Alternate flooring option

Tom · Jun 23, 2013

Our boat has carpet throughout (salon and galley, master, guest and crew berths, and bridge). We also have removable carpet in the cockpit.

For some time, Chris has wanted to replace the carpet in the galley with a tile or hardwood. Several years ago we purchased a vinyl tile type product that looked and felt like a ceramic tile. I made the mistake of not installing the product for several years and, when our son visited and I asked him to install it, the product had "shrunk" differently in different directions. I threw it in the garbage.

I'm now wondering what the options might be. Just remember that there are no straight lines and no 'level' floors on a boat. So, I don't know if I need to "float" a substrate on which to place/adhere the new surface. I also don't know how to transition from the salon carpet to the new galley floor.

Oh, I wish that Ernie was in our area; He could do the flooring while Tara and I serenade him and my other half.

Wavery · Jun 23, 2013

I don't see any reason why you couldn't float a vinyl floor. Are you floors F/G or wood? I doubt they are teak & holly or you wouldn't be covering them

What kind of boat is it? I have a hunch that I know but don't want to offend if I'm wrong.... the whole sailboat/powerboat thing can be very personal. I've delivered both, all over the world. It seemed like I was the Grand Banks delivery king up & down the ditch for a few years. I think I made 6 deliveries of GB's in each direction. Although, I'm a sailboat guy...... go figure.

Tom · Jun 23, 2013

Thanks Wayne.

Our floors are fiberglass. I was done with teak a long time ago.

What kind of boat is it?

It's a 51' LOA stinkpot cruiser with a fly bridge.

Wavery · Jun 23, 2013

You could mix silica sand in a bucket of epoxy primer and roll it on the cabin sole for grip. That's what I did on the decks of my sailboat when I ripped off the teak and rebuilt my decks.... You should be able to just lay your floating floor on that. Not sure that I would go with laminate. Especially if you have kids running in & out, wet. Sure as anything, a big pitcher of something is bound to get knocked over anyway.

The problem that you might have with hard floors is slipping.....

.

Tom · Jun 23, 2013

Thanks, but this is an interior galley. We don't plan to put down epoxy and sand, any more than we'd put that down inside our coach.

Wavery · Jun 23, 2013

Tom said:
Thanks, but this is an interior galley. We don't plan to put down epoxy and sand, any more than we'd put that down inside our coach.

You may not want a floating floor then........ You get a lot more movement in the boat than you do the coach. I can't imagine putting a floating floor on F/G without putting down some sort of non-skid.

Have you ever seen a deck treated with silca sand? You use a real fine sand. You cant even see it but it grips like crazy. It looks nice too.

I can't find any pics of my finished deck but it looked just like the hull, after I painted it (we lost most of our pics to water damage from a hurricane in the Tasman Sea). You could hardly see the difference but we could sure tell the difference under our feet.

Alternate flooring option

Tom

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Wavery

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