soft spot in floor

[oldgrizzlee]

Brand new boat owner. Don't know all the terminology, please excuse verbage. I have an 84 Starcraft. I have a soft spot that starts right on the edge of the "oval" shaped under deck storage area and continues into the open bow about a foot. I asume because of the traffic to the front. What is the best way to fix. This is the only soft spot in the whole floor.

 

[KRS]

Re: soft spot in floor

Welcome, go ahead and post your boat make, model, year, engine, etc so we all can help you better.<br /><br />I joined here two years or so ago, and have received valuable help, advice, and comraderie.<br /><br />The boat may have a rotten floor from water infiltration into the wood. Let us know your boat make and someone here will know about the floor materials used by the manufacturer.<br /><br />The oval storage area is tyipcally called a ski locker.<br /><br />Again, welcome and check here often.

 

[lark2004]

Re: soft spot in floor

Once a floor starts to go soft, it is hard to stop. <br /><br />You will need to remove all of the soft floor material, and probably at least 1 foot of material from all around. If there are any stringers under or near where it is going soft, then you will want to check these for any signs of rot as well.<br /><br />The search function has been fixed now, so use it to do a search for "soft floor" . This should give you some good reading and more insight into what is involved in fixing a soft floor.

 

[epresutti]

Re: soft spot in floor

oldgrizzlee,<br /><br />I know the story well, soft spot in floor, next thing you know......<br /><br />See my post: "rebuild pics finally, almost done"<br /><br />There is lots of stuff here on fixing it, do the search first and save youself a lot of time. Folks here are great about answering questions, you may find your answers already in existing threads.<br /><br />Soft wood almost always means rot, make sure you get it all or you will be fixing it again.<br /><br />Good luck.<br /><br />Peace.<br /><br />Ed.

 

[oldgrizzlee]

Re: soft spot in floor

Its an 84 Starcraft,17 foot,7 passenger,115 OB Merc. I am hoping on just tearing out from the ski locker (thanks) forward if that is possible. I bought this boat from older couple last June. We are the third owners. I will have to go out and find the info you requested. I am thrilled to get a reply so soon. I have never used something like this for help.

 

[oldgrizzlee]

Re: soft spot in floor

Ed<br />I just looked at all of the photos...WOW ! I am realy scared to uncover the floor now !

 

[epresutti]

Re: soft spot in floor

oldgrizzlee,<br /><br />Don't be afraid, mine is worse than some and better than others. You won't know what you have till you open it up. Break out the circular saw, set the depth and cut the piece out to see what you have to start with.<br /><br />Make sure you take pics and post them here so we all can see how ba.... Ummmmm... errr... I mean how good everything looks.<br /><br />Peace.<br /><br />Ed.

 

[lark2004]

Re: soft spot in floor

You think your's was bad Ed? My transom had been replaced at sometime in the past with Railway Sleepers! ( I am not sure if that what they are called in the States, but they are the big pieces of timber under the train tracks.) And I had two floors (the old one was never removed before the new one was sort of glassed in), both were full of rot!

 

[epresutti]

Re: soft spot in floor

Lark2004,<br /><br />I bet after you got all that old rotted water soaked wood out of there the boat sat a lot higher in the water <br /><br />Here in the states they would be called "ties", although I have heard them called sleepers by some of the old timers. If we are talking about the same thing, they are about an 8x8 beam, right? Usually soaked with some toxic substance.<br /><br />Peace.<br /><br />Ed.

 

[lark2004]

Re: soft spot in floor

yeah, something like that, ours are closer to 6" x 12", there were two of these stacked edge to edge in the back of my boat. As for the water line? who knows, I bought it as wreck, I've never had it in water.

 

[captwoodshed]

Re: soft spot in floor

I just picked up an 84 Doral Citation. She does need some work. One being a new subfloor. Teh original ownergot sick and left it out for a year without the cover. The floor is pretty soft in a lot of places. I just used a roll of brown paper to make a template, and hopefully if teh weather is good, I'll be cutting out the old stuff on Sunday.<br /><br />Just tak your time and don't rush anything.