How much carpet to order?

[daymienrules]

For those of you that have re-carpeted a bow rider, I'm looking for some info on the amount of carpet needed. Currently I have a 17.5ft boat, with carpet running from the stern to the nose. Deck appears to be about 6ft wide, but carpet extends up the sides to the rub rail level. Rear bench seat back is also carpeted.

Is there a rule of thumb on ordering length? How much did you actually use?

Please keep in mind I'm not considering anything but carpet on the deck. I don't even pull the boat out until it hits 100deg, and it can regularly push 120 mid summer.

 

[paultjohnson]

Re: How much carpet to order?

It doesn't matter how much ya order, Murphy will be there to make sure you have a spot at least 3in by 3 in or so that ya just cant cover because of the way you cut it, ordered it or some other simple but aggravating little oversight.:facepalm:

 

[oops!]

Re: How much carpet to order?

there is lots of waste on a deck job.

seams in the rug are ugly. and they pull up.

measure from transom out........then up the sides...

so if your boat is 17 feet......with a 7 foot beam. and a 24 inch free board....

your rug would be 18 feet long.....and 22 feet wide..

if you have b2b loungers that are glassed in..... cut at the top of the sides of the base......everything comes out of the boat.....

use a good exterior carpet glue with a 1/4 inch notched trowel.

when you are done a section.......take a 2x6 on the flat with a good mallett.....and pound the carpet down by laying the 2x6 on the flat and beat the carp out of it....

dont get the really cheap carpet because the glue will come through.

the cheap stuff is the most in-expensive outdoor you can buy at home depot.

 

[daymienrules]

Re: How much carpet to order?

Just to follow up on this. I finished the recarpet last week. Bought the carpet locally, I got 24oz for the online pricing for 20oz carpet. Since I was changing color I had to replace every single piece.
What I ended up using:
12x16ft carpet (deck+sides)
6x15ft additional carpet(bulkheads)
4gal roberts 6700 glue from HD (used all of it)
sheet of plywood
2 big cans acetone
3 cans spray adhesive (3m 90, cheap loctite didn't cut it)
about 20 razor blades (cant have too many)
Full pack of staples
about 30 SS screws
full pack of nitrile gloves

All in, I probably had about 50hrs labor start to finish. 1 day to remove interior and deck carpet. 1.5days of grinding, the rest in layout and installation. All of my carpet came out intact, so templates were easy. Boat must have originally came with 2 tone carpeting to match the vinyl, as the bulkheads all had 2 layers of carpet where a PO had glued a deck-matching color right over the old stuff. It was faster to remake these bulkheads out of plywood than to strip and prep them. I replaced nearly every SS screw in the boat, many were already stripped, bent, or broken, many were damaged on removal.

Tips i would pass along:
Welding supply store to find a 7in wire cup, a 3in will take too long for residue removal.
Use spray adhesive for overlapping carpet seams and edges, quick dry gives a clean edge.
Perform engine maintenance when the interior is removed.
Keep the old deck carpet to use as a template for seat placement.
You cant have too many fresh razor blades.

*2 min after pulling away from the dock(having finished the day before), wife poured small amount of beer right onto new carpet, said "there, the first one is out of the way"