Deck Template - Best material??

[PriceTR24speed]

Just curious what material everyone uses when making templates for decking? Assume this is a 1st time build and there is not a previous deck to use.

To me the perfect option would be something that is thin, rigid, light weight, easy to cut, and available in big wide/long pieces?

Cardboard is common answer - where can you get new/unused big smooth flat pieces? Obviously you can cut it from boxes etc. but it tends to be beat up and the corner creases are a PITA and they are not rigid (can expand/contract).

Foam Board? Looks like 1/2" is as thin as you can get?

Any other ideas?

 

[Axhammer]

RamBoard or Coroplast can be purchased at your local hardware store.

The ram board is thick paper basically and is not as stiff or rigid when spanning gaps, compared to coroplast.

Coroplast is commonly used for outdoor signs, it is pretty rigid and might be good when you are starting from scratch, making new floor templates.

 

[LDUBS]

For large pieces of cardboard, try your local appliance store. They might have cardboard fridge boxes out back they would be happy to give you.

 

[airshot]

For large pieces of cardboard, try your local appliance store. They might have cardboard fridge boxes out back they would be happy to give you.

And furniture stores, some couches are shipped in big cardboard boxes. My boys made forts from them when they were little....

 

[thill]

Amazon boxes, a razor knife and a hot glue gun.

 

[Challenger]

Are there any manufacturing companies in your area? Alot of things get shipped on pallets with cardboard on the pallet and under the product. Ask and they might give it away.

 

[mbullen]

For the big horizontals, I like cardboard and posterboard. I get large sheets of cardboard from a local manufacturing industry. These sheets are found on the shipping pallet beneath the boxes. Thin and sturdy. But that's just a practice in resourcing an industrial waste source. The posterboard one has to buy.

For the verticals, I like a trick to rough-out shapes using stir sticks and hot glue. It gives you the weird angles in real time without all the math. lol

 

[LaqueRatt]

I really like the hot glue idea, but packing tape works too. You don't need large pieces of cardboard and in fact, they may be extra thick and a pain to cut. All you need I'm thinking is a big pile of torn at the seems boxes and a way to cut and attach them. I've not done a boat deck, but have done a lot of vinyl floors. For that sometimes I just use newspapers. I can see poster board being a good option, but boxes and newspapers are free.

 

[fishing_lite]

when I did this I used a 4 ' x 8' x 1/4" tempered hard board, I went from rib to rib, measured the spaced from side to side and halved it. I superinposed the measurements to the hardboard and used flexed a thin strip of wood to connect the dots (so to speak). my boat at its widest was wider than 4 ft. and longer than 8 ft., so it took two pieces of hardboard. I cut it and fitted it, it was in and out of the boat four or five times before I had a templet that I was happy with.

when you do this think about the material that you are going to cover it with. I wrapped the floor with carpet and that reduced the width of the floor.

I also used a variation of this method to locate the existing screw hole.

Be patient, time is your friend, good luck

 

[Bluemap]

If you can learn to use a ticking stick you can use anything with a little rigidity for your template and the piece of material does not have to be as large as your final desired decking. Check out videos on youtube. I used one to make the nose deck on my 1969 Richline and it worked well. My deck sits below the top edge of the boat.

 

[fishing_lite]

here a boat that I did a while back

https://www.tinboats.net/threads/the-life-of-a-1981-lund-pike-dlx-16.43801/

 

[LDUBS]

here a boat that I did a while back

https://www.tinboats.net/threads/the-life-of-a-1981-lund-pike-dlx-16.43801/

Awesome!

 

[airshot]

Gotta love home grown ingenuity !!

 

[pathunter]

Just curious what material everyone uses when making templates for decking? Assume this is a 1st time build and there is not a previous deck to use.

To me the perfect option would be something that is thin, rigid, light weight, easy to cut, and available in big wide/long pieces?

Cardboard is common answer - where can you get new/unused big smooth flat pieces? Obviously you can cut it from boxes etc. but it tends to be beat up and the corner creases are a PITA and they are not rigid (can expand/contract).

Foam Board? Looks like 1/2" is as thin as you can get?

Any other ideas?

It seems to me, that the pattern should be as close to the same thickness as the material being used for the deck. This would be especially important for a boat as a good fit might require cutting on a slight angle to allow for the curvature of the hull.

 

[thill]

In theory, you could 1/2" foam, but that sounds easier than it is in real life. If you cut too much foam, it's not as easy to put it back. And even if you cut the foam perfectly, transferring those angles from the foam to your plywood takes a little skill. Why not get the bottom right and use the skill on the plywood the first time, instead of doing it twice?

Again, cardboard and hot glue are really good for the inexperienced and experienced. You cut it out as close as you can, then you add strips as needed for a perfect fit. Then you make the template the BOTTOM of your plywood.

Start with the angles very wide, maybe at a 45 degree angle in a V-bottom boat, and then shave them down with an electric planer, if you have one, for a perfect fit. But you don't really want it air tight. I typically leave a 1/8"-3/16" gap around the perimeter for either carpet/vinyl to tuck around or to fill with sealant. But if your gaps are a little bigger, it's not so bad.

Better to have a gap than to have a "hard spot" - an edge of the wood that presses on a spot of the hull. You sometimes see this show up as a dented OUT area of a boat where someone made it too tight.

For most of my boats, both aluminum and fiberglass, I'm going the fully sealed perimeter route. I have been using PL Pro 3X construction adhesive for a number of years, and I'm very happy with the results. It is a polyurethane adhesive, and it expands a bit as it cures, and it bonds well, with slight flexibility built in. VERY happy with the results for many years. Don't be sucked in by the 10X strength version - 10x sounds better than 3x, but it's a harder formula, and isn't as good for this purpose.

I hope this is helpful, and I hope you have good success with your build.

 

[MrGiggles]

As mentioned, I liked to use the cardboard that pallets are lined with. They're used to keep the sharp corners on a pallet from punching holes in feed/seed sacks, so a farm supply store would be a good place to look.

It's still fairly stiff but easier to cut and work with than multi-layer cardboard like you'd get from an appliance box, similar to thick construction paper. You can also fold it to make an impression and then cut along the crease.

 

[fishing_lite]

The fit doesnt have to be perfect.

The knap of the carpet covers some minor inperfections and the difference in dimenstions from the top and the bottom of the sheet goods.

Just out of interest watch this video



there is a very short spot of them carpeting the boat floor.

 

[LDUBS]

That was fun to watch.