first time boat floor restoration please help

[dingodan]

I've never done this before and have so many questions but no one i talk to seems to know what they are talking about so I'm hoping i can get some straight answers here. I have a 17 foot fiberglass boat with a wooden floor and i recently noticed some rot. Kept chasing the rot to find one 5 foot section of the left stringer (made from 3/4 inch plywood) needed replacement and some small random spots on the right stringer had rot too. So i cut out the rotted area of the left stringer on 45 degree angles and my plan is to form and pour a flat surface on the bottom of goop marine epoxy paste so i can fit the new wood in snug. the new wood will be sealed with system three 2 part epoxy resin (cold cure because it is ranging from 3 to 10 degrees outside where my boat is (undercover) right now). i will also use that to glue it in place using pieces of plywood and screws to hold it in places. gaps will be filled with more epoxy resin. once cured the braces will be removed and screw holes filled with more epoxy resin. it will then get covered in fiberglass...My main concern right now is that there are some small areas (mostly on the right stringer) of rotten wood which i want to fix with git-rot the fill in the voids with more goop marine epoxy paste. does git rot really work?? if some spots of rotten wood are not properly fixed or missed or the git rot didn't penetrate deep enough how long do i have before it spreads and i end up having to do this again costing me lots of money in the long run? ideally i would just replace the whole floor but that is a lot of work for me as i have no experience with this and is more expensive but if i will have to rip open the floor again in a couple years thats all this work and money down the drain. please give me some answers and advise on how this is properly done. again i have no idea what i am doing so details are necessary.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

Welcome to iBoats!
You can "Sister" in splices to your stringers. It is an acceptable practice when repairing stringers. However, I would strongly advise you to be absolutely sure you have removed all of the rotted areas or they will continue to rot. I am not a fan of Git Rot and would rather see you cut out all of the rotted areas regardless of how small they are and replaced it with good stable wood. While you're at it you should also be core sampling your transom to ensure that it is not compromised.

Here's some pics on how to fabricate all of your components.

Click the pics to enlarge.

 

[Hydra-sport_Road-kill]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

I've never done this before and have so many questions but no one i talk to seems to know what they are talking about so I'm hoping i can get some straight answers here.
[snip]
ideally i would just replace the whole floor but that is a lot of work for me as i have no experience with this and is more expensive but if i will have to rip open the floor again in a couple years thats all this work and money down the drain. please give me some answers and advise on how this is properly done. again i have no idea what i am doing so details are necessary.

You have come to the right place to get lots of truly expert help. You will get straight answers but sometimes there will be more than one and they may not agree. There are several ways to achieve the same end is all I'm saying.

Your post is 40 minutes old and you have not been asked for pics yet . . . maybe because it's late. You will get more valuable feedback if you include pics. The best descriptions in the world, only come close to doing what a couple average pics do to describe a boat's condition or situation. Lots of pics are lots better, even from a less than stellar camera-phone.

My suggestion is to be clear about your expectations. Folks here will tell you exactly how to do something if you tell them what you're willing to do or spend to get it done. Don't be afraid to ask what you want to or need to know. Some projects can get pricey even if you do all the work yourself. If you decide you just want to band-aide it for the meantime make that clear after you find out what you're getting into. There are lots of consideration about costs, technical abilities, work space, time and tools for just the short list. What you're plans for keeping or resale on the boat might be is another.

Anyway, you'll get lots of help here and welcome to iBoats.

 

[oops!]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

hi welcome to iboats....

you have a little more reading to do here....

what you are going to do is not hard but it must be done correctly....if the rot in your stringers is not cut out....your time line is a year before they are mush.
get rot or anti freeze might slow down or stop the process......but the stringers are all ready compromised !

after you get the stringers done....

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=522237&highlight=fiberglass+deck+foam

if you need ......click the link in my sig .....the first 16 pages are all you need.....very detailed.

post pics, and we can help

cheers
oops

 

[dingodan]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

 

[dingodan]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

 

[dingodan]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

you can see it looks like theres some bracing for extra support underneath the seats the same was on the other side which i removed. also on the left side part of the floor board rot went all the way to the hull where you can see a fiberglass overhang

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

If it is your intent to keep this boat for several years, then I would recommend removing the sole/deck/floor in it's entirety remove and replace the stringers and do a thorough inspection of the transom as well. It appears to me that you have extensive rot and water damage to the wooden structures of the boat and they will only continue to worsen. If you only want a few more years out of her and then put her on the waste pile then fix what you see and bundle her back up.

 

[oops!]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

one of 2 post 6 does not look factory.

 

[oops!]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

woody is correct.......i would really cut the rot out and replace it.....it would always be on my mind what is lurking under the deck !

a cheap way would be to rip up what is there. just cut the rot out, and sister the stringer with another piece of ply......than glass that in.

you actually dont look too bad....you caught it in time.....oh....by the way, its nice and clean under there.....did you dig the foam out your self?

 

[dingodan]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

the transom is aluminum no wood in it so I'm not worried about that. re-fabricating the shape of the floor board for the bow and stern looks a little out of my league so i suppose i will just extend my project to remove and replace the whole middle section splicing in the stringers that way? are those supports under the seats necessary i have not seen that in other boats and they do not look factory?

 

[Hydra-sport_Road-kill]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

We kind of know this music. So maybe you're a little shocked at this point because things seemed fine just a littl while ago. This is a common reaction here in the restore section. It's like the more you look, the worse it gets and the further it goes until you're standing there with a handfull of soggy wood mush that used to be your transom. It's not that the boat was not taken care of. It just seems to be the case with 30 year-old fiberglass runabouts.

 

[dingodan]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

There was no foam does there need to be?

 

[dingodan]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

So i peeked under and looked around with a flashlight and turns out i will have to replace the whole floor. I think this boat was already restored before but not by anyone who seems to know there stuff cuz im finding alot of wood that doesnt look like it has any kind of sealer on it. But maybe im wrong and the sealer justdoesnt leave any kind of finish

 

[oops!]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

There was no foam does there need to be?

i thought so.....

someone has been there before....this is major...mind if i ask you a few questions?

when did you buy the boat?
did the po mention removing and replacing the deck?
can you by any way possible find out when the work was done?

the reason why....is because if you can do this....we would have a time line for rot. how long it takes a boat to start rotting.

i really have to go fix a couple of jet ski hulls now. but ill be on later to help you with the troubles of your boat and let you know why it rotted in certain areas of the stringers. and how to repair.

 

[oops!]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

the transom is aluminum no wood in it so I'm not worried about that.

be worried about the transom. ill explain later.

 

[dingodan]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

i bought it off a kid 4 months ago and he said he only had it for a few months and only took it out a few times so he wouldn't know anything about the boats floor. I don't have his contact information anymore plus we left on bad terms as he was very unhappy about how much i paid him for it... I've already ripped the floor out so its too late to consider selling and buying a new boat so I'm in this for the long haul.

 

[dingodan]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

im concerned now that the area bellow the motor may just be the hollow aluminium part and the rest is filled with wood after taping around with a hammer. a transom definitely sounds beyond my capabilities but how do i check its condition without drilling into it and wrecking it

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help

Post some pics of the inside and outside of the transom so we can "SEE" what you see. Not quite sure what you mean by aluminum. A Fiberglass boat should NOT have an aluminum transom. I suspect that the PO has place an aluminum reinforcement plate on the transom and this is the first sign of a "Band Aid" fix for a rotting transom. You have not told us what Year your boat is, but base on what I can see from your previous pics I'd guess some where in the 90's and if so, I can guarantee that there should be no aluminum on your transom.

 

[dingodan]

Re: first time boat floor restoration please help



i know the middle is hollow because i switched engines which were and are bolted on. i used marine silicone in and around the bolt holes.