Re: Floor replace
Moose,<br />I now see a drastic differance of opinion. I am an AVID fan of make it water tight and keep it that way. I have had REALLY bad luck with water intrusion on boat platforms that I have bought in the past and the only way to stop this is to make physical barriers. Slicon on metal leaks after time, water leaks down the bolts to the t nuts and seeps into the sub straight and rot starts. Up north it will freeze over winter and enlarge any void it gets into. So, the real question is how much extra time do you want to spend the first time do make it phsychoticly water tight vs. doing it twice over time. Many years ago I was a fitter in Patti's shipyard and the first thing I learned was there is never enough time to do it right the SECOND time so get it right the first....<br /><br />With the deck removed and easy access to the guts of the hull there are a number of options.<br />To keep things straight: (there may be slight variations to the definitions depending on your location and background) I apologize if this is preaching to the choir..<br /><br />A stringer runs for and aft, is normally parallel to the center line, and fastened to the bottom of the inside of the boat.<br />A floor in a ship is the steal tank top of a storage tank in the bottom of the hull OR the member that ties two frame ends together across the top of the keel (really common in wooden construction) OR the shallow transverse piece that runs across the keel of a small boat on which the deck lands.<br />A clamp is fastened to the side of the boat and is a landing place for a deck or deck beam.<br /><br />If the foam is completely shot, ie crumbles to the touch and is full of water you are right, it should come out. Sorry about that but there you go. See option B. HOWEVER, if it does not crumble and does dry out you have hope. If you cut out a small chunk and put water on top, does it weep through? If yes, than get rip of the foam because that means it is NOT closed cell and in a marine application it is worthless. If water does not permeate the foam and it is tight, this is option A and we now have a COMPLETELY different game.<br /><br />Option A.<br /> With the deck removed and the foam faired flat or with a very slight (1/8 inch/foot) crown, with a sharpie pen mark the foam where the pedestals should go. If you are happy with the location, after looking at it a while, whip out the straight edge and square up the markings and line off the shape of the cleats that you are going to use. If you are not positive of the pedestal location make the cleat big enough to cover the area that you think you will use. If it is going to be a 2x6xX heave the cleat into the boat, trace it out and cut out the shape. An easy but insanely messy way to do it is with a router on a wide Plexiglas base with a plunge cutting dado bit set at a depth of 1/8th deeper than the thickness of the cleat. Start at the middle of the marked up foam and work your way out. This makes for a unbelievable amount of NASTY foam dust, keep the shopvac hammering
.<br />When all is cleaned up mix up a batch of thickened epoxy, blob it the hole with a home built trowel with 1/8th inch teeth cut in it, smear it all around, add a little for the wife and kids and then drop the cleat in. Make sure there is enough epoxy goop in the cutout to spooge out when the cleat is dropped in. Leave a heavy enought weight on the cleat to keep it from floating out. Repeat for the other side. When you lay the deck, AFTER you have put at least 3 coats of unthickened epoxy on the bottom of the deck, slather the top of the cleats with thickened epoxy set the deck down and weights to hold it down and wait for the cure. If all you have to fasten the deck to is the foam, I learned the hard way the MOST solid way to do this is with a pile of thickened epoxy toweled in, like you would glue tile to the kitchen floor, all over the top of the foam. It takes a lot to do the job but the difference between the rigid bond you get this way, and the semi rigid bond you get from something like 5200 is huge. I did this to a skiff, I ran out of epoxy during a job and used 5200 for the rest. The epoxy side is solid, no give, just a flat smack when hit. The 5200 has give and rings every so little. I wanted the former
.<br />When all this is done, fillet the edges to ensure you have no exposed end grain, cover the fillets with tape, sand fair then glass the deck to the hull sides.<br /><br />Option B. (Grossly simplified)<br /><br /> Build your own stingers and floors, glue, fillet and glass them in place. When laying out the floors, space them so you can fasten the cleats to them, maybe let them into the tops of the floors. As stated before make sure the cleats are encapsulated in epoxy. At the height of the tops of the floors, glass clamps to the sides of the hull. Cover all this with your favorite adhesive and drop the deck on top. <br /><br />Just a few thoughts
