Glad to hear someone suggesting wood floors instead of carpet. It seems ridiculous having carpet on a boat, when a hard floor is more durable. The argument against wood flooring may be that it's not as comfortable on bare feet or if it gets wet it will be slippery. Granted, a wet, hard floor can send someone ass-over-tea-kettles but a wet carpeted floor may never dry completely and can promote mildew, mold, and wood rot. A little diligence (keeping water off the floor) and maybe a properly attached throw rug here and there and you've got a boat that seems more durable and easier to service. Service becomes easier because the hatches on the floor will be simpler to open, close and store while working in the engine room. There are some good bamboo floors out there that come in a variety of colors and finishes. The great thing about bamboo is that most is made of solid wood, versus pressed or "engineered" wood. It would be best to attach the flooring to the plywood soles that are already on you boat, which means nailing the boards in place. I was just in a newer motor home this weekend that had click together engineered flooring, that hadn’t been nailed or glued in place, and the seams were separating. It looked pretty bush-league, and that's how it came from the factory. That would not have happened if it were nailed to the substrate. There are also very traditional looking floors called Teak and Holly. These are the floors that are usually seen on trawlers, sailboats and larger yachts. This floor has a dark colored strip of about 2 inches alternating with a light colored strip of wood of about 1/4 inch. The Teak and Holly comes as a veneer attached to a piece of half inch plywood. So you just measure and cut the plywood and glue or nail it in place. It's about $180-$250 for a 4 by 8 foot sheet and after it's installed it needs to be varnished or polyurethane properly. It gives a boat a very nautical look, and after all, why not have a nautical look on a boat? There's another slight drawback to using wood flooring and that is how to deal with the hatches on the floor. You would probably want to use a small piece of sacrificial wood along the seams. That wood will take the beatings if a hatch is dropped while putting back in place. Usually you'll see on yacht floors a half inch strip of teak around the hatch opening and also on the hatch itself. That way if the wood gets nicked or damaged you only replace a small bit of trim and not a whole piece which you may not be able to match in the future. All this sounds like a lot of work and carpet may seem even more appealing now. But imagine how "homey" your boat will look with hardwood floors as opposed to another dirty, damp carpet? Considering that most flooring is about $5.00 a square foot plus installation and fiddling around with hatch openings. In the long run, it sounds better than carpet or orange linoleum, which is the case with a lot of 1970's era boats.
-----Original Message----- From: kerrylebel <[email protected]> To: unifliteworld <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, Apr 7, 2013 10:14 pm Subject: Re: [UnifliteWorld] Digest for [email protected] - 3 Messages in 1 Topic Do you have any pictures? What about engine hatches in the floor? How did you deal with those seams? I am considering pulling up my carpets (kids trashed them) and replacing with laminates. I've talked with several places and they say the newer stuff that isn't just compressed sawdust but has real particle board as the backing works just fine on boats now. On Apr 7, 2013, at 9:12 PM, Big John Bates <[email protected]> wrote: > Did my 76 Sedan 36 in laminate, durable & awesome looking. Go ahead, get it wet ;) Not so pricy but I don't have the exact cost > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/unifliteworld?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/unifliteworld?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/unifliteworld?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
