decking

[ray21]

while on the subject (from my previous post)...<br />in order to deal with the rotten decking, i'm assuming that i will have to replace more than just what is obvious, which is a very soft spot in front of the driver's seat. would there be any problem with replacing the entire floor, which runs from the walk-through step-up back to the seats in front of the back deck, with sheet aluminum? if the stringers are solid and i have to pull up most of the decking anyhow, why don't people replace rotten wood with aluminum? i'm only talking about 8 x 7 feet of say 1/2" aluminum??? any comments?

 

[Hawkeye1]

Re: decking

1/2 aluminum is heavy stuff. I had a roughly 3 sq' of 1/2" plate made for my bracket and bety it weighed 20 lbs. Floor rot for many reasons, 1 mfg did a lousy job sealing it up or 2 people screwing seats and hatcjes down did not seal it up right. Now days with epoxy you cna totaly waterproof wood and make it last many lifetimes. No real reason to do away with it. On the aluminum thing you could use a much lighter stuff like 3/16 but fasten it down would be a chore. ALl those screw hole going into the strings would increase the change of stringer problems and talk about hot.