not take a set. Better to find out it's going to work or not before sticking it down everywhere.

What is that foam called and where did you get it, upholstery shop? I need a bit of that to seal up my live well lid.

 

[TnDeepVee]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

Thanks for the reply FishrDan, I had to take a break from this project for a few days, think the glue has about burned me out. They all stink! The foam is from a local foam n fabric outlet that happened to have it from a closeout somewhere. My previous post has details about it. It will retain it's shape like when I stand on a finished hatch cover but stupidly I left a clamp on the top left corner of the front deck for 24 hrs or more which has left an indention. Small areas of surface pressure like a clamp or vice-grip will leave an indention so no high heels on the deck floor either. Other than that it should be ok, reckon i will find out. For some reason I had issues with not wanting to use an adhesive that had to be troweled on ie: outdoor carpet glue. At first I used Weldwood Non-Flammable contact adhesive "green can" but that did not seem to be tacky enough so I used some spray adhesive along with that. I have since used an outdoor carpet adhesive for a few hatch covers and the foam on front gunnel sides which seems to work good and more coverage for your money except for folding and holding the vinyl around the edges in which case I used "Welder" waterproof n clear super bond type glue, 2 tubes for $3.50 at lowes. Now, if I had access to an air compressor I would have tried the upholsterer spray glue technique but not an option unfortunately cause that carpet glue really stinks. Also, you really have to j-roll the materials to not get air pockets. My mother helped me some and tryed to glue the foam and vinyl at the same time on a hatch which seemed like it worked ok but the vinyl layer did not get rolled enough and has a palm sized air pocket near the front lip so think it can be fixed in some manner. Also, the foam was not wrapped around the edges of anything due to the edges being such a pain to glue being all alluminum surfaces so no stapling but I thought about drilling some very small holes and using rivets spaced out to hold the vinyl down when doing the final wrap n glue.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

ARRRRGH!

I just posted a nice long reply and the forum kicked me back out and lost the post, working on someone esles computer

If you have any questions PM me, or run a search for vinyl or Nautolex limited to my username as I have posted my experiences working with vinyl a few times.

1 tip, for the aluminum edges get a bunch of 1" spring clamps and wood strips so you can hold the viny down until the glue sets up. I had some clamps from Harbor Freight and also bought a box of document clips (like spring clamps, black metal and chrome finger grip wire) from the office supply store. I wouldn't clamp on top the foam like this as it would dent it as you saw. Also, heavily brush the lipped edges of the vinyl/aluminum and vinyl with contact cement so they have a very stroing bond, the vinyl can (will) pop free if it's not bonded down well at the edges.

Good luck,
Dan

 

[Lightnig]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

blargh!!

Can someone please reformat their post so I can actually read this thread?

Too much side scrolling for this simple man.

 

[lowkee]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

Hehe, I love a widescreen laptop, I had to go back and figure out what might have required a side scroll Time to upgrade that Tandy 1000

DeepVee, let us know how the underfoam worked out. I fear that would be horrible in a glass boat, though, as it would hold moisture under it. I'm still nto sure what to do about my deck.

 

[TnDeepVee]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

I am getting very close to finishing the interior restoration of this boat, wow, I really underestimated how much work this was gonna be, screwing, marking, clamping,j-rolling=sore shoulders!,carpet/contact glue=the horror!the mess!, hole punchin then re-assemblin"labor of love" i reckon. I would like to maybe have this project moved to the "Finished Project" or whatever this "padded floor" goes to. I've tried the "DURAFIX", every kind of glue imagineable and disected this 17.5' Deep-V; so my final review of stuff and techniques should be at least a repeat of others but have all this in one lil project. Also, this boat did not have great storage for rods, etc. so some changes are being made there as well. Here are some pics of the new carpeted-front gunnel sides. The outdoor carpet came from Homedeepot but it did not have that nice rubber backing like some bought years ago but as I have been told, "outdoor carpet glue is what makes the carpet water-proof/resistant. It's a dark grey so it will hide worm dirt, etc. Gonna have to use it on interior of console braces and cockpit gunnel sides. I have come this far and the old carpet gives me the creeps so it' gonna all be completely gone/replaced soon! Here are some pics of the new carpet and what the ckpit deck looks like during restoration, I should have just used the six bolts for each of four pedastel bases + glue/foam to hold new floor in but I re-installed all those stupid metal screws on the deck to keep floor from moving; factory mess-up created an uneven sub-deck. I saw one post here about coating/sealing the shaved/exposed areas of the factory pour-in foam, so I used a mix of dry-lok masonry w reg dry-lok so I could sleep better at night, lol. One of the pedastel bases had a nasty water puddle inside it so that foam did hold the water to not allow penetration to the rest of it. Also used dry-lok masonry on some small wood pieces elsewhere and it did a fine job

 

[TnDeepVee]

1/4"foam underlayment w Nautlx Vinyl Deck

1/4"foam underlayment w Nautlx Vinyl Deck

Finally got the boat put back together mostly with 90% of the old tan carpet removed/replaced w storm grey vinyl or outdoor chrcoal carpet. Decks are alluminum. We're gonna take her out for a ride this AM! Still have new rod holdrs to install + stuff to finish. I finally found my favorite adhesive......weldwood contact cement-GEL FORMULA!!! did have one great can of spray adhesive "Shelby 1029somethin"-web like spray pattrn. Here are the pics..enjoy; worked my tail off for this one.

 

[TnDeepVee]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

Lots of finishing touches to make. Those lil air pockets seem impossible to avoid so i'll have to do some surgery with a needle glu n roller?

 

[TnDeepVee]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

 

[Lightnig]

Re: 1/4" closed cell foam underlayment below Nautolex?

Hehe, I love a widescreen laptop, I had to go back and figure out what might have required a side scroll Time to upgrade that Tandy 1000

DeepVee, let us know how the underfoam worked out. I fear that would be horrible in a glass boat, though, as it would hold moisture under it. I'm still nto sure what to do about my deck.

I too have wide screen laptop, 1920x1200.

What requires the side scrolling is 5 images each ~530 pixels wide, side by side without line breaks, the forum displays as 1 set of images over 2600 pixels wide, plus what even overhead the forum puts on the margins. I'd like to see what screen you have that will display almost 3000 pixels wide without having to scroll.

if a space was put between each image the forum would put in line breaks where appropriate.