Imperial Deck Help

[imperial200]

Re: Imperial Deck Help

idk red just asking ?'s so your saying if im going to do a half A@@ job i should just use a sheet of whatever wood and hope it last me a few years? Is the only way to do the job right to remove the entire deck? There is a possibility I might do that but i just dont see the point when only a section was rotted. Bear with me here as i am new to the boating world and up untill now I have only restored houses and cars!!

 

[Lightnig]

Re: Imperial Deck Help

... Is the only way to do the job right to remove the entire deck? ...

IMHO, yes.

But then again, I have only been at it a few months and on my first project.

and I agree with all the above comments, don't bother with marine grade. I just found a local source of CDX. And only $30 a sheet for 3/4" - a far cry from the $150 I was quoted for marine grade.


Oh, and absolutely you should do the undersides of the deck in Fibreglass. Then the floor will be long delayed in rotting.

And double check that foam. top and middle could be dry, but still be soaked against the hull, that's how mine was. The keel too. Dry on top and middle, but rotten where it was resting against the hull...

 

[imperial200]

Re: Imperial Deck Help

foam is good i made a hole dont know how i must just be super lucky. . . just the lil spots in the deck were bad

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: Imperial Deck Help

Not trying to pick a fight but rather being direct with you. If you want to go cheap, that's fine but understand what that would mean. Marine ply isn't the cheap way. By doing it right and encapsulating the wood correctly with fiberglass should ensure no problems in (many) years to come, regardless of wood.

Replacing the deck would be ideal. Replacing the sections you outline is alright. The only problem is you'll have to eventually have to rip out everything that wasn't replaced sooner then you'd like so why not do it all at once? It shouldn't cost that much more, especially in the long run.

Want to go cheap, then go with what Lightnig suggests (which I agree 100%)and what I'm actually doing with my resto. Go CDX exterior grade BC plywood ($15-$30/sheet) coated with resin (poly - $30/gal) two or three times then glass both sides with cloth (50" wide 8.9oz - $7.25/yd) or csm (50" wide 1.5oz - $3.40/yd). I'm putting 1708 (50" wide - $8.50/yd) over the entire top of my deck to tie it into my hull but you're welcome to explore your options.

Just don't 1/2 @zz the job and jeopardize safety.

 

[imperial200]

Re: Imperial Deck Help

i appreciate any and all advice red would never think you were picking a fight. one ? i do have is how does just doing this one small section jepordize saftey? I guess its not totally a cost thing but also an experiance thing. . . i probably should not have bough this old of a boat if i wasent ready to replace the entire floor. I do realize that this is not going to be a forever fix and to be honest im going to reuse the old carpet, I guess im really just looking for a quick fix that will last me a cply years. . . why is this not a good idea, where is the saftey issue? again thanks for the advice and guideance

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Imperial Deck Help

I shall attempt to explain the safety issue. The boat My friend and I are restoring, started out as looking GREAT, deck was ROCK solid, no signs of water anywhere. Only little problem was the fiberglass covering the motor mount block was cracking, So we decided to rip it out and rebuild JUST the motor mount. Upon cutting the glass for the motor mount we found a puddle of very dark and smelly water. Then looking up the keel with a flashlight we realized the entire hull has a very small puddle of water. When checking the underside of the deck we realized it was rotten and the reason it seemed so solid was because it had about 3/8" of glass over it.

Long story short, we removed the aft part of the deck and found the stringer to be "solid" when we removed the other two parts of the deck we realized that the water logged deck was holding the stringer down so it felt solid. The bilge box was rotted, the transom felt solid, did MANY core samples and found it rotting on the very bottom. It came out as well as the stringer.

The safety part comes in here...... With the stringer, deck and transom rotted the hull had a good amount of flex. When inspecting the bottom of the boat on a creeper I found a few larger cracks along with a looong 18" crack in the hull with brown stains around it. The Flex of the hull caused the cracks. Also caused the boat to take on water further adding to the rot problems.

Now imagine your a mile out, even if its just a lake and you have family or friends on your boat, water is choppy and your hairline crack takes a beating from a good wave. What might you think would/could happen in that situation, and would you knowingly put your family in harms way to save a few bucks.

Compare the boat to a car, you find your brake line has rusted through all the way in one spot, would you splice in a PIECE of line or replace the whole thing and check out the system before you put your family in it?

Just my two cents but when i have my family or friends in the boat i want to have piece of mind that my negligence wont be the cause of any misfortune.

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: Imperial Deck Help

i appreciate any and all advice red would never think you were picking a fight. one ? i do have is how does just doing this one small section jepordize saftey? I guess its not totally a cost thing but also an experiance thing. . . i probably should not have bough this old of a boat if i wasent ready to replace the entire floor. I do realize that this is not going to be a forever fix and to be honest im going to reuse the old carpet, I guess im really just looking for a quick fix that will last me a cply years. . . why is this not a good idea, where is the saftey issue? again thanks for the advice and guideance

Maybe read some other threads in here and utilize the search feature. Good luck with your project.

 

[allpoints360]

Re: Imperial Deck Help

I guess im really just looking for a quick fix that will last me a cply years

If you cut out the portions of bad deck from stringer to stringer, use plywood rated for outdoor use and coat with resin top, bottom, and sides, and glass tape the seams on top, you should be fine for a while - all else being equal.

Not a difficult fix. Good luck.

 

[imperial200]

Re: Imperial Deck Help

well one person does not think i need to replace the whole deck ive done all the tests on the foam transom and stringers and they are all good so im going to go with a partial deck replacement I however am going to go a little bigger than I originally planned and fully incapsulate a sheet of exterior grade plywood, then i am going to glass over the seams with some large sheets of fiberglass fabric. thanks to everyone who gave advice.