Floor material preferred?

[Nismoron]

I'm looking o purchase one of two boats. Both are Starcraft Mariner 210's. And both need floors. Big surprise huh? haha
Anyway, what is the preferred material for redoing the floors in these old Starcrafts? I know pressure treated wood is a No-NO. But does marine ply qualify as preasure treated? It is chemically treated...

So, in reflooring one of these, what would you guys use? I've thought about Coosa board, but it is getting a tad on the expensive side. Even though, the factory is about an hour away. So I can go pick it up and save alot on shipping. Still expensive.

 

[surfman]

Marine ply is not chemically treated, it is basically the same thing and any plywood, all plywood uses the same glue by the way. Marine plywood uses high quality (grade A) veneers in the laminating process so that there are no voids in the core or in the outer skin. Pressure treated plywood (the wet green stuff you typically find at home improvement stores, there are other types of treated wood) has copper as the main ingredient and the copper reacts with the aluminum.

Marine plywood will rot just like any plywood if it is not completely sealed. Use epoxy or a good spar varnish.

Marine or just plain old exterior grade plywood is fine for your projects, I would recommend that you use a better grade of plywood like a BC as opposed to roof sheeting which is CDX and full of knot holes.

There is a treated marine grade plywood that is available but, again it uses the copper treatment and if you decide to use that stuff (also expensive) you will need to insulate the wood from the aluminum.

 

[Nismoron]

Cool. I knew that Marine was supposed to be "voidless" but I thought it was treated somewhat as well. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to waste the time and money to have it rot my aluminum. I'm going to glass it on both sides with some 6oz cloth and and then make my floor. It will then get a layer of roving and possibly gelcoated. Not sure on the final finish on the floor yet. I'm going to investigate if I can come up with some way to put texture in the top surface of the glass. Like in the molded floor of a fiberglass boatI dont really like the additives "sand" and paint thing. I want something more professional looking.

I'm also thinking about making the floor modular. So I can change out a section if I want something different, like a fishbox in the floor or something. I'll probably make it 3 piece. An aft of console section, a console section, and a forward section. We'll see when i get rolling on it.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Bugpac]

I spent 5 yrs building crest pontoon boats. Every bit of the 50yr marine plywood was green.

 

[longshot]

Why not use aluminium? It will be lighter and you will never do it again

 

[Nismoron]

Noisy, flexible and I would slip and bust my A. And before someone suggests diamond plate... I HATE diamond plate.
Aluminum likely to be pretty hot too in this Alabama sun...

A properly glassed wood floor will last alot longer than I need it too.

 

[Analog Kid]

Plywood does not all use the same glue. Standard plywood for interior use will separate quickly if exposed to water. exterior and marine plywood use glues that are water resistant as well as veneers with wood species that are more resistant to water intrusion. And glassing the wood is unnecessary. Just resin the wood to keep the water out glass will just soak up the resin more and you will end up using more resin which adds weight and increases cost

 

[surfman]

Like I said there is a treated marine grade plywood available and it is kiln dried and it is made specifically for boat building, Grady White uses it. It is NOT the same treatment that is commonly used today, it is the CCA type (it is green though), the new stuff that you buy at the home store has no arsenic in it. The CCA contains copper but, at a lower concentration. It will corrode the aluminum, especially in saltwater use. Hopefully if the pontoon manufacturer was any good they used some sort of insulating barrier between the treated wood and the aluminum. The better manufactures do this.

Many years ago I used to work with wood and a lot of plywood for a living. I once asked the manufacture what was the difference in interior and exterior plywood and if the glue was different, He told me no, he said they use the same glue for both but the difference was in the wood types used such as poplar and birch. This may have been true for this manufacturer and times change and maybe they do things differently now. They have changed the way they make pressure treated plywood, that I know due to concerns over the use of arsenic in the process which is still used but only for specific uses.

Glassing the wood is overkill but if that is what you want to do it will certainly not hurt anything, just be sure to seal up any screw holes or it will all be in vein.

 

[surfman]

I used sand on mine and I thought it turned out looking okay.










I then painted it with a good quality enamel paint. You don't have to put it on as heavy as I did. You could use a salt shaker and lightly spread it but, it will be a little more challenging to get it even looking. You could do it I am sure.

 

[longshot]

You could put something on the aluminium. I carpeted mine

 

[Nismoron]

I saltwater fish and use some really raunchy baits when I occasionally catfish. Dont want any of that stuff in carpet...

 

[Djknyork]

Aluminum and then hydroturf...

 

[riverbud55]

My North River was built a MDO floor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_density_overlay_panel with vinyl on top of that,,,, built to stand up to Northen pacific waters,,,, will out last any plywood

 

[surfman]

Where do you get it?

 

[riverbud55]

1st off of should said, will out last out last any plywood that's not properly protected ,,, its still a plywood,,,,just faster and easier to deal with

Know home depot and lowes dont,, got to try a old fashion lumber store and have them order it if need be,,, see it all the time on job sites used for form work,,, get the 2 sided ,,,,,still need to protect the ends/edges as with a plywood,,mite do a web serch on manufactures and their products , https://www.pacificwoodlaminates.com/img/PDFs/PlywoodGuide.pdf ,,,,,, mine has a marine vinyl floor material over the top and wrapped over and under the edges by 4 or 5 inches then stapled with ss staples

 

[PsychoXP18CC]

We use tons of this stuff at work https://www.alcoa.com/aap/north_america/en/product.asp?cat_id=915&prod_id=1534

I haven't used it for a floor in a boat specifically, but I can imagine it would work just as good as plywood, last several times as long, and is much, much lighter. It's not cheap, but it's easy to work with. It's also slick, so you'd want to cover it with something.

There are other manufacturers of ACM panels to look at too, just throwing this out there as an option.

 

[Nismoron]

I ended up buying one of the boats. The floor has been completely removed by the previous owner, so I will have to start from scratch.

Originally, I was thinking about laying the floor in 4 or 5 sheets, then glassing over them to make them one. But I couldn't figure out an easy way to get texture into the floor (like fiberglass boats) without using sand or something like it. I wanted it molded in. Not applied.

Now that I have the boat in hand, I found that it has a factory applied product that I had not previously seen. The gunwales and some of the interior are covered with Nautolex. It is a vinyl sheet product that looks like closed pile carpet. I may lay the floor in 4 or 5 pieces and glass it for waterproofing. Then cover the whole floor with Nautolex.

For those saying that glassing is not neccesary... I have found that just using epoxy resin can result in flaking and cracking when exposed to high heat, humidity, and UV. I live in Alabama. I have all three. haha I have found that painting the wood with epoxy, then laying a really thin 6oz cloth and reapainting with epoxy tends to bind the epoxy and prevent the cracking and flaking. 6oz cloth is cheap, and applies clear. It is the glass used on the exterior of cedar strip canoes and such.

Not sure which way to go at this point. By the way. What was the original thickness of the floor? 1/2, 5/8, or 3/4? None of it remains for me to look at. It will be supported by the aluminum stringers as well as the new pour-in flotation foam.