Replacing 16' SS Starcraft floor 1972

[jacobmeyers]

Hey Yall,

I have a 72' Starcraft Supersport with a soft floor. It sat out after the 4th at my marina on Lake Erie and got drenched before the dry rack could put it away. The floor is getting worse by the minute and the carpet is starting to come up. I wasn't going to mess with it, but have decided to make new seats and install a new floor. I'd love to get rid of the carpet and utilize some other material for the floor surface. Any ideas?

How hard is it to pull this floor up? Is it a weekend job? Seems pretty "cut & paste" to me. I have a garage to work in, table saws, power tools, and a carpenter father. I assume I have to pull the consoles and the side curtains. Other than that, seems like a rip it up and lay it back down job.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Replacing 16' SS Starcraft floor 1972

How short of a job it is depends on what kind of evils you have below deck, if you have saturated floatation foam you'll want to remove and replace it too.

Your decking probably wasn't sealed before the carpet was put down and this shortened the life of it, seal your new decking with epoxy resin for a much longer life. 2 coats is the minimum and 4 coats is best.

Your existing decking is probably only 1/2" thick and is another contributor to it being soft, replace it with 3/4" decking for a stronger build.

Don't use pressure treated plywood for your new decking, it will corrode/eat your aluminum boat.

Check your transom wood when tearing out the decking, more often than not the transom wood is as rotten as the decking.

As far as getting rid of the carpet, this is what I did to my boat when I got rid of my carpet:
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=509163

 

[roscoe]

Re: Replacing 16' SS Starcraft floor 1972

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=494143

 

[Brenn]

Re: Replacing 16' SS Starcraft floor 1972

you may want to check how your transom is doing as well and see if you need to replace it at the same time.

 

[delirious]

Re: Replacing 16' SS Starcraft floor 1972

my old girl cam with a fiberglassed floor (think it was done to hide rot) and was done in truck bed liner. yeah...black n fugly, i have since painted it white (for now as i will likely be replacing floor n stringers n foam this winter) i will still use resin coated plywood, but was checking other intersting surfacing materials as i think carpet sux in a boat. there are some kewl commercial flooring i looked at, some looked the check-plate ans a nice speckle finished stuff as well. i also thought about using the white plastic privacy latuce as a grippy n intersting floor covering material. there is plastic waterproofin panels u can get for walls as well, it a "pebble grain" and offers traction i think. do what i do when doing a project...walk around home depot for "inspiration" you`d be surprised at the ideas you`ll get.